3 Sisters Garden, 2024, Year 2

May Lotito wrote:

Thom Bri wrote:First snow of the winter, and it will be a few degrees of frost tonight. I built this today, hoping to keep my greens alive a few more weeks.

Are the plants with purple flowers okra or just hibiscus? They look very healthy.

It is French hollyhock, a variety of mallow. A friend gave me 2 in pots a few years ago and now it reseeds itself very easily. I let a few grow here and there.

People talking about landracing beans. Pic below shows the changes from 2023 to 2024. My seeds were purchased over 18 years from various sources, some bush beans at retail, others climbing beans, several times I mixed in beans I bought at the supermarket, kidney beans, black beans, great northern beans are the ones I remember. One pack of purple 'heirloom' beans.

Something funny happened this year and the beans look really different. No new seeds added in 2024. Top, 2024, lower, 2013.

Close look at two new types.

Correction, I did plant some supermarket black beans in 2024. You can see the results in the pic 2 posts above.

That’s fascinating.  I wonder, how many years of not adding anything it would take to see the bean qualities stabilize a bit.  Not necessarily all the same color and flavor and texture, but each year’s mosaic looking like the 5 years before it.

Cool.  2023 looked like it was settling in to relatively uniform colour, similar to one of the heirloom varieties my supplier carries (don't recall which one though).

Some of the Dragon Tongue beans we grew this year wound up with the opposite mottling (light on dark rather than dark marks on pale beans).  My wife set those aside and she wants to plant them next year and see what happens.

Experiments are fun, but these garden experiments are long term endeavours.  My toque is off to plant breeders...I don't think I'd have the patience to work on it for years.

Derek Thille wrote:Cool.  2023 looked like it was settling in to relatively uniform colour, similar to one of the heirloom varieties my supplier carries (don't recall which one though).

Some of the Dragon Tongue beans we grew this year wound up with the opposite mottling (light on dark rather than dark marks on pale beans).  My wife set those aside and she wants to plant them next year and see what happens.

Experiments are fun, but these garden experiments are long term endeavours.  My toque is off to plant breeders...I don't think I'd have the patience to work on it for years.

Those light brown beans in 2023 were from the purple climbing beans I have been growing since about 2008, and yes they seemed stable. But this year I got some distinctly different looking plants. They were super vigorous, with huge leaves, and only a slight tinge of purple. Also got some of the original purple plants, and a variety of various bush and green climbers as usual.

I have the patience, but not the organization.

Let me know if you want some seeds. I can mail a few packages. Corn, beans, tobacco.

Ground another 10 pounds or so of corn meal yesterday.
Corn is currently outdoors in totes. Hopefully the cold temps will kill most of the weevils.
200 lb. of corn:

Grinding corn flour again today. I need to start weighing it so I have some idea how much I am eating.

Really getting antsy to start gardening, but it's still a month and a half early. Weather permitting I may put out some lettuce, onions and carrots later this week when I have some days off work. Yesterday was 80F (26.5C) and it's supposed to snow and get down to below freezing the next few days. Typical March! Arugula is sprouting from seeds in the permanent beds, and daffodils and tulips are a couple inches tall.

I hear you on the itching to get started.  At least we still have a fair bit of snow and ice on the ground, so there's little fear of getting that going just yet.  We've had a number of days above freezing, but as you note, it's March, so the weather is doing what it does.  I recall getting a dump of wet snow here in May (11th or 12th) one year.

That said, I've gotten a few seeds started in soil blocks - I noticed on the weekend that the bee balm (monarda) has started.  I've got eggplant and hot peppers there so far.  Late this week or early next week will be the next round of seeds...striving not to get things going too early.

Derek Thille wrote:I hear you on the itching to get started.  At least we still have a fair bit of snow and ice on the ground, so there's little fear of getting that going just yet.  We've had a number of days above freezing, but as you note, it's March, so the weather is doing what it does.  I recall getting a dump of wet snow here in May (11th or 12th) one year.

That said, I've gotten a few seeds started in soil blocks - I noticed on the weekend that the bee balm (monarda) has started.  I've got eggplant and hot peppers there so far.  Late this week or early next week will be the next round of seeds...striving not to get things going too early.

I really like bee balm, and the local insects seem to love it. Oddly, not the honey bees much, but bumble bees and butterflies. Also see hummingbirds on it occasionally. I also chew the leaves, a nice minty taste.