All the Dirt on Gardening

Live and learn. The first planting of fall peas was a complete flop. Trying something new is a bit of a madness with gardeners isn't it? So, today I tried a second planting. This time I soaked the pea seeds between sheets of paper towels until they plumped up. Last time I put them in pots and in the ground like I would in the spring. Spring it worked. August, they stewed in there. Peas in a Folie a Duex though the madness is entirely my own. On the left the peas soaked between paper towel sheets. On the right pea seeds as they come out of the envelope. Will it work this time? The weather is certainly more pea-like. In the 50s tonight should be pea weather, shouldn't it? There will not be a Legume a Trois - no third planting. If this planting does not sprout, I'll put in something else...though I was hoping for a nitrogen fixing crop. The photo is of the spring crop planted in 1-inch cells - they did quite well. Sigh.

There are several Amaranth varieties growing and blooming on our little slice of the Earth. One is 7 feet tall, another only 6 inches with broad, pink and green striped leaves. Pigweed is one common name used for all varieties...that's not my favorite flower nickname, however. Chinese Spinach is a nickname I can live with. All Amaranth varieties have nutritious leaves used as a food source for hundreds of years. The seeds are a source of vegetarian protein used in many ways from popping to steaming. Ground into flour, gluten free pastries are made from the seeds. Globe Amaranth , an old fashioned everlasting flower, is seen here with Wave Petunias in a bed by the garden shed. This fall I'll dry some of the dark red/purple Globe Amaranth flowers in silica beads to use over the winter. The Strawberry Fields and Bicolor Pink would probably fade to some grey color. There are many ways to preserve flowers successfully: Air drying, silica, antifreeze, glycerine, pressing, sand, ...

The inch of rain that fell yesterday greatly improved the prospects of the plants, flowers and fruit production. Overnight our plants turned a corner and became productive. Slow Food USA has the best article about this unusual heirloom. Male flower Flower in profile Beautiful leaves Female flower Flowers as big as my hands Female flower with fruit Heritage Harvest Seeds' site says it is an "historic squash (pre 1874) that is thought to have descended from the old Potato Pumpkin of the south that was introduced in the 1780’s from Jamaica via the slave trade. The Tennessee Sweet Potato Squash may actually be the same as the Potato Pumpkin that Thomas Jefferson grew at Monticello. First listed in 1847 by New York seedsman Grant Thorburn as Green Striped Bell and renamed by Burpee in 1883. The squash are pear shaped with a creamy white skin and striped with very faint green stripes. The flesh is to cream colored, fine grained and dry. The fruit average about 10-12 inches long a...

Peas are an ancient vegetable from the Mediterranean and Central Asia. Peas dating from 7,000 B.C. were found in Egyptian tombs and the Bible reports that they were one of the foods brought to David in the desert. Fresh peas as we know them were developed in Holland. They were such a sensation in the court of Louis the Fourteenth that poems and songs were written praising them. Thomas Jefferson’s gardener-chef James Hemings grew 30 varieties. U.S. President Andrew Jackson's favorite dish was Pease Pudding with onions, carrots, celery, butter, nutmeg, sour cream, and sugar. Peas are actually legumes or beans. Today over 1,000 varieties are grown. Legumes from Europe and Southwest Asia include peas, chickpeas and lentils. India and East Asia gave us Soybeans, Azuki and Mung beans. Black-eyed peas are from Africa and Peanuts and Butterbeans are from South America. English peas (Pisum sativum) are either smooth or wrinkled, with the smooth having more starch and the wrinkled being swee...

Duane Campbell of Bradford County PA (zone 6b) is a regional expert in all things plants and soil. One of his recent articles focuses on health care for plants: Sun, soil, air, etc. "Just as colds and flu can lay low people who are taking care of themselves properly, even healthy plants can succumb to common bugs and diseases when the season is right. That's what medicines are for. Call an antibiotic a pesticide and people would think twice before swallowing it, but that is just what it is." Check out his columns at this link for Daily Local News . Campbell's water garden piece at Bella Online is here . He has been writing about gardens and gardening for 30 years and knows his stuff. Check it out.

Hyacinth bean vines are grown in the U.S. as a fence or trellis climbing decorative plant. The vines twist around everything they can reach - including shrubs, trees, perennials and other vines. The vines are so strong that they need hefty support to hold them. Horticulturally known as Dolchios lablab and Lablab purpurea, Dolichos lablabeds, Bonavist, (Family: Fabaceae), it is grown in China as an edible. In America, gourmets are slow to adapt to serving them on salads. The lovely lavender flowers are edible, too. In China they are called pig-ears. I just received my copy of " Food Plants of the World: An Illustrated Guide " by Ben-Erik van Wyk . Hyacinth Bean is described as a perennial vine but that only applies to zone 10 and 11 and above. Van Wyk says the pods are used to make a soy sauce like condiment in Myanmar. The plants are widely grown in Africa, India and Southeast Asia. The dry beans are 25% protein and are mineral rich. The University of Kentucky agriculture de...

Sustainable gardening is the term used for gardening with the least. Instead of blasting the garden with chemical fertilizers and bug sprays, use the least possible. Rather than using a timed system to irrigate lawn and gardens on a schedule, wait until plants signal a need for water. Gardeners who use a sustainable approach make an effort to add back to the earth. Simple changes can make a difference. Examples include: Use sheets of newspaper under mulch instead of plastic, make a compost pile, dig a basin in the garden to collect rainwater or switch to wildlife friendly fertilizers such as composted animal waste or seaweed. Last Saturday when Dr. Gerald Klingaman spoke at the Northwest Arkansas Flower and Garden Club in Fayetteville, he added his own twist to the whole topic of sustainable gardening. Klingaman chose The Quest for a Sustainable Garden as the topic for his talk knowing that gardeners cannot resist a few high maintenance plants. Any garden we plant is destined to be sho...