I have a patch of sob's that are 20 feet wide and 50 feet long. The new bed area I have digging in this spring is about 8' wide by about 100' long, so you can understand the magnitude of my spring project just for that one new bed. The bad thing is that I already have more than enough plants and shrubs to fill it once it is completed. They are here and there right now, but mostly taking up space in the veggie garden in rows. When my house was built 18 years ago that spot in the yard needed to be filled in with some dirt so my contractor, who lives about a mile away, used a front end loader and brought several scoops of dirt for that spot. Same thing happened here. When the house was built 20 years ago, the builder ran into slate when he was digging the basement. Because of that the house was built sitting up higher above the ground than it normally would have been. He then got 65 dump truck loads of sob infested soil out of the adjoining field to fix the yard and slope away from the house just right. It all ended up good as I have good drainage and all, just have the resulting sob. We got rain yesterday so that will cause any bulbs I have missed to maybe sprout some green so I can better find them in the loose soils I have all dug up so far. I 'know' there will be some that will be missed, but will do light digs for them in the springs to come. Last spring I dug them out from in front of the front porch and a small triangle on one side. I never planted it though as I wanted to wait and check for more this spring. Yes, there were a few that had been missed but surprisingly there weren't many at all. I now feel pretty confident that those new areas are sob free, so later I can and will amend the soil and plant some things in those areas. For having lived here for 20 years, this place is sure a diamond in the rough. It has only been in the last 5 years or so though that I have been what you might say 'obsessed' with acquiring and growing so many things. Here is the proposed new bed I have been working on. There are some shrubs in it already and since there is sob in the root areas of them they will need lifted and reset. You can see the field at the left and where I have dumped all my buckets of sob infested soil. At least I don't have to go far to dispose of it. The field is green with the sob foliage each spring. Here are some bulbs that are exposed at the edge of an existing bed...that I would like to expand if time permits. This is an iris I planted last year in another sob area I am working on this spring. I planted the iris on top of the soil, knowing there was a good chance there was sob in the soil. Several irises will need lifted and reset as they look like this one, or worse....sigh...but I had to go somewhere with them. End of rant. It looks like it is going to be a perfect s.o.b. digging day today. 63 with just a light breeze and the soil is good and moist. Sue

It sounds like I'm doing the right thing with this stuff! I think it's hay. jbest123 is absolutely right. We're "small" farm country around here. Lots of the equipment is what their grandfathers used back in the day. Our hills? lol Well, let's just say that I had relatives visit from Kansas and called to say that they weren't driving any further without an escort because they thought there car was going to fall off the mountains! We thought it was hilarious until we saw that they were genuinely terrified! lol I thought it was normal to have 2 barns on the farm and a few feeders, so the cows with the short legs on the right side would have a place to feed and the ones with the short legs on the left could use the other. :) They do occasionally walk backward but it's not pretty.

"(New) Wood's Mountain Crazy runner beans were productive..." Runner? The ones I grew were bush. This was a bad garden year for me. Because of heavy June rainfall, the rural garden (where I do most of my trials & preservation grow outs) didn't get planted until July... so all of the crops originally planned for there were not planted. My home plots dried out faster, so I got a few things planted there on time. Looking on the bright side, although I only used about 20% of my rural plot, I was able to cultivate it all summer to kill off most of the perennials, and the pest & disease pressure will be reduced next year. - "Canon City", a pole shelly similar to "Bird Egg #3", but slightly smaller & earlier. My seed was getting pretty old (2005) but germination was still over 70%; glad it did well this year. Long flat pods as snaps, turning to mostly scarlet when the shellies were fully ripe. Harvested over 2 pounds of dry seed & several quarts of shellies. - "Grandma Roberts Purple Pole", from a trade with Fusion in 2006... figured I better plant it before the seed died. Germination was over 50%. Good thing I finally got to try it, it is a great bean - thanks, Dar. :-) Straight, round purple pods with great flavor as snaps. I only ate a small sample, since it was a seed crop... but I didn't observe any strings in the young pods. These were also the last beans still producing; after I had picked the dry pods, the plants re-sprouted, and were just beginning to bear again when the frost came. This was a small planting in pots, to isolate them from my other beans. I harvested enough dry seed for a larger planting next year, when I plan to use them as my main snap. - "Madeira" (pole). 2006 seed, had over 75% germination. This was the most vigorous pole bean grown this year, and was the first to produce dry seed. The seed is red-spotted like many large shellies, but has a pink background when dry. Although the shellies are large, I didn't like the flavor when I last grew them, and rated this as a soup bean. However, the DW loved them as shellies this year, so I guess it is a question of taste (I still didn't like them). The seed yield was very heavy; but much of the seed was deformed, which reduced the yield. One or two seeds in nearly every pod had a broken seed coat, and a 'stretched' appearance, almost like pulled taffy... very odd. The remaining seeds in those pods were normal. Even after heavy culling, there was still over 2 pounds of dry seed. - "Tisa", a brown-seeded pole wax bean from Serbia. This was the youngest seed planted this year (2007) but had the worst germination, under 50%. Long, slightly flattened yellow pods, borne late. These were best picked as snaps before fully yellow, at which time they were still tasty, but developed strings. Very slow to develop seed, so I was glad the frost came late. Only ate one meal, and let the rest go for seed; harvested 1.5 pounds of dry seed. - "Tenderette" (bush, Livingston Seed). I don't usually grow bush beans for snaps, but since I couldn't cultivate my rural plot until July, this was Plan B for snaps. Picked them up at a local garden store. Round pods that were similar to "Emerite" in quality, but shorter. Firm, sweet, and stringless even when the pods began to bulge. Plan B was successful, I was able to freeze enough green beans to last the winter... but don't like bending over while picking a 100-foot row. There was also a fairly high level of crossing in the seed; some plants with runners, some that were flat-podded, and some with short, round, fibrous pods. While I thought the variety had a lot of good qualities, there was a lot more instability than I would expect from commercial seed. - Runner bean, "Tarahumara Tekomari". The source told me it originally came from Native Seeds / SEARCH. This appears to be a land race, with flowers that are either white or red, and seeds that are either white or "gray" (fine black spots over a white background). Red flowers / gray seeds made up the majority, and all the seed sent to me was gray. There was also considerable variation in seed size & shape. Although it flowered quickly, the summer heat was unbroken by a cool spell, and no pods set in the heat. Only during a 1-day drop in August, and the cooler days of September, did pods set. Because of this, the seed yield was disappointing, just over a pound from about 30' of row. There was also one plant which flowered late, and produced purple seeds; since the source did not experience this, I am assuming it was a cross, and will attempt to eliminate purple seeds from the strain. The one bright spot: because the killing freeze was 3 weeks late, I harvested a huge late crop of snaps & shellies. The immature shellies were delicious, as were the snaps. - Lima, "Hopi Pole". 2008 seed, 100% germination. A mid-sized lima with multi-colored seeds; red, maroon, black (very dark red) brown, orange, and many combinations. This has always been a very late lima for me, pushing against the frost for dry seed, and dying with many pods unripened... but it did spectacularly well this year. It bloomed much earlier than my previous two attempts, and nearly all seed ripened. Harvested about 3.5 pounds of dry seed, and froze 6 quarts of shellies. I gave away a lot of "Hopi Pole" at the Berea, Kentucky get together, it was the most requested seed... so hopefully it will be more widespread in the future. - Yardlong bean, "Taiwan Black" (reference to the seed color). 2005 seed, germination erratic, but eventually 98%! Very long, slim, light green pods, with a mild flavor. Originally from Baker Creek, but they have since dropped it - as has everyone in SSE who had listed it - so its status is precarious. I had nearly dropped it myself, before finding that it was no longer commercially available & adding it back into the rotation. Fortunately, the seed crop went well, harvested over a pound of seed. - Yardlong, "Chinese Long Green". A red-seeded heirloom sent to me in trade. Very long, dark green pods with firm texture & good flavor. Like "Hopi Pole" lima, this had been a very long DTM cultivar for me previously - but not this year. It produced a heavy crop early, and kept going for most of the summer. The only setback was some leaf yellowing & stunting early, which was likely caused by herbicide spray from the neighboring property. Also grew two peas for seed, "Shiraz" (purple snow pea, swap from Aftermidnight) and "Opal Creek Golden Snap" (from Peace Seeds), as well as 6 soybeans for seed. The soybeans really benefited from the late freeze, all ripened. There was no vole damage to dry seed this year, as there has been in recent years. A ground hog had one meal of soybeans & "Shiraz" peas early in the season, but I trapped it on its next visit. At least its last meal was a good one, before it became a meal for my resident falcons. Since I was on 12 hour days for much of the summer, my time was very limited, and I didn't track dates & take measurements to the extent I did in previous years. I did, however, continue my multi-year observations of seed longevity... which have thus far shown that beans can have a shelf life far beyond what is stated in many references, with only modest precautions. As I have mentioned on other threads, my job has been cutting further into my free time every year - especially during the summer. There are signs that may change soon, under new management. I hope so, as I am way behind in my grow outs... and there are so many beans yet to try. ;-)

I was looking at my garlic which will be ready soon. I like to plant it after cowpeas. I read a post on Facebook where a guy grew buckwheat and oats as a cover crop before garlic and planted the garlic directly in the growing cover crop. Both will winter kill and provide a built in mulch for his garlic. Someone responded with this article. Both of them are further north. I'm so pleased with my tomatoes in rye stubble I'm ready to try this. The info about radishes was very interesting in that article as well. I've heard of daikon radishes as cover crops before.