Saturday Gardening and Puttering Thread, November 13

Happy Fall Saturday! Today, we have sort of a travel theme going, maybe accidentally, but also some things to eat from the garden. Starting out with a dramatic capture of a bee homing in on a hollyhock. This photo was taken by Neal in Israel, in his garden.

Edible Gardening

From Nemo, last month:

Now that October's here, my beans are approaching harvest. These are in the raised bed in which I grow my spring greens; I planted them in July, after the greens had bolted. These are a mix of heirloom beans that are meant to make soup rather than eating as string beans - though I'm sure they'd be quite tasty if picked tender, then frenched and sauteed with olive oil and garlic. Also, they're supposed to be bush beans; but once they were established, they started climbing like crazy. Perhaps the intense sun of the site gave them other ideas!

I'm looking forward to simmering these beans with a hambone and some
fatback, to make a hearty soup for a winter supper.

Some beans made for soup are good as green beans (many have strings), others are not so great as green beans. The plants look good.

Also,

you asked what my bean pods look like before the beans are shelled out. See attached. While the beans are developing, the pods are nondescript green; they take on their harlequin colors when the beans ripen and are ready to be shelled out.

I'm afraid I don't know what the variety is; but if they taste as good as they look, I'll be quite happy to plant them again next year - and since they're an heirloom variety, they should bear properly.

Beautiful. Some that resemble those can be used like green beans when young. Some are famous as fresh "shellies" when mature but not dried, and some are prized for dried beans. The heritage of some of those flame-decorated beans involves an area near the southern tip of South America.

There is a Dutch variety that turns yellow called Dragon's Tongue that is popular both as a snap bean and as a shelly bean. Stringless when young. The stripes go away when you cook them.

Serving anything from the garden for Thanksgiving?

Speaking of plants and eating, this Swiss restaurant seems to think it important to to provide its customers with some lovely plants to look at while dining, outdoors:

And indoors:

Just in case your garden has wound up for the season and you need to "borrow" another one to look at.

Recipes

Growing up, we never had anything resembling green salad on Thanksgiving, but there are lots of fall salad ideas involving garden produce. There are lots of days before and after Thanksgiving coming up. Maybe you could share a favorite recipe. This one is striking: Loaded Fall Salad

Looking through recipes, I saw a lot of chop salads for fall.

As a follow-up to our discussion last week about preparing and eating prickly pear fruits, Garden & Gun Magazine has tips and a recipe for a Purple Prickly Pear Margarita.

First 2022 Seed Catalog

Got my Twilley seed catalog in. Anybody beat me with a 2022 catalog? It's a commercial catalog. Phone orders preferred. Haven't really looked through it yet. They have a Chinese Cabbage on the cover instead of the traditional kid with a watermelon. AAS Gold Medal winning zinnia on the back cover.

Spring Travel a possibility?

How about taking in a Alpine Garden Society Show?

Several Hepaticas from various past AGS Shows. Photo credits go to Jon Evans. The double Hepatica japonica 'Murasaki Shikibu', pink H. japonica pubescens and dark blue H. japonica

Maybe you could go to see some Hepatica n. japonica growing in its original homeland if you don't want to go to the UK:

The Utsukushi-ga-hara Open-Air Museum exhibits 350 contemporary sculptures on its premise that stretches over a vast highland known as the Utsukushi-ga-hara Plateau.

The plateau, which enjoys a reputation as the most beautiful highland in Japan, has various alpine flora growing at your feet and a 360-degree panoramic view of the surrounding mountain ranges.

There are species of Hepatica growing in American woodlands, too:

Hepatica is a genus in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) native to the Northern Hemisphere. This spring-blooming herbaceous perennial also goes by the common names liverleaf or liverwort. The common name comes from the supposed resemblance of the leaves to the human liver, both of which have three lobes. Because of this superficial likeness it was once thought to have medicinal properties for liver ailments. Although the leaves were once used for natural remedies and in patent medicines, they do not appear to have any chemical components with documented medicinal value and can be irritating to the skin or may be poisonous if ingested.

Hepatica grows about 12" high and is hardy in zones 8-4a. There are two species found in Wisconsin and eastern North America, distinguished by the shape of their leaves: sharp-lobed hepatica, H. acutiloba (sometime treated as H. nobilis var. acuta) and round-lobed hepatica, H. americana (sometime treated as H. nobilis var. obtusa). H. acutiloba is found in rich creek bottoms and in sandier soils, while H. americana generally occurs on more acidic soils at the tops of slopes in mesic woodlands. Occasionally both species occur in the same woods and may even hybridize.

The dark green, glossy foliage is smooth and leathery with dense hairs on the undersides of the leaves. The leaves are held on long petioles arising from the crown. Each broad leaf is about 2" wide, with the three lobes either pointed or rounded, depending on the species. The leaves are actually evergreen, turning a russet to purple color in the fall. They are ready to begin photosynthesis early in the spring before other woodland wildflowers are even up. After the new flush of leaves emerges in spring (normally after flowering), the old leaves from the previous year die back.

Or you could buy some plants yourself. The fancy Japanese hybrids or the woodland types.

They kinda look like what Illiniwek had growing on the farm this spring, but I think they're something else. What do you think?

several woodland areas have these carpeting the interior floors, not sure what they are.

Puttering

Last week, we learned about a plant to make a fence from pallets. Would it be a good idea for us to discuss things like how to keep fences from falling over, say, in a windstorm?

Critters

San Franpsycho sent in the following recently:

Snowy Egret at Chrissy Field this morning

Dramatic setting.

In town here (part of the Pacific Flyway), there are some Snowy Egrets that hang out at an apartment complex. I haven't figured out what the attraction is. Maybe bugs in the grass. At the middle school, they may go for gophers.

Not everything on Twitter is horrible

Have a good Veteran's Day Weekend.

One tip on Twitter: you curate the people around you.

People, and animals. Don't try this with a pack of wolves.

Hard times come again no more

A scene from years past, North Ogden, Utah fruit packing shed, with a special flag flying over the canyon for Veteran's Day.

If you would like to send information and/or photos for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:

ktinthegarden
at that g mail dot com place

Include the nic by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ,
unless you want to remain a lurker.

posted by K.T. at 01:11 PM

| Access Comments