The Best Way to Spend Mother’s Day
The best way to spend Mother’s Day is to plant something. (This is even better if you plant something with your child!) I’m an empty nester now, so I’m planting alone, but today I went crazy planting beans. Well, actually they are the Creams shelling peas that you see in Part 1 and Part 2 of “Growing Heirloom Beans.”
Pole Bean Trellis
I worked 14 hours in the garden yesterday and only quit because it was dark and I couldn’t see. LOL! After a week away to Tennessee, where I interviewed Jeff Poppen, The Barefoot Farmer (Interview coming soon!), I had so much to do! May 10th is late to be planting beans, corn and tomatoes here, but that’s just what I intend to do today!
Trench for planting beans
I don’t have the luxury of spacing things out in my cramped front yard food garden, so I packed in twice as much seed as vines I can accommodate on this makeshift trellis (which won’t win any beauty or engineering contests – talk about using what you have on hand!). In fact, I planted them as close together as I do sweet peas.
Creams shelling pea seeds
If you watch Part 2 of “Growing Heirloom Beans,” you will see that the base of the stems on the Creams are hefty and the vines sprawl all over. But, I’d much rather be thinning in June than have huge gaps (like I did with sweet peas! See “Growing Sweet Peas Part 2”). I’ll be sure to report back about the germination rate. These are seeds I saved from my four plants I grew. If you would like to try these tender, delicious shelling peas, order from Sharon’s Natural Gardens in Delaware. Sharon has been practicing biodynamic agriculture on her small family farm 25 years, and she doesn’t have to deal with diseases and pests like I do! (I DO use biodynamic compost when I can get it!)
Completed bean row
In fact, today I used wet biodynamic compost under the seeds, and covered with another inch and pressed it down over the seeds. I also inoculated the seeds with mushroom mycelium to help the seeds fight some of the many issues I experienced last year. I topped it off with a compost that has mycorrhizae in it, and captured rainwater. If that doesn’t get these Creams off to a great start, I don’t know what would. I felt like I got a great harvest in spite of the issues I had last year, so these beans (shelling peas) are tough. Now I need to plant some tomato plants in the empty space. I already have borage plants to repel tomato hornworm!
The best way to spend Mother’s Day is to plant something, preferably an edible plant, but bees need flowers so almost any contact with soil, seeds, seedlings is rewarding. Please let me know if you are spending some of this day in the garden. Planting seeds takes my mind off the empty nest. Happy Mother’s Day! – Kaye
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Category: Community, Curbside Gardening, Fungi, Seeds, Urban Gardening, Warm Season
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.Happy Mother’s Day Kaye, I may try the creams next year. Are they like a field pea, or a green pea? Gene
Thanks, Gene, I would say like a field pea. They put up long vines for me and kept producing. You grow them in a hot, humid environment, unlike sweet peas which like it cooler. Thanks for reading and writing here!!
Hi Kaye ,
PS…. I DO have pest problems too… but likely differest ones …I do hope the biodynamics helps . I will be interested in following the progress of the beans. I have not even planted mine yet but will as soon as I get my irrigation fixed . Thank you for the seed promotion. I hope to contact the seed savers group when I go to Ireland this summer, SO much to always learn…. Happy Mothers DAY . I enjoyed being with my grown kids today :)Sharon
Hi, Sharon, thanks for writing that. And I hope you are right. I stirred a vortex and broke it and reversed it for 20 minutes, boy my arms are going to be sore, LOL. I mixed it up with rainwater in a kitchen trash can about 2/3 full of water. I’m letting it sit overnight. I planted the JA in a large cloth container I had potatoes in. You’re welcome and thank YOU! I’ll call soon. – Kaye
I hope you had a great Mother’s Day. I wish I could have gotten out and did more in the garden yesterday. We have that subtropical storm Ana raining on us. I did get in another batch of bush beans.
I only got about half my garden to-do list accomplished, Stephanie. One good thing about front-yard gardening is a lot of folks walking by stop and talk to you. They are naturally interested in seeing things planted and growing (now, if only we can get them to take the next step and do it for themselves!), but, stopping to talk cuts into productivity. It’s all good, though, as I consider the evangelism of growing your own as important as my yield. I came up with this quote, “It’s not how much I produce, it’s how many people I inspire.” Hope the storm goes easy on your garden!
Today I gave away watermelon seeds. The person was so shocked because I had just bought them. There is no way I could use them all three seeds is all we really need. We as gardeners just need to keep nudging. Eventually someone will take the bait. Then they will have garden fever!
So true, Stephanie!! Though watermelon is hard to grow here and I would have had to keep a few more seeds. 🙂