After the first fall frost, the butter beans were finished. The leaves were very frost burned and almost all of the buds that were growing were now dead. I decided to go ahead and pull each and every butter bean plant and harvest all the pods that appeared to have any formed beans inside them. I ended up with five and a half pounds of butter beans for their last harvest.
The tops of the rows of snap beans were hit hard by the frost. However, they appeared to offer some protection to the foliage below them as those leaves and buds were not damaged. There are many snap beans that are between three to five inches in length that I allowed to remain on the vines. I went through and picked the beans that were of sufficient size for harvesting, and got a total of two pounds, six ounces. If there are no more frosts for the next ten days, I should be able to get a final picking from the snap beans.
The constant strong southwest wind we had for a couple of days snapped off two broccoli plants at their base. I picked the available broccoli sprouts from them and they only weighed two ounces. The rest of the broccoli plants are looking pretty good.
The butternut squash vines were killed by the frost. I was only able to harvest five fruits that weighed a total of a little over three pounds. I have them set aside in a dark place so they will hopefully turn to the tan color that they are supposed to be when mature.
This is a picture of my compost area. I am proud of the design of this area. I started out on open ground, then went to an area enclosed with some cinder blocks, then went to the three bin style, then I created this style of compost area, and I think it is the best and most functional design that I have ever seen. I will do a posting during the winter showing the many stages of evolution to this design. At that time, I will explain the reason for abandoning each of those popular styles of compost bins. Normally, the bin on the left is used for cooling off the hot compost that is produced in the bin on the right side of the picture. However, a few days ago an opportunity came along. Two houses down the street, the homeowner was paying a man to rake and bag the leaves. I went and told the man that I would take the leaves for my garden, and he said that was fine. Since the cooling off bin had been emptied previously, I dumped 34 bags of leaves into the left area, wetting them down as I deposited them. Now, that bin is packed tight with maple leaves, and I'll have to wait until they settle more before I can add any more leaves to that bin.
I was fortunate enough to pick up already bagged leaves that had been removed from the lawn of a nearby church, as I have done for the previous two years. This is the accumulation of bags of leaves from this year that I will be using in my garden this fall and winter. I now have all the leaves that I need for this year.
This portion of my post isn't so much harvesting as it is foraging. During one of our trips to the grocery store, I drove by this huge pumpkin that was put out for collection the next day. The first thing I thought of was the seeds! I wanted those seeds for planting and sharing next year! I went over there the following morning and picked it up and worked it into the back of my truck. It was so heavy that I could hardly manage to get it into my truck! I took these pictures to document the size of it for future use.
From this angle, you can see that the monster pumpkin was larger in diameter than the depth of the bed of my truck!
This standard size pen is dwarfed by the cavernous interior of this pumpkin. Imagine your hand holding that pen, and you can better realize the size of the pumpkin.
Even at first sight, the seeds seemed much larger than the common size of pumpkin seeds.
Here are those pumpkin seeds with a penny for size comparison.
This is a size comparison between the shelled edible portion of the seed and a penny.
That concludes my posting for this week. I hope you found it interesting, and thank you for visiting my blog once more.
One more picture before I go. My son just came in the door and asked if I had looked outside tonight...
...the Virginia weather is always full of surprises!
Have a great vegetable gardening day!
Veggie PAK
This is one big pumpkin! Are you using the flesh too? And well done with all those beans. Ours have long gone.
ReplyDeleteHeiko, No, I didn't use the flesh on this one. Since it was out by the road, I didn't know what might have gotten into the flesh while it was getting there, and I didn't want to take a chance. My 6 year old grandson wants me to grow pumpkins in my garden, so this should be a good type to grow!
ReplyDeleteThe beans did do very well and I'm thankful for that. Now I need to take all the data that I've accumulated this year and start planning next year's garden. I already know that I have to shift the planting of the first crop to an earlier date, in order to get more from the second crop. We'll see how it works.
I read about successive plantings of beans, but I haven't tried that yet. Next year, I'm going to resow every two weeks as is recommended and see what the yield will be. It may be one continuous crop without a restarting period in between the harvesting as it is now. That would be great!
Thanks for visiting and keep up the great job you're doing!
Veggie PAK
Oh Wow, I am so impressed with your bean harvest. It looks awesome. I also love your compost bin. I'll have to show my husband. It's really cool. My neighbor would probably freak out if we had something like that in our yard. Hahahaha. And your bags you collected, she would be freaking out. I think it's awesome, I can't wait to read about your composting process. If only you lived closer to us. We bagged over 40 bags of leaves on our property alone! We have so many trees! That large pumpkin is giant! Very cool! How large do you think that vine will grow for a pumpkin like that?
ReplyDeleteVery nice harvest...once again!! I'm sure that the squash will ripen inside. I had SVB's in my Spaghetti squash and brought two in green. They ripen up quite well.
ReplyDeleteThat big pumpkin reminds me of Charlie Brown!!
You got alot of final harvests from the warm weather crops of butter beans and green beans. I usually see the last of the beans several weeks before the first freeze - the cold wet rains and shortening day length usually does them in long before we see a hard freeze.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful beans! I harvested mine long time ago. Now I take them out of the freezer when I need them. But there is a difference in taste between frozen ones and fresh ones.
ReplyDeleteThat is certainly an impressive bean harvest. Well done!
ReplyDeleteThe homemade compost bin is very impressive as well! It should prove to be useuful next year.
Beans in December, that is a nice sight!
ReplyDeletemeemsnyc, kitsapFG, vrtlarica, Fred, & Dan, I ended up with 15 pounds of butter beans and 35.6 pounds of snap (green) beans for this year's total.
ReplyDeletemeemsnyc, stand your ground on your use of your property. There is nothing wrong with how you have your yard set up with the garden and compost area. It's your property. It's not like you're letting the grass grow three feet high or something. Try giving them a few tomatoes like I and others suggested. That is the strongest medicine to fix this situation. Who knows, maybe that would convince them to start a garden with your help and guidance! As far as the vines for the pumpkin, the dried stem looked like it was at least an inch in diameter, so a fresh stem would be larger. My vines on the 5 pound sugar pumpkins are ten feet long, so there's no telling how long those vines would be!
Robin, I'm going for ripening up the squash in the house. I think Charlie Brown could live in that pumpkin!
To All, the compost bin is really a good producer of fresh compost. I have made cured compost in 18 days, but you have to thoroughly turn it every three days, and you have to have a good blend of browns and greens to start with.
Thank each of you for visiting my blog. I am humbled by your kind comments about it.
Have a great vegetable gardening day!
Veggie PAK
Whoa~ that's a giant pumpkin, we gardeners have a thing with seeds. I recently ate a super sweet hami melon and I have to save the seeds for next year, I don't see anyone selling this melon except in some Middle East markets in the west coast. I just have to have the seeds!
ReplyDeleteYou're still harvesting bean! I'm envious, all I have are frozen beans in the freezer, they don't measure up to fresh beans at all, but better than storebought variety or nothing.
That pumpkin must have weighed a ton.
ReplyDeleteI actually think the open wire compost bins are pretty. That's the kind I have. Fortunately i live in a live and let live neighborhood.
Mac, yeah, a giant HEAVY pumpkin! As of yesterday the beans are finished. It was 29 degrees last night. Only the cold weather veggies are the survivors.
ReplyDeleteKaren Anne, I was barely able to lift it onto the back of the truck. I could feel it in the calves of my legs after getting it in there. I just couldn't resist getting those seeds. I wonder what type of pumpkin it is? I'll have to check that out. I really like how my bin is accessible for turning the compost. It makes it so much easier.
Thanks to both of you for visiting! It's an inspiration to me when someone thinks enough of your efforts to share a comment with you.
Veggie PAK
So many beans. I can only dream of beans right now. I do have some in the freezer, but haven't started using them yet. I'll get to them when my greens run out.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, Narry another bean will I get this year! All the vines are crispy out in the freezing weather! They did well, but it's always nice to get another picking! We're in a cold snap projected to last for a week in 30 degree temps FOR THE HIGHS! Unusual. Brrr!
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting.
Veggie PAK
What a fun post, I loved seeing that big pumpkin and those seeds really are huge. Anyway, I have a silly question for you. How do you eat those butterbeans, they are the same as lima beans right? Can you eat the whole thing or just the bean? We have never grown them before but always see them in the catalogues.
ReplyDeleteMr. H, Yes, they're the same, but some people call them baby limas because they're a smaller version. You have to shell them, and when you do, you see that the pods are kind of tough. They're good for you and taste very good if you like beans. Cook them in water with a little salt (to your taste) and a pat or two of butter or margarine. We usually cook ours for an hour or so. Good eatin'! I just had a thought! I could cook these in a crock pot and wouldn't have to worry about them burning or boiling over! That's how I'll cook my next batch.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Veggie PAK
Very nice harvest for December. And what a great score on the big pumpkin AND all of those leaves for your compost bin. Way to go!
ReplyDeleteLou Murray's Green World, Thanks! The pumpkin provided a lot of seeds, and the leaves will be either used for composting or leaf mold. I have enough for both.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting!
Veggie PAK
Nice harvest and what a great find that pumpkin was! You've got a great stash of leaves, i'm envious, most of the leaves available to me are slow to rot live oak.
ReplyDeletemichelle, Thanks! I was very happy to find that pumpkin. The leaves are mostly maples. I have a large oak in my front yard, and the leaves do seem to last for an inordinate amount of time. When I collect them now, I take the bag off the mower and mow the whole lawn with the leaves. Then I put the bag on the mower and harvest all of it for my compost pile. I think that really helps with the speed of composting those leaves. I also turn my compost pile frequently. I view that as my exercise area!
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog.
Have a great vegetable gardening day!
Veggie PAK