blue jay bush bean

Thanks to a question from a customer a little while back, I have been trying to track down as much information as possible about the Blue Jay bush bean. This is a variety that I started growing in 2011, after scoring some at a seed exchange; the person who swapped them had done a trial run with them the previous growing season, so as far as I know they were the one to introduce this variety to my neck of the woods {from a preservation project just south of us}.

Besides some whispered rumours, I knew very little about the history of this lovely bean. So after some digging, I came up with a wee bit more, which I will share here. There are many other heirlooms that I adore, and it is my hope to spotlight more of them in the near future. Perhaps this will be a new "regular" feature on this blog.

The Story

The Blue Jay bush bean has dark navy blue/sometimes almost black colouring with splashes of white or beige. The flowers are a lovely pink or purple which attract all sorts of pollinators. From what I understand it is Canadian in origin, and one of its parent plants is the Comtesse de Chambord.

This is still a very rare heirloom variety that almost vanished. Thanks to a preservation project with Seeds of Diversity and Everdale Organic Farm & Learning Centre, gardeners will hopefully be able to enjoy these pretties for generations to come!

To read more about the history and preservation of the Blue Jay Bush Bean, check out the write up over at A Bean Collector's Window.

Growing Conditions

Being a bush bean, there will be no need to trellis the plants and you could probably do well growing Blue Jays in large containers. Like with all bush beans, you need to grow them in full sun and in well-draining soil, preferably with a pH between 6.0 to 6.5. 

Blue Jays seem to tolerate crowding fairly well I have had excellent harvests in both a hot and dry growing season and a cold and wet one.

Some plants that are known to be good companion planting matches with bush beans are peas, radishes, roses, cucumbers, lettuce, carrots, marigolds, strawberries, cabbage, beets, celery, eggplant, corn, sunflowers; avoid growing with onions.

Planting

Plant the seeds directly in the ground after the danger of frost has passed, 1 inch deep and 3 inches apart.

 

Care

Personally I think that bush beans are one of the easiest plants to grow. While it is never good to neglect any plant, you are probably more apt to kill a bush bean off quicker by over watering than by missing a watering session or two. 

Should you decide to fertilize them {which to me is not necessary}, make sure that whatever you are using is not too high in nitrogen. Too much of that will mess with the pod setting. The only pest I have ever had any issues with when it comes to bush beans are earwigs {*grrr*}, but other ones to keep an eye out for are leafhoppers, aphids, and spider mites.

Harvesting

The really wonderful thing about Blue Jay bush beans is that you can either enjoy them green or dried. Given that they are very prolific, someone who grows them will have a great opportunity to try them both ways! For green beans it takes about 65 days to reach maturity and 90 days for dried beans.

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Sláinte!

Laurel

2012 garden report

I know that I haven't been posting as frequently about the garden as I have in previous years {well, to be fair I haven't been posting as much here at all}, but I decided to keep the traditional "annual garden report" going. So this is a post is an overview of the 2012 growing season.

This was probably the most challenging growing season I have ever had, not only because we had a to start a new garden from scratch {that had really crappy soil}, but it seems that there was all sorts of diseases and infestations going around. A whole bunch of local gardeners that I spoke to had an over abundance of ear wigs, which is what hit us hard. They went to town on a shitload of our seedlings and young perennials, which my poor monkshood and mayapple never recovered from. :*( However, after a long battle and weeks of "trapping", almost all of the other victims flourished.

Below you will see how our annual edible/useful plants did {to actually get this post published, I am not going to bother getting into the perennials}. As with other years past, I am the 1 to 5 rating system, 1 being absolute shit, 5 being fan-fucking-tastic.

Arugula

5. Our New Sun arugula from Soggy Creek Seed Co. just might be bomb proof!

Beans {Bush & Pole}

4. Our Purple Peacock and Scarlet Runner pole beans did very well, as did our Orca, Contender, and Blue Jay bush beans; our Tanya's Pink Podded bush beans were rather stunted thanks to the dastardly earwigs.

Beets

4. For the most part we grew our beets in containers and enjoyed them for their greens, and after thinning them getting nice big roots. The ones in the ground didn't do so well...{yes, thanks to the earwigs}.

Carrots 

3. These guys were also mostly reserved for containers to avoid certain somebodies nomming them to shit. For the most part our carrots were piddly little guys.

Chard

5. We had a steady diet of chard all season long.

Corn

2. Just like other seasons past, my luck with corn is just not there. It is too bad, because I was really excited about the two heritage varieties that I got at last year's seed exchange, Pickaniny and Painted Mountain.

Cucumbers

3. Our Straight Eights had a set back thanks to you-know-who, so we didn't get to experience the prolific harvests that they are known for.

Kale

 5. We stuck to Red Russian and Dinosaur kale, which never let us down!

Lettuces

 4. We grew at least a dozen different types, and save for some bolting, all did very well.

Melons

1. These poor gaffers didn't stand a chance against the earwigs. They never made it past their first true leaves.

Mustard

 4. Some minor issues with loppers, otherwise our mustard did awesome.

Nasturtiums

 5. Both the vining and bush varieties grew like weeds.

Onions

 5. Old reliables.

Parsnips 

4. Had to start them a couple of times, but had a pretty good harvest.

Peas

5. We had a plethora of peas from Spring to Fall.

Peppers 

3. Another crop that had to be started over, thanks to the earwigs. Due to this we only got a small harvest.

Potatoes

 5. It probably would be fair to say that we had a bumper crop, especially with our Russets.

Pumpkins 

5. Our Small Sugars never let us down! For 2012 we grew them on trellises and that made a big difference with the powdery mildew, which we had some issues with previous years.

Radishes

4. Besides some bolting, they did well.

Spinach

5. Parfait!

Sunflowers

 3. I was so heart broken by the damage done by the earwigs. Once I saw that my sunflowers were being mowed down, it was war. I had to re-start them a few times, so they weren't as plentiful as they should have been.

Tobacco

3. Pretty much the same story as the sunflowers.

Tomatoes

5. We tried a few new varieties this year, but I think the Black Krim and Orange Blossoms did the best. 

Turnips

4. We mainly grew our turnips in containers and got lots of greens. The roots were a wee bit smaller than other years.

Winter Squash

 5. We grew a few varieties, mainly on trellises. I am in LOVE with Potimarron!

Zucchini

5. We tried a new variety called Summer Ball, which can be eaten as a Winter or Summer squash. Love them! Our Strange Zucchini from Outer Space did well too.

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Well, that pretty much is it. Now time to plan for 2013. ;)

Sláinte!

Laurel

a new slate

The Old Year has gone. Let the dead past bury its own dead. The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time. All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months!

~Edward Payson Powell

I hope that all of our readers had a wonderful holiday season and that 2013 has been great so far! Yuletide over here was nice and low key, with plenty of food and spending time with loved ones. The year ended on a sad note though.

On New Year's Eve it was time to say "goodbye" to a beloved family pet who was very elderly and could no longer enjoy a reasonable quality of life. She was a sweet kitty who stuck around for about 18 or 19 years.

I would say that the holidays for the last few years have been met with some somberness in my family since my Grandparents passed away. This is why I like the new tradition of holding a feast for my Ancestors this time of year {inspired by Ms. Graveyard Dirt}.

For New Years I decided to add some Hogmanay traditions into the festivities, and I even saw some mummers oot and aboot! The rest of the night was spent reflecting on what I would like to see come to fruition in 2013.

I suppose it would be obvious that a part of this was daydreaming about this year's garden {on that...I do have a very tardy review of the 2012 garden to still share!}, which will likely be simpler than other years past. I will be taking a full time course over the entire gardening season, so it will have to largely fend for itself.

Well, I have garden porn {read: seed catalogues} to drool over, so I will leave it there for now. Many blessing to you all for the New Year! :)

Sláinte!

Laurel

lessons from the garden {unwelcome guests edition}

original image by travellinggirl2010

Just like every other gardening season that has gone by, I have learned a few more lessons from/in the garden, and this year's theme has been unwelcome guests. Some of these lessons are from my own experiences and others are from friends. I thought that I would share them with you dear readers, so you may avoid future these pains. ;)

1. If you have a wild & witchy garden, it is probably a good idea not to have church ladies who happen to be formal garden aficionados over to visit during the growing season. They will try to exorcise you of the Devil, and exorcise your garden of weeds {read: anything that is not a peony, orchid or rose is fair game!} while you're inside getting drinks for everyone. 
2. Don't invite over self-professed design snobs if your patio furniture textiles happen to not match your tomatoes {luckily this lesson was taught in a friend's garden; if the design snob had come over to my place, they probably would have fainted at the sight of our "patio furniture", which is just camping chairs!}.
3. Light sensors and wielding gardening shears are good deterrents when dealing with drunken assholes who like to "water" your front garden after an evening at the local bar.
4. "Piss-off" plants are a great way to keep neighbourhood kitties from using your garden as a litter box {recommended by a friend}.
5. Earwigs are truly evil incarnate. This year they did a number on some of my young perennial plants and a whole bunch of my annuals. While I was a bit late, I found strategically placed traps {shallow containers with some water and a wee bit of olive oil} kept them under control.
6. Fences are sometimes not enough to keep thieves and peeping toms out of your backyard. Having lots of thorny bushes and nettles where they are likely to hop over the fence will make them think twice next time. 
7. And finally some advice from a friend {for fellow witchy folk}: having signage politely informing people that a witch resides at your place and that if people fuck with your garden, they may very well be blasted into next week. Apparently this has effectively kept the idiots who used to vandalize her garden on their best behaviour.

Have any tips or "unwelcome garden guests" stories? Feel free to share them in the comment section.

Sláinte!

Laurel

my poor confused tom...

...part bicycling carrot or mandrake?

harvests, chutneys & updates

Howdy folks! I hope that you all have been enjoying September so far!

Things have been extra busy 'round here, which is why I have been especially lax in posting. This is just a wee post about some of the goings-on in my garden, kitchen, and the witchy part of my life.

For the most part things in the garden have been going well, there has been lots of mini harvests and a few large ones.

{purple pole beans}

{black krim, orange blossom, red pear cherry, tigerella and marzano roma tomatoes}

{summer ball & acorn squash, along with some small sugar pumpkins. one of the pumpkin vines got damaged so I had to pick some early}

I have also been doing some herb harvests from the garden and some wildcrafting.

{stinging nettle}

{raspberry leaves}

Most of my kitchen adventures have been dedicated to preserving including trying to find ways to use some nasturtiums and green tomatoes. I made nasturtium honey along with three different types of green tomato chutneys that ended up going to to baggies to stored in the freezer:

{peach & nasturtium green tomato chutney, with some olive oil and nasturtium honey thrown in there for good measure}

{pear & wild ginger chutney with green pear cherry tomatoes, and some chives and olive oil}

{apple & mint green tomato chutney, with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar}

{nasturtium honey}

For more green tomato recipes you can check this post and this post.

The witchy news is that I have opened up a shop on Etsy for Unfettered Wood:

I will only be posting information about the shop if something "big" is going on like giveaways. If are interested in keeping up with it, you can always head on over to the Unfettered Wood blog, Tumblr or Facebook page. I will also link to the odd informational post over there; I think for the most part I will be posting things about my spiritual and magical practices over there along with writing about folklore. This blog will remain one for general gardening & homesteading, politics, opinions and rants.

Sláinte!

Laurel

already august...

{bull thistle}

...and almost halfway done! I have been quite busy both in and out of the garden the last few weeks: celebrating Lughnasadh, collecting seeds, harvesting and preparing herbs, and have been spending much of my time on Unfettered Wood stuff.

The garden has also been quite busy and thankfully productive as well, although a few of the crops are lagging behind where they should be. I am to blame for some of that, especially in regards to the potatoes which I planted later than they should be. Mostly the main culprits are the earwigs, which kept on mowing over my poor little seedlings. Since I set out the traps though, they have been mainly under control.

Soon I will be planting our fall crops of greens, peas, radishes, carrots, and turnips. I have also been planning the rearranging of the perennials that I will be doing once they have finished doing their thing and there is room after the annuals have been cleared out.

Here are some photos that I have taken over the last little while since my last garden update post.

{potato bed}

{nasturtiums, squash, zucchini, pumpkins, bush beans}

{tomatoes, pole beans, squash, cucumbers}

{cucumbers, tomatoes, pole beans, bush beans, and nasturtiums}

{pumpkin getting friendly with the lilac tree}

{comfrey, squash, scarlet runners, sweetgrass, perriwinkle, and poppies}

{tigerella tomatoes}

{small sugar pumpkin}

{acorn squash}

{squash flowers}

{potato flowers}

{lavatera}

{scarlet runners}

{balloon flower}

{bergamot}

{swamp rose mallow}

{poppy pod}

{joe pye weed}

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Til next time, folks.

Sláinte!

Laurel

amazing new local community garden

{capture from article}

The Gathering Place, a North Bay soup kitchen has started a community garden {!!!}:

Using a soup kitchen for the first time doesn't mean giving up garden salads.

"They're my favourite," says Bernadette Bellaire.

"We're getting more variety of food, and I enjoy it."

"The soup kitchen has healthy food for families when they don't have food at home," said Joady Langlois.

The Gathering Place opened its garden on Saturday as the province announced $58,200 over two years so the soup kitchen can continue putting fresh vegetables on the menu.

One-third of the garden is completed, with several varieties of peppers, buttercrunch lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and cucumbers among the first batch of vegetables growing on a parcel of land at Algonquin Avenue and McLaren Street.

You can read the rest of the North Bay Nugget article here. You can also see more about the garden and view a plan over at The Gathering Place's website.

This is so great! I intend to go over and check it out, and perhaps I will snap some photos to share with you all here. :)

Sláinte!

Laurel

a refreshing summer salad

With the kind of heat that we have been getting, I really want nothing to do with stodgy foods nor cooking. But I sure as hell will nom fresh fruit and veggies all day. Here is something that I threw together for lunch/dinner {best part, it's all local or right from our backyard}:

bed of nasturtium leaves
cantaloupe
blueberries
green tomatoes
cucumber
drizzled honey
topped with nasturtium flowers

Please feel free to share your salad ideas! :)

Sláinte!

Laurel

dinner from the garden

After an afternoon of intensive weeding {yes, I actually do weed sometimes!} we had some squash blossom soup and salad for dinner. Because it has been such a challenging gardening year so far, I think that every meal that we get from our wee patch of dirt is extra special.

I hope that all of my fellow growers are enjoying a bounty in their gardens as well!

Sláinte!

Laurel

poppy love