Day 116 Bush Beans and Snow Peas Experiments End

It’s been a great summer for gardening, and I wish I had kept up on the 30 minutes/day challenge, but we still have been eating well from the garden and will continue to do so.  The bush beans (providor) and the snow peas (oregon giant) have had their day, at least for the plantings in the individual garden beds and have been cut down.  The bush beans in what will be the strawberry pyramid are going strong, though – giving an additional 1.2 lbs (0.544 kg) of beans all at once from the eighteen plants.  A second harvest, and possibly a third should be in the future, as there are no pests and few weeds.  It was easy pickings, too! Walked around the bed and picked, stooping only slightly for the lower tier.  May experiment with more pyramids next year.

Bush Beans totals are: Lasagna bed produced 31.25 oz (), followed by the Box Bed at 13.88 oz (), Wicking Bed at 9.25 oz (), and the Hugelkultur bed at 8.38 oz.

Snow Pea totals are: 13 for the Lasagna Bed, 12 for the Box Bed, 7 oz for the Wicking Bed and 6.6 for the Hugelkultur Bed

The Hugelkultur bed surpassed the lasagna bed, thanks to some gigantic patty pan squash.  These weighed in at 3.5 and 4 lbs (1.6 – 1.8 kg).  Some people don’t like them at this size, since the husk can be tough, but they can be steamed, grilled, baked (I am baking one now with olive oil drizzle plus fresh basil and parmesan cheese, sliced 1/4″ thin and put on a rack.  Verdict:  more parmesan, hotter oven).  The cherry tomatoes are very sweet and splitting on the vine. Those that are split at the time of picking are tossed to the outer bank for “hearty volunteers” next year if they survive, and the ones that split by the time they reach the scale are weighed and eaten.  Ahhhh – worth the far less than allotted time I wanted to spend out there, only wish I had the time to put in so I could plant some more.