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Month: August 2014

Six Best String Bean Varieties

Purple Podded Pole Beans
The purple beans of ‘Purple Podded Pole’ turn bright green when cooked. (Photo by Marian Keith)

Whether bush or pole, wax or green, string beans are an essential part of any good vegetable garden. Their flavorful pods are rich in protein, and the plants fortify the soil with nitrogen—making them the best rotation crop to follow heavy feeders like tomatoes, potatoes and peppers.  Replenishing legume crops are also wonderfully easy to grow, and there are so many varieties available, it’s always fun to and try new, interesting varieties each year in search of an even better bean.
Beyond American standbys, like ‘Blue Lake’ bush beans and ‘Kentucky Wonder’ pole beans, there are heirloom cultivars and European favorites galore. Many come in unique shapes, sizes, and colors making them that much more interesting at the table. Flavors vary considerably as well. Variability in pest and disease resistance also make trialing an important practice because you never really know how a new variety will perform until you actually grow it in your garden.
Through years of trial and error, I have fixed on several less commonplace bean varieties that are delicious, pretty and perform well in home garden. They include a selection of pole and bush types able to grow in gardens large or small.

The beautiful, slender filet beans of 'Emerite' are tender and flavorful.
The beautiful, slender filet beans of ‘Emerite’ are tender and stringless.

Pole filet bean Émérite

Pole beans require a little more work because they must be trellised, but they are often more productive. The wonderful haricot verts pole filet bean Émérite, produces lots of slender, crisp beans that can be harvested in the baby stage or when fully mature at 7 inches. Either way, they are never stringy, and when roasted with butter and herbs they almost develop a meaty taste. As an added benefit, their pretty, leguminous blooms are pink. This outstanding bean can be purchased through John Scheeper’s Kitchen Garden Seeds.

Pole Bean ‘Green Anellino’

The unusual short, curved beans of 'Green Anellino' are also visually appealing on the plate.
The unusual short, curved beans of ‘Green Anellino’ are very flavorful.

The unusual, curved pods of ‘Green Anellino’ (sometimes sold as ‘Anelino Verde’), are truly delicious, though the pods are small. This prolific pole bean originates from northern Italy and thrives in warm summer temperatures. Its beans are best picked when young and crisp. They have the deep, beany flavor of a larger, meatier Romano type. The plants are highly productive, producing beans into late summer and even early fall.

Pole Bean ‘Purple Podded Pole’

Slender, deep purple beans are the highlight of the ‘Purple Podded Pole’ bean. The long, vigorous vines start by bearing loads of purple-pink blooms followed by deepest purple fruits. Once cooked, the flavorful beans lose their purple color and turn bright green.

'Soleil Filet' produces slender, pale yellow beans that are best picked young and tender.
‘Soleil Filet’ produces slender, pale yellow beans that are best picked young and tender.

Bush Bean ‘Soleil Filet’

Mild, buttery wax beans have always been a favorite and the slender filet-type wax beans are often superior to beefier standards. An exceptional golden filet is ‘Soleil Filet’ (translates to “sun filet”). Offered by seed companies like Territorial and Vermont Bean Seed Company, its super straight, slender beans add exceptional color, texture and taste to summer bean salads.

Super Marconi
The broad pods of ‘Super Marconi’ remain stringless even when they grow quite large.

Romano Bean ‘Super Marconi’

Of the Romano-type broad string beans, ‘Super Marconi’ has tender and stringless beans with very rich flavor. The large, flattened pods are deep green and vines are prolific, so expect big harvests. I get my seed from Franchi Sementi.

Tricolor Bush Bean Mix

Gardeners unable to decide on one variety may want to choose the Tricolor Bush Mix from Renee’s Garden Seeds. Each packet contains three bush bean varieties in equal proportions: golden ‘Roc d’Or’ haricot verts, purple podded ‘Purple Queen’ beans, and the perfectly straight, slender, bright green ‘Slenderette’ beans. All are space-saving, flavorful and pretty.

Growing String Beans

Only a few simple cultural requirements need to be met for successful bean growing. All string beans need full sun and fertile soil with good drainage. Pole beans require trellises of poles for best production and development. Fortifying your garden soil with Fafard Sphagnum Peat Moss will provide a good foundation for your bean beds. Additional amendment with Black Gold Tomato & Vegetable fertilizer is also beneficial.
Mexican bean beetles are the most common and destructive pests of green beans. In their larval form they are spiky, yellowish-orange, voracious bean destructors able to quickly devastate beans and plants, if beetle populations are too high. The adults look much like large, golden brown lady bugs and lay masses of orange-yellow, ovoid eggs on bean leaf undersides. The University of Florida’s Entomology Department offers a very good guide for the management of these pests as does Cornell’s Insect Diagnostic Page.
Where your tomatoes and peppers are growing this year is where you should plant one or more of these stellar bean varieties next year. Give at least one a try to hone your own “best bean” list your garden.

The Summer Garden Harvest Revs Up

Tomatoes and toaster
Tomatoes are in full swing by late summer. (Photo by Jessie Keith)

As summer starts to wind down, the harvest revs up. August finds many gardeners harvesting daily, as the hard work of spring and early summer is transformed into bountiful crops. Vegetables, fruits, and herbs hover at the peak of ripeness, almost crying out to be picked. Flowers can be dried for winter arrangements and next year’s garden waits in the wings in the form of seeds ready for collection. In the midst of all that abundance, the biggest challenge maybe finding time to capture and process the plentiful harvest while keeping the garden productive well into fall.

Vegetable Harvest

Tomatoes, squashes, eggplant, peppers, beans, cucumbers, broccoli and a host of other summer vegetables require regular harvesting to keep plants productive. Earlier generations of gardeners spent late summer afternoons, evenings and weekends canning or drying the surplus produce. These techniques, plus freezing, are still an option, but so is donating extras to local food pantries or soup kitchens. Non-gardening neighbors may appreciate gifts of fresh produce as well.

Basket of fresh herbs and vegetables
A basket of fresh herbs and vegetables from the garden.

In between harvesting sessions, keep production high by enriching the soil around plants such as cucumber, squash, and broccoli with fertilizers like Fafard Garden Manure Blend or Fafard Premium Natural and Organic Compost Blend. After mid-August, gardeners in northern areas with short fall growing seasons should remove excessive bushy growth and flowers from tomato plants, so the plants’ energies go into enlarging and ripening existing fruits before frost.

Herb Harvest

Harvest herbs, especially vigorous types, like basil, regularly, to ensure a continuing supply of young leaves. Cut off any flower stalks as soon as they appear, because the flowering process gives herbs a bitter taste. If plants have become leggy or unwieldy, cut them back by about one third, to stimulate bushy new growth.

Harvest herbs in the early morning, after the dew has dried. The easiest way to dry parsley, sage, rosemary, lavender, and other herbs that are shrubby or have a relatively low moisture content, is to hang cut stems upside down in a warm dry place. Basil and other mint family members with higher moisture levels dry best when the leaves are separated from the stems and arranged on trays to dry. All herbs are ready to store when the leaves can be crumbled easily.

Oakleaf Hydrangea
The aging blooms of oakleaf hydrangea turn pink as they dry and are great for cutting.

Fruit Harvest

August is the time to harvest figs, some melon varieties, late-bearing blueberries, everbearing strawberries, plums and even the last of the cane fruits, like raspberries and blackberries. During the harvest period, use netting to protect ripening fruits from hungry birds. After the fruit has been gathered, prune back fruiting canes and check near the soil line for signs of cane borers. Remove and discard any infested wood.

Flower Harvest

Many varieties of flowers, grasses and seed heads are ready to be harvested and preserved for crafts and indoor arrangements. As with herbs, the most popular preservation method is air drying, which works best for flowers like strawflower, yarrow and globe amaranth that contain relatively little moisture. Flowers with higher moisture content can be submerged in a granular desiccant compound, pressed between layers of absorbent paper, or preserved using a glycerin solution.

Harvest flowers just as they open, choosing unblemished specimens that feature graceful forms and growth habits. Strip off all leaves before tying and hanging flowers for air drying. Hydrangeas, especially “peegee” (Hydrangea paniculata), oakleaf (Hydrangea quercifolia), and mophead (Hydrangea macrophylla) types, may also be ready for August harvest. Choose flower panicles that have already begun to dry on the plant, with petal edges that are somewhat crisp to the touch. In the case of white-flowered peegee and oakleaf types, the flower panicles will have turned pink. Many mophead hydrangeas will display greenish petals.

Seed Harvest

Beginning in August, save seeds of heirloom or unusual varieties of edible and ornamental plants. Some seeds can be harvested “dry” by simply removing dried seed pods or receptacles from stems and shaking or blowing out seeds. Others, like tomato seeds, must be gathered “wet” and soaked in water, along with some attached plant material. During the soaking process, seeds tend to collect in the bottom of the soaking vessel, while other plant debris floats to the top. Wet-gathered seeds are then air dried. All seeds should be stored in cool, dry, dark conditions and labeled according to seed type and date of collection.

August marks the beginning of the harvest cycle that brings the growing season full circle. The month’s “to do” list may be long, but for most gardeners, the end result makes the labor worthwhile.

8 Best Watering Practices for Plants

Watering flowers with a watering canPlants need moisture to survive and thrive (as your plants will be all too willing to demonstrate if you’re too sparing with the watering can).  Give their roots enough water, and their breathing leaf pores (known botanically as stomata) can remain open for business, drawing up nutrient-rich water from the soil and taking in carbon dioxide from the air.  Give them too little water, and they will languish.

But as with most good things, too much water can be problematic as well, leading to poorly aerated soil and suffocated roots.  Here are the eight best watering practices for plants to help your plants keep happily hydrated (and not deathly dry or sickeningly soggy) this summer and beyond:

Fafard Premium Natural & Organic Compost Blend pack
Fafard Garden Compost Blend is a great soil amendment for increased water retention.

1. Water New Plantings Well

New plantings require special attention, especially in the heat and drought of summer.  Root balls of container-grown plants are almost always coarser and faster-drying than the soil into which they are planted.  Consequently, they can become dust-dry even when the surrounding soil appears to be sufficiently moist.  Monitor them frequently, watering when necessary.  Bare-root and balled-and-burlapped plants lose most of their roots during the digging and transplanting process and are thus at even greater risk of drying.  Plant them in spring before leaf-out (or in fall when the air is cooler and the soil is still warm), and water them regularly until they’re established.  In all cases, apply 2 or 3 inches of bark mulch to new plantings to retain moisture and to deter soil compaction.

2. Maximize Root Contact

Loosen the outer roots of root-bound container-grown plants, to allow contact with the surrounding soil.  Mound soil around all newly installed plants (without covering their stems) to increase water retention at the root level.

3. Amend Clay-Rich Soil

In clay soil, planting holes can become root-drowning bathtubs, and the fine clay particles actually make it harder for roots to access much-needed water during drought periods.  Add water-holding organic matter (such as Fafard Premium Natural & Organic Compost Blend) to gradually improve the texture and drainage of heavy soil while increasing water availability to plants.

4. Know Your Plant’s Watering Needs

Know the moisture requirements of plants before you buy and install them.  Many ornamental plants from dry-summer regions such as the Mediterranean and Central Asia are intolerant of damp warm-season conditions.  Conversely, moisture-loving species such as golden groundsel (Ligularia dentata) and swamp azalea (Rhododendron viscosum) begin to wilt at the slightest hint of drought.

Purple and yellow flowers
Well-watered plants are easy to spot due to their good health.

5. Keep Trees and Shrubs Watered in Drought

Even established shrubs and trees may need watering during prolonged drought.  Deep watering is not necessary and can be counter-productive, given that most roots are in the upper few inches of soil.  Rather, water frequently and shallowly, to keep the upper, most drought-susceptible roots from drying.  “Deep” watering may cause plants to produce new, succulent growth, thereby compromising their drought resistance.  Mulch (see above) will lessen the likelihood of drought stress in established plantings, just as it does in new ones.

6. Water in the Morning

Water in the morning before the heat of the day, or at other hours on cloudy days.  Use a hose and wand or watering can to directly irrigate recently installed plants.  Soaker hoses, drip systems, and other irrigation methods that directly contact the soil are ideal for established plantings.  Sprinklers waste water.

7. Know How to Water Potted Plants

For potted plants: water when the potting mix reaches the appropriate level of dryness (typically when the surface of the mix is dry).  Alter watering frequency as necessary for plants from arid or damp climates.  Species native to tropical forests and other humid habitats may benefit from misting, or from being placed on a pebble- and water-filled humidity tray.  Use a suitable soil mix; for example, many orchids prosper in a bark-rich mix such as Fafard Orchid Potting Mix, and moisture-loving species will appreciate a humus-rich medium such as Fafard Natural & Organic Potting Mix.  Relatively deep, narrow pots drain (and dry out) more rapidly than shallower, wider pots.

8. Keep Pots Gravel Free

Contrary to popular gardening myth, layering gravel or other coarse material beneath the potting mix does not increase its drainage, but rather decreases its aeration and depth.  This practice is detrimental rather than beneficial for most plants.