William Bronson

I went by the garden today, the fava are about a foot tall and flowering!
The foliage is already not as tasty, but I think it's still desirable  as a pot green.
So far I think I like them as well or better than peas for a cover crop/ green manure.
They seem very robust.

Today at my momma's house I thinned out the cilantro I had sowed in the turnip greens bed.
It didn't sprout before the turnip seeds, even with a considerable head start, and it's kinda hard to separate from the smaller turnip sprouts, so I'm not loving them as a cover crop.
By comparison , I planted some fava just a few weeks ago,in the crack between a bed and the pavers, and they are doing fabulously.
The crushed up bundle of cilantro sitting tucked in my overall chest pocket all day did provide good aromatherapy.
Maybe it would be better to sow cilantro under established plants?


Riona, how tall and stout did your fava beans get?

Yeah, they take 80 to 100 days to mature, and they get big,like 2 feet on up to 6 feet or bigger, but leaving them grow and cutting them on the regular could be ideal.

I have a handful of these lovelies, not enough to start eating them, but enough to start spreading them around.
I put them in a bed with herbs, they seems to compete well with clumping plants.
This year they will get their own large container, made from a plastic bread tray.
I say"their own" but they are infact there to take up space between tree seedlings.

Apparently some pepper are picked before they are mature as fruit, so the seed isn't viable,even though they are delicious.
Many pepper growers seem to grow transplants and use seed starting heat mats to get the seed to germimate.

That plot is being worked in collaboration with my friend, and she has some superhot peppers she is going to plant there, and also some tomatillos.
We grew them in netted low tunnels last year ,and they both grew through the roofs of the tunnels!
These beds have net fences around them but they remain open on top.


My friend is feeling reluctant about termination these beautiful plants, and wants to keep some.
I feel similarly, but I don't want to compromise the yield on her main crop.
I think we can transplant some of them, and terminate others.
Going forward,if we plant fava in the fall, they will be more mature by its time to plant the main crop.
I think the foliage and the green beans will be the parts we eat, with the dried beans being seed for the next year and a fall back food source

Not for this one.
I hope to put some biochar in the bottom of my next two!

This bed is dedicated to peppers this year, but almost 2 months ago I planted out fava beans that I got from an African grocery store.
They are coming up nicely and the foilage tastes good too!

Potatoes sound good!
I just dumpster dove some  russets, I have access to some actually seed potatoes and some perianal potatoes I special ordered.
I've often grown dumpster potatoes in similar beds, just for  the biomass.

I wonder how sweet potatoes would do in a bed like this?
I've been meaning to try that combo for years now

I like to build beds like this near each tree I plant, to give nutrients and be a moisture reservoir.
I  don't mind the root competition with the annuals in the bed, since I add more material to these beds every winter and plant into the latest layers of compost in the spring.

I might plant a tree near this bed as well, or a maybe a fruit bush at each end.

I threw together this raised bed in the People Garden part of the Village Green community garden.
The People Garden is free for all to planting tend and harvest.
I've done some of each and this is the second bed I've built there.
It took 5or so cuts and 8 screws to make this from 1 big wide pallet and a couple of 2 foot x 4 foot pallets.
I brought bagged leaves for the very bottom, and then I asked the work crew there that day to fill it with whatever weeds they pulled.
Boy did they!
I will be topping it with compost and planting into it.
Suggestions welcomed!

Something that has worked well that I will continue to do is cutting the root end off of onions and planting them anywhere I can find space.
This will usually grow out to 3-5 mini onions, about the size of a quarter.

The next step is to plant them out at normal spacing so they can bulk up.
I've not tried this step yet, but it seems as strait forward as using onion sets.
This uses kitchen "waste" to create a perpetual source of seed onions from almost any onion.
Like growing potatoes from just the skins, we are squeezing more out of our purchased resources.
I plan on trying this with just the smallest rooted ends, to see how little it takes.

It was a good lesson.
I just bought a bunch of bare root trees and bushes from my local  Food Not Lawns group.
They have great roots, like 18" long, and they cost 5 bucks each...
It was a group buy , so they hopefully made a profit.
I could have probably done as much myself, but I didn't, and they did, and I was glad to give them my money.

The organizing work that a good middleman does is important and valuable,and should be honored.
Selling puffed up bullshit instead of the product you are promising isn't important, valuable or honorable.
I hope to "get back" at Sam's by growing out and propagating these bushes, then getting them out into the world, by sale, trade or gifting.