Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Bean picking and seed envelopes...

Went out to check the garden and the Havahart (which was empty of vermin) and i noticed that the Provider green beans are ready.  I picked 1 pound, 3.9 ounces in about 10 minutes or less. Not bad for the first picking. There's plenty more left to grow and still a number of flowers. They taste great and they release from the plant easily but don't fall off by themselves.  I remember picking beans when i was little and you had to be careful to not uproot the whole plant for one bean, they'd pull off so hard.  Jacob's Cattle can be like that sometimes, i have grown those most recently.  They make a great fresh bean and if i missed harvesting them, i'd fall back on them being a dried bean.



Oh, i came across this the other day,  Really easy to make seed packets:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/wtrsow/con021447346105.html

You have to scroll down a ways to get to the picture instructions. I wanted to post them here but i didn't want to steal the OP's images, so i made my own real quick.  If the Gardenweb thread ever disappears i will still have the instructions here to remind myself.

1 sheet of regular or pretty paper.

Make it into a square
Damp air is not conducive to crisp torn edges.

Fold it into a triangle
Then fold the top down almost to the edge


Then bring the corners in to the middlle

Clear tape does not photo well so i used some old, ugly masking tape.


This makes a very secure seed pocket.


Tape to close

I really like these envelopes much better than plastic baggies.  If your seeds aren't quite finished drying when you store them, they are less likely to be ruined since they can continue curing in the paper packets. The other packet types i have made were the ones that looked just like the commercial types.  What i didn't like about those were that they had to be cut out with  scissors, folded precisely,  and either stapled, taped or glued in at least 3 places.  Like these,  they are really very nice looking and presentable, but time consuming.  I used to trade seeds a lot and i wish i had the simpler design back then!
The folded ones can be scaled up or down in size, The example is 3"x6" with the flap down.  If i want to make them more special or color-coded i can use Origami paper and pretty post card seals.

Now i have to go vacuum stuff.

Late Blight returns....

Link to Article.

I didn't garden last year so i missed it last year. This only gives me a slight advantage because my plants can't catch it from contaminated remnants of the previous season.    But since it can simply spread through the air, its really not much of an advantage.  Bonide Fung-o-Nil or Ortho's Garden Disease Control can work i understand. I'll ask hubby if he can grab me a bottle of one of them at Home Depot if he goes shopping during lunch.  He was planning to get some driveway sealer so he might be going there anyway.  I looked them up at Aubuchon, but all their concentrated garden fungicides are by order only and not in store.
I guess its been around for a while this year but i have not seen any reports of it reaching Maine yet... i did a search for articles but didn't find anything dated for this year.

Not much else going on. I haven't checked the Havahart trap yet and the weather is off and on sunny, not too hot but still quite humid.
I was going to start clearing out the flower boxes yesterday, but i wasn't able to find my big Fiskars pruning shears. I haven't seen hide or hair of them since last year. I hope they didn't get left outside to rust and then hubby had to throw them out.  I asked him if he's seen them and he hasn't.  I tried to do a little of it by hand but it was too much to do.  Pulling out the vines broke the stems off at the roots which will make it hard to locate and dig up the plants for their move. The thing is that i can't get into the mess without removing the vines first.
I've decided to use the Mantis on the walking rows in the garden. The weeds have come back too thickly to try and pull them. On the plus side, its more organic matter that will break down in the garden.

Plenty to do today and in the next few days.