Bringing Veggies back from the Garden Bed

This post is to follow up the terrible blight I had that destroyed the majority of the plants in my garden this summer.

What I felt I did right with this last disease outbreak: Each year I anticipate that something will get diseased and I plan for combating this in a variety of ways. By watering once every 4 to 5 days I reduce the amount of water that collects on the surface of the soil. Where there is no water interaction between the soil and the leaves of plants there tends to be much less disease. Every time I see dead or dying leaves on my tomato plants I pull and discard them in the trash. Instead of irrigating the plants by overhead watering, I water with a soaker hose. When diseased-looking beans were encountered, I pulled the majority of the leaves off the plant and discarded them in the trash.

Solarizing my Summer Garden

What I felt I did wrong: The local seed company I purchased my seed from is a nonprofit organization, and probably does no testing for disease. They most likely plant these beans in isolation and are not alarmed when plants wilt or die early. It is doubtful that this company treats seed with anti-bacterial agents or fungicides.

While I did pull diseased leaves from bean plants I did not ensure that the dead leaves that had fallen were discarded quickly enough.

Trying all sorts of things to get rid of the blight

How I reacted: Ripping out the majority of a garden is probably the best long term way to deal with rapidly-spreading disease. After pulling the plants, I added some fish meal to the soil, soaked the area by watering for hours before laying down a sheet of 5 mil plastic over the affected area of the garden. By watering and covering the affected area I am essentially “pasteurizing” the soil with a method called Solarization. This method kills both good and bad bacteria in the soil and requires weeks of furloughing the soil.

Another view of my summer garden while solarizing

Future Plans: Because the Rattlesnake pole beans I bought were very heat resistant and tasty I believe I will give this variety another try. However, next time I will be purchasing seed from out of state and putting them in a corner of my garden that is far from my tomato and cucumber plants.

Saving the diseased Rattlesnake beans to give back to the seed supplier

Though a spray application of diluted EM-1 was able to save the majority of my sweet potato plants (and reverse some of the effects of the blight) much like I had experienced before, EM-1 had less of an effect on the rest of my plants. I began a batch of activated EM-1 in an insulated very warm place and plan on applying this in water to my garden immediately after solarizing the garden. The philosophy behind this is similar to taking a probiotic (such as acidophilus and other healthy bacteria) shortly after taking an antibiotic intended to relieve a bad infection.

Unripe tomatoes in a bucket

A Legend or Celebrity Tomato

Some thoughts about treating bacterial diseases in the garden: Though there are many anti-fungal sprays on the market (such as those which contain potassium bicarbonate) antifungal does not always mean antibacterial. While it is possible to treat the leaves of some plants with an anti-bacterial spray, such as highly diluted rubbing alcohol, this is only a short-term solution to a larger problem. Just as a patient would be unwise to take only antibiotics every time he had a stomach ache, treating garden diseases with mainly anti-bacterial agents is, in the long run, bound to backfire - because some form of bacteria is always present in healthy soil. Introducing healthy bacteria into the soil on a regular basis is probably a more effective means of controlling disease.

Delicious Slices of Tomato

The Beans that Killed my Summer Garden

The pretty color of the Rattlesnake Pole Bean

For years I have been looking for a Phaseolus vulgaris pole bean variety that does well in our summer environment. Many other bean varieties do incredibly well in the Tucson Heat, such as the Chinese Long Bean (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis) the Tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius) and the Purple Hyacinth Bean (Dolichos lablab L.). Unfortunately, the Chinese Long Bean and Purple Hyacinth bean take a lot of effort to prepare while the Tepary bean is a natural carrier of bean mosaic virus - a disease I do not need to expose my garden to. The Phaseolus vulgaris or common bean tastes good for my family no matter how we prepare it (baking, boiling, stir-frying, steaming, eating raw).

Rattlesnake Bean Flowers

Having heard that Rattlesnake pole bean grows quite well in Tucson and knowing it to be a a Phaseolus vulgaris variety I obtained this variety from a local seed source this last winter.

Rattlesnake Pole Beans are quite productive

Top left leaves showing the first Signs of Diseased Bean Leaves

Without considering the potential consequences of planting a “native grown” variety in my garden, I planted out all the seeds in the packet. The purpose of a pole bean variety in my garden is to provide west-side shade for my tomato plants. This requires that the beans that I plant be completely disease-free, as any disease such as mosaic or leaf curl can spread like wildfire among some of the most virulent tomato plants. Out of the 50 plants Rattlesnake bean plants that popped up about 5-8 had leaves that looked wrinkled and deformed. These were immediately pulled from the garden and discarded. As the remainder of the plants grew, I noticed that many of the lower leaves died off. Though the premature leaf death of lower leaves is very similar to the Tepary bean the yellow leaves with brownish-gray spots was not.

Rattlesnake Beans Spreading Blight to Tomato leaves

Rattlesnake Beans (dead leaves) next to dying tomato leaves

Another look at the Rattlesnake Pole Beans next to Tomatoes

By the time I noticed the yellowing leaves and brownish-gray spots on my tomato plants it was too late. A bacterial blight spread like wildfire directly from the Rattlesnake beans to my Tomatoes and Purple Burgandy Bush Beans (also Phaseolus vulgaris) then to my cucumber-melons. Normally, it can be difficult to trace the direct cause of a garden disease. However, in this case there was a direct correlation between where these beans were growing and where the disease spread to other plants. Every day I went outside to pull branches, leaves, and plants from my garden. 

The characteristic circles and yellowing associated with Tomato Blight

Leaves of Tomato Plant experiencing Blight

Tomato Blight leaf remains exhibit wilted yellow/grayish leaves

When the disease finally began to spread to my sweet potatoes I knew that this was truly a bacterial blight and that the only plants I had a chance of saving were my sweet potatoes and Sunchokes. 

Blight effecting Sweet Potato Leaves

Once I was certain I had ascertained the problem I spent the entire next week measuring my progress not by how fast my garden plants grew, but by how fast I could tear my garden out.

After pulling Blighted Leaves

Ripening Tomatoes Under Shade cloth before pulling out the stems.

Amici Dell'ortodue

Amicidellortodue is a wonderful Italian blog staffed by a group of friends who love to garden and cultivate heirloom vegetable varieties. In Italian, Amici dell'orto  literally translates to “friends of the garden”. Gardening blogs that consist of multiple members are most likely the future of sustainable gardening blogs. Blogs with multiple authors incorporate both many perspectives and consistent posts to enable the blog to remain both legitimate and interesting.

Amicidellortodue's title page does a good job showing the variety of vegetables and fruits their bloggers grow.

The blog was started by Paulo Basso, an Italian gardener with a vision for the blog. Besides sharing information with other gardeners, the members work to provide access to old Italian seed varieties. 

They even enjoy purple colored tubers in Italy.

Although the climate of Southern Italy may differ somewhat from Tucson, the majority of the vegetable varieties that I have seen posted about in the Amicidellortodue blog are very similar to those that do well here in Tucson. 

A beautiful snake gourd flower

The gardeners who staff Amicidellortodue are very kind and willing to answer questions about any variety of vegetables that they have grown. That being said, some of the members of the blog are very busy with their lives and pursuing their gardening niches. Before posting a response, make sure that your thoughts or questions are well organized.

A few of the many tomato varieties grown by the Amicidellortodue group

I would highly encourage all gardeners to learn as much as they can from the Gardening gurus at Amicidellortodue. Near the top of the page there is a drop-down menu for choosing your specific language. For all those who live in a warm dry climate or just want to learn more about growing vegetables, take a moment to visit the gardeners at Amicidellortodue!

Some Armenian type cucumbers and beans

Some Carosello Cucumbers grown by Paulo of Amicidellortodue

Mexican Bean Beetle Invasion

As Arizona’s monsoon weather patterns draw to a close between the end of August and the beginning of September, Tucson’s insect population reaches its peak. Every insect pest from every other gardener’s plot has had all summer to reproduce and delights in finding a new habitat to call home. Unfortunately, many local gardeners either don't know what to look for or do not tend to their garden often enough to notice the insects destroying their gardens - because there are always plenty of insect pests to deal with in the Tucson city limits. 
 


The Mexican Bean Beetle

Along with a variety of cucumber beetles (which come in all colors and patterns) this summer the monsoon winds have brought another unwelcome guest to my garden: the Mexican Bean Beetle. My experience with this pest has led me to believe that this beetle prefers sweet potato vines over beans, melons, or squash – but that it will go after any or all of these plants if given a chance.



Mexican Bean Beetle Nymph

 Although my sweet potato vines have more to fear from my beloved children tromping through them than from a little beetle, I have no intention of making this insect a reoccurring visitor to my garden.



Mexican Bean Beetle Larva

The beetles look similar to ladybird beetles, but are much larger, with an orange coloration. Their clumsy and slow habit leads me to believe that, like horse lubber grasshoppers, that they may be poisonous. I kill or remove as many as I can, as I find them, though they do tend to live beneath the leaves – which makes them nearly impossible to find among the sweet potato vines.



Mexican Bean Beetles should be renamed Sweet Potato Beetles!

So – if you happen to see one of these beetles roaming around in your garden please don’t pass it off as a ladybug. Eliminating menacing insects not only helps you, but is an invaluable benefit for all the gardeners who live around you. I can only hope other gardeners in Tucson take note.

Royal Burgundy Bush Beans

For years I have been growing beans that do well in Tucson’s hot, often dry, climate. As often happens in Tucson, it is easy to grow vegetables that taste poor while it is often difficult to grow good tasting vegetables – without some form of shade or special care.

Royal Burgundy Beans growing on a bush

Royal Burgundy Bush Bean Yield

Most of the beans I have grown in the past require additional preparation in cooking – usually blanching. Although the Royal Burgundy Bush Bean is nothing special it has passed all the tests I had it go through. This bean variety is heat resistant, it neither attracts lace bugs or succumbs to their destruction, and it tastes good. A few of the bean plants did burn a little in June, but most held on and produced a second crop of beans in July.

A few of the first Royal Burgundy Bush Beans I picked from my garden



Dry Royal Burgundy Bush Beans exhibit a mottled creamy tan color

Royal Burgany Bush Beans - Before cooking

As for cooking, it can be steamed, baked, sautéed, or boiled without any preparation beforehand. In short, the Royal Burgundy bush bean is a heat tolerant, bug resistant, regular bush bean. This bean will definitely be growing in my garden in the future. The source for my seed was a packet a friend gave to me from Botanical Interests.

Like many Purple Beans, Royal Burgundy do not retain their color when cooked.

Early Summer Harvest

Lately I have been gathering veggies out of my garden. Here are a few of my tomatoes, some Royal Burgundy bush beans and a Carosello Massafra cucumber. The whole family enjoyed these for lunch. Yum!

I love summer time in my garden!

Gardening in Layers

One of the reasons why I love to grow things here in Tucson in the summer time is to see my garden turn into a miniature jungle. On a small scale, I can use the intense light to my advantage by packing in as many vegetables as I can into as small as a space as possible. This is what I call “intensive planting”.



My understory here has squash and sweet potato vines.



Intensive planting can occur in an area where the intensity and duration of sunlight is so great that you can cover every square inch of ground with vegetables. In areas of the country where there is minimal light (or in partially shaded areas with a lot of moisture) gardeners may not be able to grow their plants so close together without experiencing negative side effects such as bacterial or fungus problems.

As I plan my garden based on where the sun will be and based on how much light my plants will receive throughout the day I am getting the most light out of the area that I have. As I decide where to plant vegetables, I think of my plants based on their eventual size, and imagine what my “miniature jungle” will look like later on in the summer.
 

One method of intense planting is to consider plant height



 The lowest canopy of my garden is often covered with sweet potatoes – which spread like ivy in all directions – only a few inches off the ground. The next tallest area is populated with peppers, tomatoes, squash and other plants that grow between 2 and 4 feet tall. The highest area of my garden is populated with cucumber or bean vines, some of which will grow as high as I can trellis.



Vigorous tall pole beans grow next to squash of medium height



By thinking about layers when planting, gardeners can avoid having to do much weeding, especially later in the season. Though this method may not be for everyone, it is definitely one approach that has served me well for me here in Arizona.





One of the few problems with a crowded garden is where to walk



When Life gives you Garbanzos, make Lemonade?

Though I try not to overuse proverbial phrases too much I couldn’t help it this time. But really – lemonade from garbanzo beans? My first inclination to try tasting a garbanzo bean leaf was brought on from a passage in my trusty Seed to Seed book. Under Cicer arietinum – Garbanzo (Chick Pea) it states “The leaves and stems of the plants are covered with ‘glabular’ (sticky) hairs. The hairs exude malic acid that is widely collected in India and used like vinegar or for medicine. In remote rural villages, Indian women wrap the plants in fabric each evening. The fabric is removed the following morning and the liquid exuded by the plants is wrung out and collected in containers”.



Chickpea leaves exude malic and some oxalic acid -yum!

After my garbanzo beans started flowering I noticed some fine hairs with liquid on them. I decided to be risky and try a taste. I brushed my fingers over them and took a taste off my finger. “That was good!” I thought to myself. It tastes just like lemonade. So now that I have revealed this to my children you can probably guess what they are doing these days. That’s right – brushing their fingers and licking what tastes like lemonade.

Growing Garbanzo beans (chickpeas) is a new experience for me

As is often the case, what is food to one is repulsive to another. The malic and some oxalic acid is actually a deterrent for insects. It acts as a natural insecticide that keeps most caterpillars and aphids from eating the plants. While both these acids occur naturally in vegetables that we eat, malic acid is generally considered good while oxalic acid is generally looked down upon because it can work to deprive the body of calcium and magnesium – though a few people believe that it may help fight cancer. That being said, spinach and rhubarb have plenty of oxalic acid and I haven’t met people condemning these vegetables as “unhealthy”. Crazy as it may seem, what is considered an insecticide in nature can turn out to be pretty tasty. Now the trick is to make sure my children wash their hands before touching the chickpeas.


Try it - Garbanzo bean leaf hairs taste like lemonade!

Wanted: A Few Good Seeds

One of the main problems I have recently experienced with gardening is success. Though the thought of success being a problem may sound ridicules to some of you, those of you in more hospitable climates might understand. When I experience success with one kind of vegetable I look out at the vegetable landscape and start wanting to try something new. I believe that this is directly related to the quote by Thomas Cooper, who stated that, “A garden is never so good as it will be next year”.

When there are vegetables that grow well enough, some are left to ask, why change things? For me, the ideal vegetable is something that fits the needs of the gardener and his family. The three things I look for in my vegetables are: adaptability, palatability and sustainability. Any other plant that grows in the garden can, in part, be considered a weed.

Brocolli requires an early start if direct-seeding is desired

 

Adaptability is high on my list of important components to growing vegetables. If a plant can neither survive the occasional freezing temperatures during the winter or thrive in the sweltering heat of the summer, then I do not even think of growing it. Though leafy greens can produce enough food to warrant their space in the garden during the winter, the short days can make it difficult to grow long-season crops by direct seeding, such as heads of cabbage or broccoli. On the other extreme, the terrible heat of the summer makes it very difficult for me to grow anything that requires babying. Excessively caring for plants creates a relationship with the plant and gardener where both parties suffer for minimal returns. This is because the plant struggles to thrive in a climate it wasn’t made for while the gardener struggles to keep the plant alive. My lack of desire to grow plants that require intensive care eliminates rhubarb, asparagus and many tomato varieties from my summer growing list. Another aspect of adaptation has to do with pests and disease. If a cucumber or tomato vine does not outgrow pests and disease that keep it from producing fruit then there is really no point in growing that cultivar.



Chinese long beans grow well, but can require blanching

 

Once I am able to grow a plant, the next important question I must answer is: will anyone in my family eat it? Cactus grows just dandy in Tucson, but unless I have javelina (or peccary) for children I’m not planning on serving cactus every night. Chinese long beans, okra, Malabar spinach and eggplant also grow well in Tucson’s heat, but the texture of most of these vegetables requires excessive time to prepare in order for any of these vegetable to wet my children’s appetite. Cooking time, along with taste and texture are some the factors that make it difficult for me to experiment too much with vegetables that would be more appreciated in the compost pile then on the dinner menu. The desire to select more palatable is the main reason why I have recently taken to growing a lot of sweet potatoes and cucumber-melons.

Once I can grow and eat a vegetable variety, the next thing I consider is my ability to sustain this vegetable – in the long run. By sustain I mean my ability to grow plants and seed that I can use for human consumption, year after year. Food production is one aspect of sustainability for me. I give a lot in garden compost and inputs and I expect a lot back. I do not consider plants in my garden that dither or tend to produce little as sustainable food crops. A second aspect of sustainable vegetable varieties include those that store well, or have seeds that store well. Lastly, open-pollinated seeds that grow true-to-type enable me to become more self-sufficient. Hybrid tomato plants may feed my family for a year, but if I plant the next generation of tomatoes - which exhibit none of the good traits of the parent plants – then I must buy more seed from seed companies to sustain my family.

I'm looking for a short-season long storage onion

 

With the goals of adaptability, palatability and sustainability in mind I am looking for some specific vegetable varieties. For a while I have been looking for a short season long-storage onion. I am currently trialing Red Creole, though I am sure that there are other onion varieties available just waiting to be discovered. I am also looking for a green manure grain for a summer crop over my winter garden. I have been contemplating growing milo sorghum for both gluten-free food and as a cover crop in my winter garden. However, I have heard it can be a real pain to thresh. Another vegetable I am looking for is a sweet mild radish. With how well I can grow radishes, it is too bad that my family doesn’t like the hot ones. It seems that every time I grow radishes there is no way to predict which will be mild and which will be hot. This fact leads me to wonder if spiciness is even a trait that can actually be bred out of radishes.



As you can see - we don't care much for spicy radishes!

 

The last thing that I am seeking for is a bush and vine variety of green bean (or Phaseolus vulgaris) that is resistant to lace bugs. Lace bugs have devastated my previous green bean plants, but have never touched my Chinese Long beans or Purple Hyacinth beans. The problem with the latter cultivars is that I get tired of blanching the beans in salt-water to make them palatable for my family. After a while of blanching I get tired of picking the beans and then I have another problem on my hands – having to process dry bean seeds!

I believe my desire to introduce vegetable varieties that are more suited to my needs is a good thing, as long as I choose to be satisfied with what I can grow now. Should you know of any good onion, radish, or bean that fits the description above, please let me know. In the interim, I’ll keep scouring my gardening catalogs and asking growers if they have seen any of the vegetable cultivars I’m looking for.

 

A few of my seed cataloges

 

Fertile Valley Seeds

Carol Deppe, the renowned author of The Resilient Gardener and Breeding Your Own Vegetable Varieties just released her 2013 catalogue from her small seed company (Fertile Valley Seeds). She runs the company once each year to sell off any excess seed she produces. So what does Carol have in her 2013 catalogue?

For squash she sells a supersweet Delicata, a Sweet Meat (C. maxima) squash and a Costata Romanesco summer drying squash. She also sells a very hardy multi-purpose flint corn variety called Cascade Ruby-Gold. The beans she sells include a Gaucho bush bean, a Black Coco bush bean, a Hannan popping garbanzo bean and a Beefy Resilient Grex bush bean. The Grex has a fascinating story of a cross that I never knew was possible. Carol also sells some Kale, a tasty romaine variety, a multi-purpose radish, an Indian Spinach, an edible Amaranth, and a Oregon Giant Sugar pea.


Carol Deppe developed the Hannan (Garbanzo) Popbean

For full access to Carol Deppe's catalogue you just need to email her a request for a copy of it. Her contact information is located on her website. She only sells her excess seeds once a year, so if you even think you might be interested make sure you email her. Last year I made the mistake of waiting a week to place my order and she ran out of seed before she could get to my order.