Golden Gate Gardener

The Transplant of the Scarlet Runner Beans

This spring we dug up the scarlet runner bean roots at the college garden, weeded the soil thoroughly, amended and fertilized it, and, with help from several students, built them a new trellis. The roots of this wonderful perennial Central American bean are thickened. This is how the roots of the largest of the plants looked. (We left some of the stems on at the top, because there was still some life in them, and so we would be sure to know which way was up when we replanted the roots.) I think this particular plant may be 15 years old. We wrapped the roots in burlap, and they sat there for about 2 weeks while we got the site ready to replant hem. It was Februrary into early March, and it rained a bit.

We put the burlap-wrapped roots in the shade, and I sprinkled them with water when it had been dry for a while. But once back in the ground, they began to grow very quickly. The first couple of shoots were leafy, but there was a full stem of flowers right away. And look at it now, in mid May. 

I think we will have pods to harvest by the end of June! Shows the value of letting some roots overwinter. If we had planted fresh seed in April, which is about as early as you can plant them, we'd have one stem growing now from each seed, and probably no flowers yet. But from overwintered roots, we have a couple of dozen stems with six or 7 stems of flowers already.

Here is the plant from the other side of the trellis. You can see that it twines counterclockwise, the opposite of the common garden bean. Runner beans are mountain beans from Mexico and Central America. They like coolish days and cooler nights, so they are ideal for coastal California. The roots survive a little frost, but wouldn't thrive where winters were cold. The pods, harvested young, are very tender, with a sweet and beany flavor. The seeds, when mature and dry, are big black and purple soup or chili beans. Now, in late May, is about as late as you'd want to plant 'em.   

Today I spoke at Guadalupe RIver Park and Garden in San Jose. They have a new community garden down there, in the park, which filled up right away and has a 97 person waiting list. They are about to put in a second community garden. Way to go!

Next week, I will be at Common Ground in Palo Alto, to give my talk on Weather, Climate, and Microclimate--from the region to the neighborhood to the different sides of a garden. Always fun to talk about. Our region's microclimates are so complex that I have to tell the principles and then teach gardeners to read the microclimate from the garden. (see listing in this blogs top post)
 

April Showers and Flowers (and Hail!)

April was so rainy that many people around here thought we were having an unusually wet winter, but I suspected it was about average for San Francisco, and it turned out I was right. After a few years of drought, average felt really wet! And, as is typical in March or April, we had hail, which is hard on the plants. This time the hailstones were only B-B sized. A few year's back we had hail the size of cooked chick peas, and that really shredded the plants.

 

This is what last month's hail looked like.  
Everything was left pretty much intact, but there were hail scars on the nasturtium leaves and on some succulents.

I ran out to move my potted tree peony out of the hail, but though it looks delicate, it is made of sturdy stuff. Here are three more images, showing the bloom opening and beginning to lose its petals.

     

And that's all untul next year. Only one flower this year, but what a flower!

The potatoes are progressing too. Here are three shots. In the first, plants are emerging in their trenches. In the second, I've filled in the trenches, pushing soil up against the plants, which will encourate more tubers to form. In the third, I've mulched with straw, to keep down weeds and make sure the tubers don't get exposed to light.

Finally, the apple tree bloomed. There are lots of flowers, and it has rained less since they opened, which is good news for fruit set and health. More bees will find the tree in sunny weather, and the tree is less likely to suffer from apple scab disease. The bloom is the first step toward our much appreciated crop of fresh, sweet, crisp fresh apples in October.