Jeroen's Results

Early Summer Report

I had seeded approximately 3 types of Beans 15 of each type and 12 seeds of a Corn type. I planted 5 beans of the same type in a separate isolated little garden (mine) in the city. These were all eaten by a bunch of hungry snails that came along, while I was away for the holiday. I got the meagre harvest of 14 little beans from them, but still that was more than the five I used to get them.

 

The other 40 bean plants and 12 corn plants I planted in a more open, countryside garden (my parents garden). There too, a bunch of hungry snails seemed to like the taste of my bean plants and ate four of them. I didn't want to drown them in a beer-trap, so I tried something, I read in the news-paper. I put some chicken food in an open space between my plants. This was supposed to attract the snails, so I could gather them and bring them to a place far away from my beans. But they didn't seem to be there anymore.

 

A hedgehog had found his way in the garden and had eaten them. I just love the easy solutions that nature seems to have for problems. Unlucky for me though, my parents dogs spotted the hedgehog and found a hole in the fence, that I put up around the garden. They crushed about 15 bean plants trying to get the hedgehog, luckily his spikes protected him and he didn't got hurt. After that event I checked the fence, so the dogs can't get in the garden anymore and the hedgehog has his own little reserve now.

 

I'm now waiting for the beans, that are still alive, to ripen their pods a bit more and will harvest them somewhere in the next month. The corn had not so many problems, except for the dogs, that ate the lower leaves, which hang close enough to the fence to be pulled through, but that didn't seem to bother the corn plants much. I'm still waiting for them to go to bloom, but they look good, so I think they will go into bloom some day soon. I'll post some more snail prevention methods in an other mail. Done a lot of research on that area now.

 

Fall Report

Things here in Netherland, have been wet and moist. I have limited space, so I planted just three types of beans and one type of Corn. The Corn, didn't make it, or is still not making it. They just weren't maturing fast enough and are now rotting away. The three bean types had one, that didn't do to well, one that did alright but one definite winner. One problem came around the corner though. I noticed, that because of the bad weather at the end of the summer, the bees and other pollinators, stayed inside their little hives, I would probable do the same if I where them. :-) But, the last blossoms on my beans, where never pollinated because of that, so the last pods didn't contain any beans. :-(

Here are my stats:

White Sweet Corn - All rotted away (still rotting away while I write this)
Yellow Bush Beans - Definite loser of the beans.
Red Kidney Beans - Middle one, not a bad performance at all.
Navy Beans - Definite winner of the beans. Might be a small type of beans, but got the most pods on one bush and also the most beans in each pod. So, I recommend this type to all of you, to try out.

Totally Harvested:

White Sweet Corn - zip, nada, nothing.
Yellow Bush Beans - 28 beans
Red Kidney Beans - 74 beans
Navy Beans - 256 beans

My grandfather crossed over to the spirit world, but left me his seed bank. I'm going to continue with his seed bank. It contains various seeds, also of herbs, etc. I haven't had the time to sort everything out, but I'm going to grow and gather more seeds of the plants in Netherland. Thus making a seed bank, from which I could take seeds after the PS, to create a new strong fauna. Furthermore, I'm trying to grow plants like, ferns, that grow well in the dark dusky places and are still edible.

Jeroen