How to Garden Beans and Corn

Male: We are here today with Donna. She’s got herself a home garden. And Donna what are you picking? Donna: I am picking green beans. They are—I can’t remember the name of them, but they are suited for this area and this ground type. Male: Okay. Donna: We also have four rows of corn that has got some nice firm ears on them, and it looks like we are going to get probably anywhere from four to five ears per stall. So, that’s a pretty good corn production right there. Male: Let us see one of your beans, is that a bean or a pea? Donna: These are beans. These are green beans like you would buy at the store. Male: And what do you do with these? So, you just seed them straight or you put them into a— Donna: You can put these with a little bit of bacon and some water. Male: Like that, okay to pick? Donna: Yeah! That one’s good. A little bit of bacon, cover it with water. But you want to snap the ends off and then snap them into—you can leave them whole or snap them into about inch snap beans and cook them. If they are fresh, you want to cook them for about 30 to 45 minutes. If they come from the can, you can do just like you do at the store, thaw them in, warm them up, and they’re done. But I came on with the bacon already in the jar, when I put it up in my canner. Male: How many times have you been able to come to here and pick all these? Donna: You have to pick every two days. Male: Every two days. Donna: And then you store what you picked in the refrigerator, in a seal container, until you get enough, a pretty good bowl to do about 10 jars at a time. So, you’re having to can almost every weekend for right around almost like right around the month to six weeks. So, if you’re looking at a can in every weekend for a month to six weeks at ten jars a weekend, you’re getting up to 60, 80 jars? Male: Yeah. Donna: 60 to 80 jars and I also have my bell pepper which you can also freeze or canned. Male: We’re getting a lot—these plants. Donna: Yeah, these are my producing plant on this end. They have produced more than the front row did at all. Male: Do you remember what type of fertilizer you used in this garden? Donna: 13-13-13. Male: Triple 13. Donna: Triple 13. Male: That’s a good all around fertilizer for peas and beans. Some types of peas will put oxygen back into the soil. So, you should not use a high oxygen content fertilizer like 2100 or a 16-6-12. You should use a balanced fertilizer like the triple 13 or maybe even triple 10. If your soil is a little acidic, maybe you would go with a triple 10. Donna: And I still have blooms that will produce more green beans over the next three to four weeks. And if you live out in the country like I do and you have an issue with deer, my husband and I on the other side of the corn planted a buffer row of green beans. This way the deer coming from the woods won’t touch my corn, they nibble on those green beans, and they don’t touch my producers. Male: And if you plant some squash and zucchini and with your beans, the deer will not eat the squash and zucchini. So, whenever the squash and zucchini plants get up real big, the peas will be in with those and they won’t bother them. Donna: I have to try that next year. Male: What else do you have planted out here? You have some peppers? Donna: I have black beauty, yellow, red, and regular green bell pepper. On the other end, I have four plants of banana pepper which is not a hot pepper. And then I have my cherry tomato plants because my mother had planted the regular tomato. So, I went with the cherry tomatoes over here. Male: You just have all kind of peas in here. Some of them— Donna: Well, like in the little, like that one there, I’ll wait two days to pick that one. That was there, I will give them a couple of days. Male: Okay. You have some bell peppers. Do you want to get pictures of bell peppers over here first? Donna: Yeah, that’s my better plant. Male: Yeah, and here is some bell peppers right there. Donna: Now you want to let that, they are all green right now. But the colored ones like the black beauties and the yellow and the red, when they mature they will actually change color and that’s when you pick them. Male: Let’s take a look of the watermelons. Donna, what is it that you planted here? Donna: These are watermelons. They are the good old-fashioned watermelons that my grandmother used to plant. They do real well in this soil. Male: There’s a baby watermelon right there. And the good thing about watermelon is once you pick them, if you keep them dry in a cool area, they’ll stay good for a month, three weeks, six weeks. They will stay good for a while before you have to eat them. And what else, do you have some— Donna: I have a cool dry area. Male: Cool dry area. Donna: Yes. Male: All right now, what about cantaloupes? Do you plant any cantaloupes? Donna: I did but we had an issue with the cantaloupes. I had a whole plot here planted and because we could not get the really good seed because they were sold out, we had to go with the second best. And I just want it for this soil. So, I ended up with only three plants. Male: Okay. Donna: So, you’re living long in gardening. Male: Yup. You have tomatoes down here. It looks like they need a little bit of water, they are kind of drought. What are these? Cherry tomatoes? Donna: Yes, mother planted the big one as I’ve I said before over her house. Male: Okay. Donna: So, we did a small production this year just to test it out, but we will be doing a larger version going on further down this way next year and over because we have found that the acidic droppings from the pine trees has affected my potatoes and some of my peas. Male: The pine straw has a tannic acid in it. You should never use pine straw in your garden or mulch around your plants because the acid of the pine straw is acidic. Donna: It affects the plants. Male: It’s acidic and it bothers the plants. Female: That would be why doesn’t grow. Male: Too good underneath the pine tree. Donna: Correct. Male: Okay Donna, thank you for your time. Donna: So, are we going to put this on a computer? Male: Yes. Donna: I knew it. Female: You guys act like you could be in a food network. And in case you are wondering what Donna was kicking, she was kicking the beer cans out of the way. Donna: I did not. Female: She might add a little bit of beer to the vegetables to make them produce faster. Donna: Beer and watermelon can go together. Male: Yeah! Beer and watermelon goes together. Female: Sign out. Male: All right, thanks for your time. Donna: Have a great day.