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Greens and beans
May. 30th, 2011 01:46 pmSaturday I spent about four hours working in my garden. I was pretty amazed, both because the time went so fast it really didn't feel like that long and because I didn't feel that tired when I was done. In retrospect I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the lack of tiredness: I frequently work five or six hour stretches at work and don't feel that tired.
My first big chore was to weed, weed, weed. The half of the garden that has always been mine wasn't in too bad of shape, as I've been weeding it for two years now, but the half my former neighbor was (allegedly) gardening in had pretty much been left to run riot the past few years. The section where I have lentils growing was especially bad, because I wasn't able to hoe between the plants the last time I was out weed-killing. So Saturday I got down on my knees (which is ok when you are on dirt, but not too great on concrete sidewalk) and carefully plucked out anything that wasn't a lentil plant. (I will note here that I'm feeling blue over my lentils right now. They are alive but they aren't doing anything, while the three pea varieties I planted at the same time are all flowering and setting pods. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, or if I'm doing wrong.) It was slow going, due to the feathery lentil leaves getting entangled in the weed stems and my desire not to uproot lentil by accident.
I was further slowed down by needing to sort the plucked weeds into two piles: 'future pot herbs' and 'future compost'. Most of my weeds, you see, are lambsquarter and lambsquarter, as every book on edible wild plants of North America will tell you, is an edible wild relative of spinach. (According to the internet, the species running rampant in my garden is grown as a vegetable crop in parts of India. It could be true!) Anyway, I've decided that as long as it's growing in my garden I should try to eat it. Try, I say, because while I will eat spinach its flavor is not one of my favorites so I might not take to the flavor of lambsquarter. On the other hand I know I can gather the stuff by the grocery-bag full in the back yard, and curry spices can hide a number of flavor defects. I have a saag recipe that is really heavy on the cumin and the first time I made it I ended up standing over the stove eating the stuff out of the pot it was so good.
I haven't tried eating it yet; though I have cleaned and blanched it. This is due to the fact that I also harvested my leaf mustard Saturday night and I've been eating it. (Even my capacity for eating leafy green veggies has its limits.)
In the course of my weeding I discovered three volunteer tomato plants. I'm leaving them in the ground for now because I'm curious to see what they are. I grew only open-pollinated tomatoes last year so they should breed true. I can make guesses based on their location, but I won't know for sure until they start setting fruit. I *think* I can spare the room to indulge my curiosity, and if I can't I'll rip them up when I need the space.
After all the weeding the planting went quickly. I had gotten one of my pole bean varieties, Kentucky Wonder, in the ground last week, so Saturday I wanted to plant some bush beans. I planted half the packet of my beloved Dragon's Tongue and all of the Cherokee Wax beans. I'm not a huge wax bean fan but the Cherokee Wax beans were an impulse buy based on the fact they are an old-school variety. (I can tell this because the beans are black: modern ones have white seeds.)
The last thing I planted was the Early Lady cowpeas, which are this year's Wild Experiment. Cowpeas are supposed to do well in high heat and drought, which is a winning combination in a Nebraska garden that's being hand-watered. The pods can be eaten young as snaps or you can let them develop and eat them as shellies or dried beans, and--YES, THERE'S MORE--the leaves can be eaten as a leafy green veggie. Why I have I never tried these before? I'm looking forward to seeing how they do. If I have anything resembling success I'll try anther variety next year: there's a variety called "Pink Eye Purple Hull" that looks very pretty. (My garden is in the front yard, so I like to chose things with an eye towards how they look. If I liked eggplants I would grow a lot of them, as they are very handsome plants.)
I still had some greens I wanted plant, but by then I was losing the light. Sunday was taken up with rain, computer wrangling, and graduation celebrations, so they are still holding. If we we escape any large-scale rains I will try to get them in later this week.
My first big chore was to weed, weed, weed. The half of the garden that has always been mine wasn't in too bad of shape, as I've been weeding it for two years now, but the half my former neighbor was (allegedly) gardening in had pretty much been left to run riot the past few years. The section where I have lentils growing was especially bad, because I wasn't able to hoe between the plants the last time I was out weed-killing. So Saturday I got down on my knees (which is ok when you are on dirt, but not too great on concrete sidewalk) and carefully plucked out anything that wasn't a lentil plant. (I will note here that I'm feeling blue over my lentils right now. They are alive but they aren't doing anything, while the three pea varieties I planted at the same time are all flowering and setting pods. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, or if I'm doing wrong.) It was slow going, due to the feathery lentil leaves getting entangled in the weed stems and my desire not to uproot lentil by accident.
I was further slowed down by needing to sort the plucked weeds into two piles: 'future pot herbs' and 'future compost'. Most of my weeds, you see, are lambsquarter and lambsquarter, as every book on edible wild plants of North America will tell you, is an edible wild relative of spinach. (According to the internet, the species running rampant in my garden is grown as a vegetable crop in parts of India. It could be true!) Anyway, I've decided that as long as it's growing in my garden I should try to eat it. Try, I say, because while I will eat spinach its flavor is not one of my favorites so I might not take to the flavor of lambsquarter. On the other hand I know I can gather the stuff by the grocery-bag full in the back yard, and curry spices can hide a number of flavor defects. I have a saag recipe that is really heavy on the cumin and the first time I made it I ended up standing over the stove eating the stuff out of the pot it was so good.
I haven't tried eating it yet; though I have cleaned and blanched it. This is due to the fact that I also harvested my leaf mustard Saturday night and I've been eating it. (Even my capacity for eating leafy green veggies has its limits.)
In the course of my weeding I discovered three volunteer tomato plants. I'm leaving them in the ground for now because I'm curious to see what they are. I grew only open-pollinated tomatoes last year so they should breed true. I can make guesses based on their location, but I won't know for sure until they start setting fruit. I *think* I can spare the room to indulge my curiosity, and if I can't I'll rip them up when I need the space.
After all the weeding the planting went quickly. I had gotten one of my pole bean varieties, Kentucky Wonder, in the ground last week, so Saturday I wanted to plant some bush beans. I planted half the packet of my beloved Dragon's Tongue and all of the Cherokee Wax beans. I'm not a huge wax bean fan but the Cherokee Wax beans were an impulse buy based on the fact they are an old-school variety. (I can tell this because the beans are black: modern ones have white seeds.)
The last thing I planted was the Early Lady cowpeas, which are this year's Wild Experiment. Cowpeas are supposed to do well in high heat and drought, which is a winning combination in a Nebraska garden that's being hand-watered. The pods can be eaten young as snaps or you can let them develop and eat them as shellies or dried beans, and--YES, THERE'S MORE--the leaves can be eaten as a leafy green veggie. Why I have I never tried these before? I'm looking forward to seeing how they do. If I have anything resembling success I'll try anther variety next year: there's a variety called "Pink Eye Purple Hull" that looks very pretty. (My garden is in the front yard, so I like to chose things with an eye towards how they look. If I liked eggplants I would grow a lot of them, as they are very handsome plants.)
I still had some greens I wanted plant, but by then I was losing the light. Sunday was taken up with rain, computer wrangling, and graduation celebrations, so they are still holding. If we we escape any large-scale rains I will try to get them in later this week.
