A Growing Concern
Maybe you never knew it went away. Fortunately, Amy Goldman tells the story nicely in The Compleat Squash, or I would have been totally mystified by a crookneck's unexpected return to my garden. As squash seed savers know, there are basically three species of common table squash made up of hundreds of varieties. Since different [...]
I've been gardening in Oregon for a few years now, and I'm coming to appreciate evermore the humble fava bean. The first time I encountered it was in a cover crop seed mix that I got at the local garden store. I started using "field favas" and crimson clover as standard fare to plant in [...]
After a week of heavy rain, the garden was about as soggy as it gets--just right for extracting tenacious parsnip roots from the earth. So between showers I put on my muck boots and tackled the row. Last year's foliage has all died back now. Little fresh green shoots are just thinking about sprouting from [...]
The mysterious black beans continued to play on my mind last week. Two things still needed more clarification. First was the question of origin of my purported Gramma Walters variety, and the second was how bean seed colors work when you do a cross. I talked with Andrew Still a bit more last weekend, and he is [...]
This story starts a few years ago when I picked up a few pretty bean seeds at a seed swap. They were colorful oval beans with maroon and white splotches and were labeled as pole "pea beans." Three years ago I planted the seeds and discovered a bean with a very vigorous habit, happily bounding the poles and [...]
Squash Practice 