Tag Archives: Balcony

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Beans , Beans Good for Your Heart…

Bean Trellis

Bean Trellis

This has been an odd year for beans, at least in my garden.  The first planting of pole beans evaporated into the ether.  Planting number 2 just sat there during our extended cool spring weather.  They have started growing now but are so far behind other bean plantings at Rock Farm I’m feeling a tad bit jealous.  This past weekend they were finally tall enough for me to string the trellis.  Last year I used some netting that I purchased.  It worked well enough but at the end of the season trying to salvage it was an exercise in futility.  I ended up cutting it out of the dead vines and pitching it.  Not wanting to waste money this year I opted to do the same thing I did with the peas, wrap jute around an upper and lower cross bar, which seems to be working wonderfully in the pea row.  I already had the three vertical poles in the ground, a sturdy bamboo pole flanked by 2 t-bar posts.  I used two 1″ pvc elbows and a t to attach two bamboo poles across the top, end to end.  I ended up driving a short piece of rebar into the end of one and pounding the other onto it.  Its pretty sturdy and has works as a single unit all last year and looks just fine for this year.  Not wanting to buy anything else, I tied two remaining 6′ t-posts to the bottom of the three vertical posts about 2″ off of the ground.  I wrapped jute around the top and bottom posts at about 6″ intervals.  Should work fine and will be so much easier to deal with come fall.

Bush Beans

In other bean news, 1 row Contender, 2 rows Topcrop & 1 row Roma II went in after the garlic, arugula and lettuce came out.  The garlic wasn’t as large this year, possibly due to the extended cool spring even though the number of days in the ground was the same as last year.  Last spring seemed a lot warmer.  The tops were dying back and I needed the space so out they went.  The Inchelium was spectacularly unimpressive.  Half of them didn’t make it to spring and the other half were very small. I know they are typically smaller but these seemed reeeally small.  The Lorz Italian had respectable sized heads and all made it through the winter.  I have no experience with either of these varieties so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  The Silverwhite and Turkish Giant, were a decent size but smaller than last year save one or two heads most, if not all made it through.

Garden in late June

Lettuce

Speaking of lettuce, I finally emptied the bed of Renee’s cutting lettuce blend.  Can’t remember the exact name right now but it lasted much long than I thought it would.  Even as the stems were elongating to form seed the lettuce wasn’t bitter. I ended up removing a lovage transplant that was taking up way too much room.  I also beat back the arugula and reclaimed the area for a row of the beans.

Potatoes

The potatoes are taking over the county. I’m really hoping there are actual potatoes under all of that green. I ended up having to run some stakes and jute to corral them, they were headed for the neighboring plot. I ended up having to snip back a couple of stems as the beets were complaining.

Garden Flowers

The ‘Persian Carpet’ zinnias are blooming and I clipped a few for the little multi-holed ceramic vase we picked up from a pottery shop during a recent trip to Orcas Is. The reds, yellows and oranges against the blue of the vase is striking. The dahlia’s I planted in the garden next to the potatoes are going to bloom any day now.

Balcony Garden

The parsley was sending up a flower stalk so it was time to harvest. My haul was pretty respectable given that it was growing in a 6″ clay pot. The oregano was staring to outgrow its clay pot so I cut it back too. It is on my replant list. I cut back a lemon verbena a week or two ago. I had read that lemon verbena can be used to make a lemony pesto. WRONG! While it is physically possible to do so, the result was nothing that I would ever eat voluntarily. Now I just have to decide whether or not I want to take up previous real estate and keep the plant or let it go. I’m leaning toward the latter.

In the spirit of spiffying up the balcony, I attempted to transplant one of the volunteer nasturtiums from the garden into one of the long planters that sit on the railing. It had been filled with pansies but they were looking pretty sad. The transplanting was a baaad idea. I ended up having to take so much off of the top to compensate for the pitiful roots that I was left with a bunch of empty stems. The good news is that it does seem to be sending out new shoots at some of the leaf nodes so all is not lost.

Visitors

Slug - Arion rufus
I ran across an ‘Arion rufus’ or Red Slug under the nasturtiums. This one isn’t native and is quite destructive in the garden. I found the darker Arion a couple of times in the past but this was the first time I’ve seen one this color. Googling it was at first unclear if this was actually a red form of ‘Arion ater’ but further reading led me to believe it was more likely A. rufus. In either case its time in the garden is past.

Harvests

  • Beets – Red Baron Dutch (6/20)
  • Chard (ongoing)
  • Garlic (6/21 thru 6/25)
  • Lettuce (6/25 final)
  • Kale (ongoing)
  • Oregano (ongoing)
  • Parsley (6/25 final)
  • Snow Peas (ongoing)
  • Zinnias (6/25)

Plantings

  • Beets – Cylindrical (6/25)
  • Beans, Bush – Contender, Roma II & Topcrop (6/25)
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Olla, Beans 2.0 and a New Container Raspberry

The Olla

GrowOya's 3L Olla
GrowOya’s 3L Olla

In my internet wanderings I came across a post somewhere about ollas. An olla is a low fired unglazed clay pot with a narrow opening that is ‘planted’ in the ground and filled with water. Its narrow opening sits an inch or so above ground and is often covered with a lid. The porous clay slowly waters the plants situated next to it using a fraction of the water a normal watering would use. In arid regions ollas have been used for millennia and do work quite well from what I’m reading. Some might wonder what use an olla would be in the rainy PNW. Actually the summer months can be quite dry. Last summer there were weeks at a time where I was watering daily. It got so bad we were wondering if the well we used would run dry. If an olla could put a dent in that it would be awesome.

In the quest to ‘do-it-myself’ I found some YouTube videos that dealt with making your own olla with a couple of terra cotta pots, some silicone and gorilla glue. I may end up trying that but once I put together how much it would cost, time required and the ‘would it even work’ factor I chickened out and decided to purchase an olla (two actually). Home Depot had a sale going on and I was able to pick up two for what I would have paid for one at the garden outlets. The company that makes them, GrowOya has three sizes, I opted for the medium 3L size. I would have loved the larger one but not sure my raised bed (that pretty much sits on bedrock) is deep enough to accept it. I’m sure it depends on soil structure and number of plants but the site says the medium size will accommodate about a 3′ sq area. My plan is to use the two ollas as the sole source of water to water the squash I planted today (once it is established). If it turns out to be a success I may have to revisit those YouTube videos.

1 gallon pot of BrazelBerry Raspberry Shortcake, miniature raspberries.
This arrived in the mail yesterday. A little rough but in great shape overall and even has raspberries!

Beans

My first attempt at pole beans this year was a total flop. I wanted till the end of a warm spell to plant the beans which essentially disappeared (rotted?). I waited for the next warm spell and planted again. This time there was germination but it was spotty at best. Rather than try for beans 3.0 I’ve decided to offer the end of the trellis to a couple of cucumbers I started from seed. That’ll show em.

Raspberries

Park seed had a sale on the new BrazelBerry ‘Raspberry Shortcake’. This miniature little raspberry grows 2-3′ tall and is reported to do great in a container. The sale was half off the normal price so I picked one up. I was pleasantly surprised when it was delivered. There were half a dozen leafy canes in a 1 gallon pot. There were even a couple of raspberries!

Jerusalem Artichokes

A couple of weeks ago we tried roasted jerusalem artichokes for the first time. The taste was great but the gastric aftereffects were…interesting. I’m game for trying them again, so decided to plant the couple of small tubers that were in the batch I purchased at the local grocery. They’ve been in 6″ pots since then and all are about half an inch out of the ground. Today I potted all three in a 30L pot. No way I was planting them in the garden. Once you do you have them forever. I opted to grow them even if we don’t end up eating them. They have pretty little yellow flowers and would make a nice color addition to the garden.

Balcony Garden

In addition to a number of pots on the floor of the 50’ft balcony I have three long and two small round railing planters. I had started pansies in the three larger planters early this spring. One was replanted with the tomatoes and nasturtiums several weeks ago. Another was replanted today with a couple of mini dahlias, some allysum and a couple of lobelia. It will be gorgeous if I can keep enough water on it.

Potato flowers.
The potatoes are in bloom. It won’t be long now.

Other Garden Happenings

My garden is a 10’x20′ space that takes up two plots in the Rock Farm Community Garden. In order to be able to access the entire space, I placed some stepping stones down most of the bed in the middle effectively creating two 4.5’x17′ beds and one large 3’x10′ bed. A fellow gardener planted sweet allysum (Lobularia maritima aka Alyssum maritimum) between the stones in her garden and I loved the look so much I purchased a couple of 4 packs for my garden. My grandmother always grew and loved white allysum so I like to grow some every year. She’s been gone over 30 years but seeing the flowers always makes her feel close.

In addition to the allysum I planted out the zucchini and some zinnias I started from seed. Historically I’ve kept the veggie garden ‘pure’ but I’m finding that I really enjoy a few flowers sprinkled here and there too.

a handful of snow peas and three cylinder beets
First harvest of cylinder beets and snow peas.

The last of the spinach came out last weekend. It had pretty much all bolted and there wasn’t’ very much of it left. This was a small patch of Bloomsdale I planted very early in the season.

This past week saw the beginning of the snow peas and the first harvest of beets for the year. I planted a couple of varieties and this was an early planting of cylinder beets. They are roasting in the oven with some parsnips as I type. Speaking of parsnips, I may try growing some this year. They would be a brand new crop for me, tried salsify once in KY but never parsnips. A gardening calendar for the area recommended a June planting. If the weather holds tomorrow I may have to make a trip to the garden center to pick up some seed. They are a fairly long season crop that can overwinter in the ground here and are actually reported to get sweeter with the onset of cold weather.

All in all it was a good week gardening wise. It has rained on and off today so I was only able to get my hands in the soil this morning. Hoping for some more dirt time tomorrow.