Seed For Security Update: Jacob's Cattle Beans and French Horticulture Beans

Purple carrots comparing size to a dime coin.

If you read my previous post about how excited I got planting purple carrots, you'll also know that they failed miserably. I can't remember where, for sure, I got them but it was NOT inside the United States. Needless to say, out of two 3'x3' raised garden boxes, I've grown maybe six carrots. The tops were deceptively large, or so I thought (as a novice gardener) so I picked a few. They were miserably small and scrawny. Smaller in diameter than a pencil and less than half the length. That was over a month ago.

I picked two more just the other day. You can see by the picture that they are still pathetic. I only have two left growing and they're staying in the soil until they say FEED ME SEYMOUR! Maybe I'm just being too impatient. I want this stuff to be ready to eat in under four months. Is that SO unreasonable?

French Horticulture Beans with cat-proof bird net

Which brings me to what replaced the purple carrots: Jacob's Cattle Beans and French Horticulture Beans. The Cattle Beans were a vivid spotted color almost like little cows. One 3'x3' raised bed garden was filled with Cattle Beans and the other bed filled with the French Beans. Considering they were planted in early May, I think they are growing REALLY well.

The Cattle Beans box is situated right next to a metal shed and I was warned by some seasoned gardeners in the neighborhood that the radiant heat coming off of the shed would burn two or more rows of seed closest to the shed. They recommended I grow some Armenian cucumbers on a trellis to absorb some of the heat. I didn't heed the warning quick enough and am losing some of the crop. I placed a blue tarp on the plant side of the shed today until I can build a trellis and find some Armenians.

Jacob's Cattle Beans (crop thinned by radiant heat
from nearby metal shed.)

I'm not sure when to harvest these yet so I'll have to do some research. SFS website has a lot of good information and tons of pictures. The bird netting has proved worthy as I haven't seen a hint of cat scratching or poop since I installed them. The kids actually stopped using it as a sandbox too. HOORAY!

When all is said and done, I'm happy with the results in our garden so far. This is an experiment to us and only our second season to grow food.  We see the coming hyperinflation and have begun our journey towards a greater self sufficiency. The more of our own food we can grow, the better off we'll be as the global turmoil continues. Now if only my HOA would allow a milk producing animal...

Beans Replace Carrots in Our Raised Box Gardens

Jacob's Cattle Beans from SeedsforSecurity.com

After planting some new seeds on Saturday, wifey and I decided to re-plant some things in our raised box gardens. Each box is 3'x3' accomodating a good 5-6 rows of seed. Two of our boxes were filled with carrots and for reasons uncertain, we have ONE sprout in each box. Our seeds sat just under the soil surface for over a month before I covered them with bird net. I suspect either faulty seeds, scavengers (birds,cats), toddlers (who thought the gardens were sandboxes) or improper watering techniques...or all the above.

Regardless, after checking our growing chart, we planted bean seeds in both boxes and were careful not to distrurb our lonely little carrot sprouts. I didn't see any budding carrot seeds while planting the beans. One raised box got French Horticulture Beans and the other box got Jacob's Cattle Beans. 90% of our seeds come from Seeds for Security. We've learned that seeds bought on sale at dollar stores don't do as well as our Seeds for Security heirlooms. Like the carrots for example. I wanted to try purple carrots and the only place I found seed was online. Turns out they came from Sweden?

I managed to make it to Home Depot to buy trim, finishing nails, and some epoxy/putty to fill in the cracks on my wall niche project. I ran out of time before I could actually use the items though. So I tucked the supplies away, in the garage, out of reach from the little ones. I'm looking forward to finishing the project and seeing how much stuff the shelving will hold.

I was graced with a visit by a carpenter in our ward. He was adding a walk-in pantry to a home across the street and needed to borrow my razor knife. I coaxed him in far enough to see my handy work. It was painful to see him stammer for words to describe my first carpentry project but I was still proud just the same. He admitted that most of my inaccuracies could be covered with trim and I was happy to hear it.  The way I see it, with six daughters, I would rather learn how to do this stuff now on my house than to booger up my girls' houses when they need help. I have to admit, coming from the medical field, this building stuff is kinda fun too.

Mystery plant in the potato garden.

I found something growing in the potato garden although I'm not too sure it's a potato. It is growing right up next to the sprinkler head and looks to be the only thing growing among the store bought potatoes that I cut up and planted.

Now I just have to figure out when its time to harvest everything.

Mixed Results Among Our Garden

A quick update on the garden. The corn (pictured) is coming along VERY nicely. This is from a non-hybrid seed purchased from Seed For Security as advertised on InfoWars.com.

The carrots have sprouted ONE stem in each 3x3 foot raised-bed garden box. Bummer! The potatoes haven't grown at all. I dug up one purple and one regular potato and they looked exactly like they did when I planted them two months ago. (Update: potatoes are growing like crazy now in June!)

The strawberries are withering away and turning brown. I was warned they don't do well in our Arizona sun outdoors. The kids picked/ate the first few tiny strawberries and I haven't seen any since. (Update: 4 out of 5 crowns survived, one had a "run" and created a "sister" crown so we still have five growing. Not producing much but still green in June!)

The cucumbers and squash have sprouted 3-4 stems. We planted two rows of cucumbers and one row of squash so not TOO bad...I guess. (Update: these are growing well, especially the squash in June)

The lettuce is doing amazingly well again.