Fun Fact Embedded Somewhere In This Post

[robby]

The onion tops are beginning to fall over, which is a sign that soon they'll be ready to harvest. I've picked the last cauliflower, and plan to plant broccoli this fall, as the cauliflower was a disappointment. A surprising fun fact is that cauliflower and broccoli are really the same species, but just different cultivars.

With the rain and cool weather, I've cut back on watering. It's supposed to rain off and on until Tuesday, and my sense is that the garden will stay wet enough. Everything seems to be growing and healthy despite the weather, but growing slower than normal.

Comments

[sammason.livejournal.com]

I've always assumed that cauliflower and broccoli were varieties of the same plant. They look similary.

[robby.livejournal.com]

It was a suprise to me. How many weeks will your purple bush beans produce? Do you put in successive plantings to extend the harvest?

[sammason.livejournal.com]

In fact 'Blauhilde' is a climbing variety. Anyway, I don't know how many weeks of production I'll get! Will make notes here this year, and find out that way. I do successional plantings for several crops but not for climbng beans because their performance, here, is limited really by the length of the frost-free season.

I've forgotten whether or not you get frosts in your climate zone.

[robby.livejournal.com]

I guess your climate and the actual variety you're growing are much different than mine. We get frosts about Nov 15.

[sammason.livejournal.com]

So you were right when you said, earlier today, that our frosts come earlier than yours. At least a month earlier I think. And we're only just out of the frost-risk season now.

The naming of beans is a difficult matter, it isn't just one of your holiday games [drags self back from daftness.] The naming of bean varieties is quite confusing when talking across the Atlantic, I've noticed. The french bean that I'm loyal to is this one (http://www.organiccatalogue.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21_22_44_68&products_id=2994) - do you have anything similar? Or perhaps you prefer something quite different.

Btw I've just noticed that the link I've put in here does state how long this bean's cropping season is supposed to be. A rather over-ambitious prediction, I think.

[robby.livejournal.com]

I'm growing “Royal Burgundy” purple bush beans. I chose bush beans because I don't want tall bean plants shading other plants. I had another variety of bush beans last year, and they bore heavily at first, and continued on, to a lesser degree, for a few months.
I suppose some gardeners would put in successive planting two weeks apart, and tear out the mature plants once they were finished with the heavy initial yield.