What have you planted? And a few other seed planting questions.

[Michael and Lylah Ledner]

I'm still planning for my fall garden and the only seeds planted thus far are some sugar peas which have popped up.

what seeds have you planted now and what will you see within the next week or so?

Also, my tepiary plants are huge but NO beans. aren't they supposed to have beans? :-)

Can I plant fava beans now or are they for spring?

Thanks...love this group.
lylah

[green shoes]

Already popped up inside under lights are broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, zucchini and Oregon Spring and Siberian tomatoes. Still planning the rest of the fall garden.

Fava beans should go in October 1st, they don't like heat according to the planting chart.

Dunno about the tepiarys

[Susan]

After one planting season this February, I still don't know what I'm doing. I ripped everything out a few weeks ago except a watermelon plant and yellow squash (survived the attack of the million squash bugs). I have Okra (producing), winter & summe squash growing in pots and around the periferral of the yard. Covered the raised bed with staw then heard straw doesn't deompose. I talked to Ken Singh and am planning an early trip next Saturday for a truckload of compost to ammend the soil. What a wealth of knowledge he has! Bought seeds at Lowes and Home Depot but really want to start buying from places like seedsavers after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in seeing behind the green curtain of agricultural commerce and how marketing and advertising masks reality. Being new at this, I constantly have to remind myself to take baby steps...I plan to follow the planting chart and hopefully get the raised garden planted next weekend. Then September looks to be a VERY busy month! I might as well just sleep next to the garden!

[Michael and Lylah Ledner]

Hi Susan....it sure is a learning and "growing" experience isn't it.....we're into our 5th season and use raised beds. i was disappointed with the lack of produce this past spring/summer season - but am hopeful for this one.

my squash/cukes, melon, zuchinni all bit the dust - with those bugs...hate those buggers...

you make me laugh when you say you might as well sleep next to the garden...i'm thinking that too. :-)

i LOVE Barbara's book....it's awesome!

have a great week...and thanks for sharing....lylah

[Dana]

I've been away from home and oh how my gardens missed me! So much died even though I had someone "supposedly" coming over three times while I was gone for 7 days. They probably only came once!

Anyhoo, I'm rather upset with the lack of harvest over summer and the war of the pests - for legged ones that eat up every one of my avocadoes, oranges, and squash blossoms. I focusing on pest control right now and soil ammendment. I have many plans for more trees, grape vines and berries. Perhaps an asparagus patch. After the more intensive long-term plants, I'll squeeze whatever I can around the yard including loads of garlic and onions this year to help with pests.

Late now and gotta go. TTFN

Dana

[Michael and Lylah Ledner]

Hey Dana....thanks for responding...so, question: how much space are you gardening all this in....

and, what are you doing for soil amendment....

love the ttfn...:-) lylah

[tenacity]

Some plants won't successfully germinate above a certain temperature.

[Michele]

Tepary beans that have lots of vegetation but no beans have probably been overwatered - they do best with some supplemental water, but not a lot. I planted teparies in two different locations in my yard to experiment with them since I had never grown them before and the plants that received 'normal' supplemental water (for vegies in the desert) are huge with minimal beans and the plants that I watered maybe 4 times this summer are very productive...

[Michael and Lylah Ledner]

Oh Michele...thanks....I'll cut the water off right now! This is huge...

another question - how do you prepare them?

lylah

[Michele]

Hi Lylah -
I don't know if cutting the water back now will get you some beans -might be too late but you can experiment and try - I am leaving mine in right now because they have wrapped themselves around my new peach trees so the beans are shading the trunks. I have artichokes already planted in the same area and when they wake up from their summer nap, I'll slash the teparies and leave them as mulch - high in nitrogen!

We have mostly made hummus from the teparies - one of my sons has to have hummus in the fridge at all times - this is the site I got the hummus recipe from plus there are lots of other recipes and info: http://azteparybeans.com/. Michele

[Judy]

Lylah, I planted red blackeyes that popped up in 3 days and a bush bean that came up a couple of days later but that's all I've gotten so far. I usually wait until mid Sept. when I'll plant everything else mostly from seed except for some broccoli started a few weeks ago. I have onion and leek seeds to start for transplants in Oct. and Nov. hopefully! I transplanted leeks from Baker's in January which is later I think than recommended but they did great, if you haven't tried them yet and have room and like leeks you might want to try them.

[grrlscout]

Still growing: melons, peppers, basil, tepary

Planted a couple weeks ago: more varieties of peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos.

Next month or maybe early October, I'll probably start something like: radishes, onion, garlic, lettuce, pak choy, and nasturtiums.

[Michael and Lylah Ledner]

this is great...are you doing seeds? and how much sun does your bok choy need?