I planted my Rainbow Mix carrots today, and set out the tomato plants. Turns out I have 2 SuperSauce plants and 2 Roma plants that survived, along with 12 Viva Italia from Burpee, so we'll see what happens
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I've never done pole beans because I didn't grow up growing them -- I learned all my gardening practices from my daddy, who grew up on a farm. Also, with the way I stagger around, I'd be extremely likely to knock over the poles by either grabbing them to stop a fall or actually falling into them.
Same reason I can't plant them in the corn patch -- that would be too many things for me to trip over. I already tend to knock over about 4 or 5 corn stalks per season per patch when I'm cultivating and hilling the corn. That's another thing -- I don't know how kindly pole beans would take to being hilled, which I do twice.
So bush beans it is! I've found a variety from Burpee that is extremely prolific -- Burpee's Stringless Green Pod. This thing will produce and produce and produce as long as you keep them picked. The only reason I'll be pulling and picking this first plot is so I can put in my husband's beloved watermelons in that plot!
I'll be replanting them in the early corn plot when it's done around the first part of July, and they'll produce until I pull the plants in the fall.
H'ee. I didn't grow up growing pole beans, either. My mother would never have stood for it: she hated tall plants except for lilacs and a few other select flowering shrubs. But she would allow me to plant bush beans, either yellow wax or green beans, but not both, and radishes, when I was still fairly young.
I've learned my gardening practices mostly from reading, and some from other gardeners.
But it's seeming and feeling likely I don't understand the process you call "hilling." Please: what is it? What do you do when you hill things, and why? If it was and is part of the traditional "Three Sisters" practice in the eastern United States, I would expect the beans would be all right with it?
I just came across a yellow pole bean this year. I've no idea whether this is the same as a "yellow wax" bean, which I've only ever seen growing as a bush plant, but I'm giving them a shot (along with the lazy wife, Kentucky Wonder/Old Homestead, and some yard-long beans as well as a bush or two of yellow wax) to see how well I like them. If they're at least as enjoyable as "yellow wax" bush types, they'll have a place in my garden.
Hilling corn is a practice done in Florida, to make the corn able to stand up to hurricanes -- might even be done all over the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic coast, for all I know. I found out it also helps them stand up to the high winds and hard storms in Georgia.
What you do is, when the corn is about 1 foot tall, you cultivate the earth between rows, then pull it up with a hoe and bury the bottom 3 to 4 inches of the stalks all along the row. Kind of like when you bury potato stems.
Then when the corn is about 2 to 2 1/2 feet tall, you do it again. It discourages tillering and promotes the growth of more adventitious roots, so the corn is more firmly anchored in the ground. Hilling also makes a sort of catch basin for rain in the spaces between the rows, and more water is trapped in the hills themselves. So your corn sort of self-waters.
Just before you hill is also a perfect time to side-dress the corn with nitrogen to encourage growth -- you bury the fertilizer as you hill each row.
I remembered Daddy having us do that, and we never lost corn to thunderstorms. I did an experiment the first year I did it, and hilled one plot while not hilling the other. The hilled plot stood up to driving rain a lot better, was more productive, and had sturdier stalks and tons of adventitious roots.
At the end of the season, I pull up the corn stalks, cut them into small chunks with pruners, and scatter them in the corn plots. Then I use my home made harrow (the chain link fence and 3 paving stones) to knock the hills down some. After the leaves fall, we rake them onto the plots and let them sit over the winter, then mulch them up with the lawnmower.
So I hill every year. It's a little more work, but in the end it's worth it.
Same reason I can't plant them in the corn patch -- that would be too many things for me to trip over. I already tend to knock over about 4 or 5 corn stalks per season per patch when I'm cultivating and hilling the corn. That's another thing -- I don't know how kindly pole beans would take to being hilled, which I do twice.
So bush beans it is! I've found a variety from Burpee that is extremely prolific -- Burpee's Stringless Green Pod. This thing will produce and produce and produce as long as you keep them picked. The only reason I'll be pulling and picking this first plot is so I can put in my husband's beloved watermelons in that plot!
I'll be replanting them in the early corn plot when it's done around the first part of July, and they'll produce until I pull the plants in the fall.
Reply
I've learned my gardening practices mostly from reading, and some from other gardeners.
But it's seeming and feeling likely I don't understand the process you call "hilling." Please: what is it? What do you do when you hill things, and why? If it was and is part of the traditional "Three Sisters" practice in the eastern United States, I would expect the beans would be all right with it?
I just came across a yellow pole bean this year. I've no idea whether this is the same as a "yellow wax" bean, which I've only ever seen growing as a bush plant, but I'm giving them a shot (along with the lazy wife, Kentucky Wonder/Old Homestead, and some yard-long beans as well as a bush or two of yellow wax) to see how well I like them. If they're at least as enjoyable as "yellow wax" bush types, they'll have a place in my garden.
Reply
What you do is, when the corn is about 1 foot tall, you cultivate the earth between rows, then pull it up with a hoe and bury the bottom 3 to 4 inches of the stalks all along the row. Kind of like when you bury potato stems.
Then when the corn is about 2 to 2 1/2 feet tall, you do it again. It discourages tillering and promotes the growth of more adventitious roots, so the corn is more firmly anchored in the ground. Hilling also makes a sort of catch basin for rain in the spaces between the rows, and more water is trapped in the hills themselves. So your corn sort of self-waters.
Just before you hill is also a perfect time to side-dress the corn with nitrogen to encourage growth -- you bury the fertilizer as you hill each row.
I remembered Daddy having us do that, and we never lost corn to thunderstorms. I did an experiment the first year I did it, and hilled one plot while not hilling the other. The hilled plot stood up to driving rain a lot better, was more productive, and had sturdier stalks and tons of adventitious roots.
At the end of the season, I pull up the corn stalks, cut them into small chunks with pruners, and scatter them in the corn plots. Then I use my home made harrow (the chain link fence and 3 paving stones) to knock the hills down some. After the leaves fall, we rake them onto the plots and let them sit over the winter, then mulch them up with the lawnmower.
So I hill every year. It's a little more work, but in the end it's worth it.
Reply
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