???

"Cheryl" wrote in message
b.com...
On 6/23/2013 7:12 PM, Christina Websell wrote:

Atm, carrots, parsnips, radishes, strawberries, cabbages, brussels,
purple
sprouting broc, peas and mange toute. Beans (dwarf and runner) will be
planted out next week when the weather improves.

It took me three goes with the runner beans as it was so cold they just
rotted, and I am growing dwarf french unusual varieties from Germany this
year.

Tweed


Sounds like quite a haul! I'd love to start a veggie garden but I have
enough trouble with flowers. The weeds have been taking over this year. I
even have a lot of poison ivy and poison sumac and have gotten itchy
rashes before I figured out what it was. I'd like to try veggies though.
It will take a lot of planning.

You could start with a foot of ground with radishes. You don't have to do
the whole thing if your health prevents it.
The main reasons that I insist my brother does the digging is a) he is 15
years younger than me. b) he isn't held together with screws and metal
plates c) I bought it for a whole load of money

and I'm well annoyed how he planted it all up with his stuff before I had a
chance.
I keep telling him, phone me before you plant so at least I know what you
are doing.

It's full of fecking potatoes.

Tweed

Christina Websell wrote:


The main reasons that I insist my brother does the digging is a) he is 15
years younger than me. b) he isn't held together with screws and metal
plates c) I bought it for a whole load of money

I wondered who you were including when you said "we". Surely it wasn't
Boyfriend. His duvet would be calling him!

--
Joyce

"Sentimentality" -- that's what we call the sentiment we don't share.
-- Graham Greene

Christina Websell wrote:


Are string beans what we call runner beans here? we planted 25 last year
and couldn't keep up with the crop so have just planted out 15 this evening
into their permanent bed.
To get the best from them you need to dig a trench 18 inches deep, fill the
bottom with old newspapers and manure, water it from a hosepipe for a
couple of hours, fill the earth back in and plant them on top of that.
They need quite a lot of water and this really helps.

This makes me wish I had a yard to grow veggies in. Or, in the absense of
a yard, a good space with a lot of sunlight where I could grow stuff in
containers. I grow in containers now, but the sunlight isn't as good as it
should be on my balcony for success. But I'm still making a go of it:
lettuce, tomatoes, and for the first time, green beans (aka "string beans",
aka "runner beans"). The goal is to have salads regularly. I'd grow more
if I had the space.

--
Joyce

"Sentimentality" -- that's what we call the sentiment we don't share.
-- Graham Greene

"Cheryl" wrote in message
b.com...

On 6/23/2013 7:12 PM, Christina Websell wrote:

Atm, carrots, parsnips, radishes, strawberries, cabbages, brussels, purple
sprouting broc, peas and mange toute. Beans (dwarf and runner) will be
planted out next week when the weather improves.

It took me three goes with the runner beans as it was so cold they just
rotted, and I am growing dwarf french unusual varieties from Germany this
year.

Tweed


Sounds like quite a haul! I'd love to start a veggie garden but I have
enough trouble with flowers. The weeds have been taking over this year.
I even have a lot of poison ivy and poison sumac and have gotten itchy
rashes before I figured out what it was. I'd like to try veggies though.
It will take a lot of planning.

~~~~~~~
As Tweed said, you could start in quite a small space. One year, I planted
a couple of tomato plants and a couple of bell pepper plants. I got a *ton*
of food from just those few plants. As summer wore on, I put wire cages
around them to provide support and keep the veggies off the ground.

MaryL

dgk wrote:

I don't have enough room to grow things other than tomatoes. I did
string beans this year but you need so many to get enough beans for a
meal that it's not really worth the effort. They didn't taste all that
different from regular market string beans.

But they are right there for you to grab a few when you need them. I
much prefer to have live plants right outside my front door that I can
pick and eat as needed, rather than buying a bunch of stuff at a store
and then have it go bad before I can finish it.

I'm not planning to make a meal that has green beans as a side dish.
I want to use them for salads, so I don't need very many at a time. I'm
also growing lettuce (two kinds) and arugula (rocket), and of course,
tomatoes, plus a few herbs that would go nicely in a salad (dill, thyme,
basil). Then I add some toasted almond slivers and dried cranberries
from the cabinet, some oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, and it's ready.

So at the moment, I have 6 bean plants in a flower box. The plants are
growing, and they're winding around the poles I set up, plus they like
the chains I use to keep the flower box from falling off the ledge. Don't
see any beans yet, though. I'm wondering if I should have used something
deeper than the flower box to plant them in.

Also, the lettuce isn't doing that great. I've had some and it tastes
fine, it's just that it's not growing very high. They're not in direct
sunlight, but since it's summer I thought that would be better, seeing
as they're cool-weather plants.

Maybe I should get some deeper things to plant my vegetables in.

The biggest difference is tomatoes. Even the Big Box store tomato
plants (Early Girl, Big Boy, Beefsteak, etc) are much better than
store bought tomatoes. But I grew a bunch of heirloom tomatoes from
seed the last couple of years and those are fun. I get purple ones,
striped ones, black ones, all kinds. And they taste really good.

Have you gotten any "sharpei" tomatoes? (When I get home, I'll post a
picture of an heirloom tomato I got from a local farm several years ago.
It's all wrinkly just like a sharpei dog. )

Joyce

Fluffy Mackerel Pudding - "Once upon a time, the world was young and the words 'mackerel' and 'pudding' existed far, far away from one another. One day, that all changed. And then, whoever was responsible somehow thought the word 'fluffy' would help." -- Hilarious recipes at: www.candyboots.com

I wrote:

I'm not planning to make a meal that has green beans as a side dish.
I want to use them for salads, so I don't need very many at a time. I'm
also growing lettuce (two kinds) and arugula (rocket), and of course,
tomatoes, plus a few herbs that would go nicely in a salad (dill, thyme,
basil). Then I add some toasted almond slivers and dried cranberries
from the cabinet, some oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, and it's ready.

The trouble with threads like this is, they make me crave foods. Now I
want green beans!


Joyce

Fluffy Mackerel Pudding - "Once upon a time, the world was young and the words 'mackerel' and 'pudding' existed far, far away from one another. One day, that all changed. And then, whoever was responsible somehow thought the word 'fluffy' would help." -- Hilarious recipes at: www.candyboots.com

--
Joyce

I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better
for it. -- Abraham Lincoln

"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...


"dgk" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 24 Jun 2013 00:12:49 +0100, "

I don't have enough room to grow things other than tomatoes. I did
string beans this year but you need so many to get enough beans for a
meal that it's not really worth the effort.

Are string beans what we call runner beans here? we planted 25 last year
and couldn't keep up with the crop so have just planted out 15 this evening
into their permanent bed.
To get the best from them you need to dig a trench 18 inches deep, fill the
bottom with old newspapers and manure, water it from a hosepipe for a
couple of hours, fill the earth back in and plant them on top of that.
They need quite a lot of water and this really helps.



.. Even the Big Box store tomato
plants (Early Girl, Big Boy, Beefsteak, etc) are much better than
store bought tomatoes. But I grew a bunch of heirloom tomatoes from
seed the last couple of years and those are fun. I get purple ones,
striped ones, black ones, all kinds. And they taste really good.

Some plants already have tomatoes starting to grow - it's really too
early for that but I'll eat them.

There is no comparison between the taste of home grown tomatoes and store
bought ones which are full of water.

I've just planted out my runner beans this evening along with some French
beans from heritage seeds called Helios - the beans will be yellow.
the nicest thing about growing your own, at least for me, is that I know
there have been no chemicals used either sprayed on them or fertilizer. For
fertilizer we use chicken manure from my hens, horse manure from a local
stables, wood ash from my fire and the results of our compost heap.

Tweed

~~~~~~~
There are several varieties of string beans (both green and yellow). They
are easy to grow, but they are usually planted so they can twine around a
string or trellis. That way, the beans hang down (but do not touch the
ground) and are easy to pick. Here are some pictures:
http://www.google.com/search?q=how+t...10 67&bih=551

I'm not familiar with runner beans, but we do have a lot of types of beans
other than string beans--butter beans, lima beans, red beans, navy beans,
black beans, cannellini beans, black-eyed peas (a bean, despite the name),
garbanzo beans, kidney beans, great northern beans, etc. The names could go
on and on.

MaryL

On Wed, 26 Jun 2013 17:35:46 -0500, "MaryL"
wrote:
Are string beans what we call runner beans here? we planted 25 last year
and couldn't keep up with the crop so have just planted out 15 this evening
into their permanent bed.
To get the best from them you need to dig a trench 18 inches deep, fill the
bottom with old newspapers and manure, water it from a hosepipe for a
couple of hours, fill the earth back in and plant them on top of that.
They need quite a lot of water and this really helps.

My understanding is that string beans and runner beans are the same,
although a British person once told me that in his experience they were a
little different. I think that's more a matter of the varietals of beans
being different though.

On 6/22/2013 2:50 PM, Christina Websell wrote:

I try my best to post as much as I can, given that so many seem have gone to
the facebook group, but tbh, there is only so much that one Boycat can do
that is interesting enough to post about ;-)

Same thing with Persia. Now that she's older she simply doesn't do much
that is new, exciting or unusual.

When she first came to live with me she was quite the comical cat. Such
as the time she opened the metal bi-fold doors in front of the washing
machine and dryer. She jumped up on the dryer then down into the small
space between the dryer and the wall. Naturally she couldn't get back
up. It's a good thing she did this on a weekend when I was home. I'd
have been thinking she must have gotten out somehow.

Since I no longer cat-sit for my neighbor I don't even have stories
about that. I did see Schwartzie sunning himself on my driveway
yesterday afternoon.

Jill

On 6/23/2013 7:12 PM, Christina Websell wrote:
"Cheryl" wrote in message
eb.com...
On 6/22/2013 2:50 PM, Christina Websell wrote:

I try my best to post as much as I can, given that so many seem have gone
to
the facebook group, but tbh, there is only so much that one Boycat can do
that is interesting enough to post about ;-)
I could diverse a little about my veggie plot, this is the second year
I've
been growing organic veggies and what a slow spring it has been..or could

I'd love to hear about what you're growing in your veggie plot.

Atm, carrots, parsnips, radishes, strawberries, cabbages, brussels, purple
sprouting broc, peas and mange toute. Beans (dwarf and runner) will be
planted out next week when the weather improves.

It took me three goes with the runner beans as it was so cold they just
rotted, and I am growing dwarf french unusual varieties from Germany this
year.

Tweed


Sounds like the start of a nice garden! I can't do anything other than
container gardening here. I was never any good with house plants so I
doubt it would be any different with vegetables.

Oh sure, Dataw would gladly let me *rent* a garden plot in the communal
gardening area. It would cost something akin to $50/month. Then I'd
have to *drive* to the garden with my tools and bring my own watering
hose. (For all I know they charge for using the water, too. They
charge for everything else around here, I can't see why water would be
an exception.) So, no gardening for me. I buy from local farmers when
they set up their vegetable stand on weekends.

Jill