The Negected Garden

Due to recent events beyond my control I have been having a difficult time caring for my garden. It seems to have done alright without me despite how much I miss working in it.



My neglected Monsoon Garden


A few of the things that have kept me away from my garden which include a neighbor on drugs smashing up my car, dealing with insurance – which paid me much less than the car was worth, finding a car, buying a car, having to return the car, buying another car, doing emissions and registration, doing some repairs on that car, accidently locking myself out of that car, going to the Toyota dealership for new keys, having to appear in court multiple times for the neighbor incident, having to deal with a prosecutor, breaking my big toe while exercising, going to the hospital because the pain would not decrease, organizing a church activity, taking care of children with pink eye and strep throat, disinfecting our house and having to go to the doctor for a rapid strep throat test and an antibiotic eye drop prescription. All of this happened while starting off a new school year for my children and for myself as a teacher.


Alas - the weeds outside my garden (in the foreground) are growing!



 I love to garden and I love to share my garden with others, though you will have to forgive me for my infrequent posts while I recuperate from the last month of my life.



Despite neglect, my garden is growing - howbeit a bit unruly



Purple Hyacinth Bean

My initial encounter with the Purple Hyacinth Bean (Lablab purpureus) came while doing some research into heat tolerant beans online. Supposedly, Thomas Jefferson happened to have this plant as a flower within his garden. I later read more about this bean variety in the  book Perennial Vegetables and decided it was worth a try.

One of my Purple Hyacinth Bean plants after about 3-4 weeks

My experience with growing the Purple Hyacinth Bean is that it can be a little difficult to start. Going through the effort of chitting the seed (pre-sprouting it before planting it in the soil) is well worth the effort and results in an improved plant emergence rate than putting dry seeds in the soil. When planted in the spring (highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s) the plant grows slowly.



The Purple Hyacinth Bean Blossom is pink or purple

Another thing I have noticed about these beans is that they are extremely heat resistant (with local temperatures exceeding 107 degrees Fahrenheit). The Hyacinth Bean requires an average amount of water and doesn’t experience much pest problem though insects will occasionally chew a little on the leaves. I have my beans trellised over a metal shed – something I would never do with cucumbers or Chinese long beans. This occasionally causes the plant to get a little burnt but generally the plant just keeps growing. I did experience a little bit of bean mosaic earlier in the season but that quickly disappeared after I removed the infected leaves and pulled out my Tepary Beans.


From the top of my metal shed temperatures exceed 107 F

The pink flowers of the Purple Hyacinth Bean have not attracted near as many insects as I initially thought they would, though bees and butterflies occasionally visit.

Purple Hyacinth Bean Pods developing on the vine



The Purple Hyacinth Bean plant can produce quite a lot of beans



One of the reasons why I enjoy growing these beans is because of the color. The beans beautifully contrast the leaves of the plant, as well as the rest of the garden.



A week's worth of hyacinth beans



Purple Hyacinth Bean Pods are almost ready to cook.

 
How a vegetable tastes is one very important question that many books and websites often leave unanswered. Some, including my family members, who are used to the taste of English-type blue lake bush beans would probably not go for Chinese long beans unless cooked a specific way. So, how do Purple Hyacinth Beans taste? I tried them both raw and cooked to find out. I have read in multiple places that the skins of the mature seeds are poisonous so I decided not to even try cooking them. Eaten raw, the young beans are okay. They taste a little like eating some kind of thick leaf. Although the pods unfortunately lose their purple color when they are stir fried the change of color is more than compensated by a dramatic improvement in taste. The closest thing I could relate the taste of the cooked bean pods is to edamame or soybean pods. My children do not hesitate to tell me if they don’t like the taste of our home-grown produce and they asked for seconds of these beans.


Although the beans change color they taste really good!



In summary, other than the dry seeds being poisonous, I would highly recommend Purple Hyacinth Beans to anyone with room to trellis a vine with beautiful flowers and pods. The vine is low–maintenance, takes the heat well and the bean pods taste great when cooked. There are apparently many other hyacinth bean cultivars that I hope to be able to grow in the future.

 

A few seeds ready to plant straight from a dried pod.




Here Come the Bugs!

With the monsoon storm patterns that come into Arizona come the bugs from Mexico and the surrounding area. Some of them are common while others are not so common.

For the introduction, the Iris oratoria mantis

A Click beetle mimicing a bee

A small tortise shell beetle

An "Ankle-biter" mosquito - these are small yet really fast!

Assassin bug nymph looking for bugs to eat



Assassin bug adult awaiting some fast food



I found this Mexican Bean Beetle just recently - I've never seen these before.

A Mexican Bean Beetle found living in Tucson, Arizona

Each insect that comes into my garden is interesting to me, and more so to my kids. When I was a child I love playing with bugs every opportunity that I got.

Wild Bee on my Mexican Sunflower

A Camouflaged Grasshopper on the dirt and rocks 

I work hard to persuade my kids not to bother any beneficial insect but I am willing to let my children play with bugs that would prefer to chew up my little plants.

A Japanese Fruit or June beetle grub from my garden soil

A Japanese Fruit or June Beetle

A Rhinoceros Beetle

A Yellow Crab Spider awaiting another bite to eat

A female Iris oratoria nymph. Mantises prefer to hang around my flowers

Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia fotundiflora)

Last winter I planted some seed of Mexican Sunflower in my garden near some Jerusalem Artichoke and some Yacon to see if it might do anything. All three of these plants are tall and flowering. I utilize them on the west side of my garden in order to provide afternoon shade for plants such as tomatoes and peppers (both of which have already surrendered to disease). When the Mexican Sunflower first came up I thought it was Yacon because the leaves looked very similar.

The Mexican Sunflower plant does very well in my climate and grows quickly – the plant enjoys the heat much more than the Yacon does. However, this year it has really taken a beating from the spider mites.



The Mexican Sunflower plant can grow quite tall



Spider mites are a plant-eating mite that can attack many plants in the garden. With their webbing and small size, spider mites are often difficult to completely get rid of. I also have some beneficial insects that live in the same area, so I am wary to do too much to try to kill everything off.



Spider Mites can cause problems on the Mexican Sunflower



This is the first non-vegetable plant that I have grown in the last few years. It is nice to pick some Mexican Sunflower and Jerusalem Artichoke flowers for my wife. She enjoys the colors in our kitchen.



Though Flowers do not feed the body, they definitely liven one's spirits



Processing Carrot Seed

Some gardeners prefer to buy seed from the store year after year. I prefer to save myself money by harvesting  as much seed as I can, including carrot seed. Once the stalks of carrot plants are dry and the seeds are brown, I then come around the stalks to harvest them.

Harvested Carrots in a Pot

Because carrots are outbreeding plants, it is recommended to have at least 12-20 plants to keep the seed strong. As I harvest the seed for a particular trait, such as color or root thickness, I keep the seeds of plants with desirable traits from the seeds of undesirable plants. In this way, I seek to slowly shape my carrot variety into something that I want them to be.

Carrot seeds in a dry, well-ventilated place

After harvesting the seed I keep it in a well-ventilated dry place to keep the seed stalks from molding. It only requires a few days of wet seeds to have them mold.

Some Carrot Processing Material.

When stalks are dry, use a comb or other method to remove the seeds.

Combing Seed out of the stalk works pretty well

Carrot seeds are very hairy. The first time I harvested carrot seeds I didn’t worry about the small hair. However, when planting the seed, the hair can make the seeds difficult to handle. They tend to cling to each other which tends to waste seed.

Hairy seeds tend to stick together

To remove the hair, rub the seeds through screen that is slightly larger than the seed. This will separate the hair from the seed. Both will end up falling into whatever container you have below the screen.

Seperating the hairs from the seed via rubbing through a screen

To separate the seeds from the hairy mess, take a handful of seed and hair mixture to winnow away the small hairs and the other small material by using a fan or blowing away the hair with your mouth (as pictured).

My lovely picture demonstrates my method for winnowing seed

What is left after winnowing is the usable seed and a few other small branches you can pick out, if you desire. Home-harvested seed may not be as clean as from a seed catalogue but the quality of the seed can be much greater when harvested when the seed is completely grown.

Finished Carrot Seed