Blue Lake Bush Style Green Beans and Those Pesky Squirrels

I have been struggling with squirrels this season. They just will not stay out of the fresh soil in my veggie garden. I don't know that it's necessarily that they are digging up my plants or seeds, or digging to bury their own food, but it's about to make me crazy! I put down some thorny rose bush trimmings but find that I apparently need many more to cover up all of the squares. (If anybody has a doubt about how I feel about squirrels, or any animal really, please read this and this and maybe this, before calling judgment on me for using thorns as a deterrent.)

I did decide to skip the square stealing squash plants this year - 1 bush style squash, like zucchini or crookneck, takes up a full 9 squares - at least.  Last year I found that it spilled over into the other squares even and choked out pepper plants I had planted nearby. So instead, I thought that I would plant more bush style green beans since I love them so much and I could space out the plantings, so I get beans apart from each other.  

I started with two squares of Blue Lake bush green beans in one of my smaller boxes at the end of March and within a day or two, found holes dug up where I had planted! For square foot gardening, a square can take 9 bush type bean plants.  So I stuck more bean seeds in the spaces that had been disturbed and a few days later, planted two new squares of 9 seeds each in the larger bed.

Couple days later, more holes dug. Both places. More seeds planted. Darned squirrels. I thought for sure there'd be no beans this year I tell ya, so when I saw the first set of beans finally poking through, minus only a few seedlings, and then shortly after that, the next sets were popping up, I was thrilled! Yay!

Last year, I ended up overcrowding my squares with too many bean plants that I then failed to divide, and then when they got so thick that I later tried to divide, I only ended up pulling everything out in frustration ... right about about the time I should have been harvesting beans. You see, beans apparently don't transplant well at all. Consequently, I had not a single decent green bean from my garden last year. I didn't make that mistake this year, so I'm looking forward to hopefully having a harvest this year.

For more about my square foot gardens, click here.

A one cup serving of green beans provides Vitamin A (15%), Vitamin C (30%), Calcium (4%), Iron (6%), 4 grams of fiber and about 34 calories.

Growing Beans

Presoak beans in warm water for about 30 minutes for faster sprouting.  Seeds should be planted in an area that receives no less than 6 hours of sunlight a day and should begin sprouting anywhere between 5 to 10 days, depending on how warm the weather is. Cold soil will shock beans, so the best soil temperature for beans to germinate is somewhere between 60 and 85 degrees.  For continuous harvest, plant new squares about 2 weeks apart, throughout the spring and summer. Bush beans have a tendency to want to flop over. If yours are falling into adjacent squares, using a small plant support to hook or tie them to, or tie a thick string around the entire plant group to corral them together.

Watering

Beans should have regular watering - about one inch minimum per week - but don't let the soil dry out. Try to keep the leaves dry, so avoid overhead watering, since wet leaves encourage disease.


Common Problems and Pests

Aphids, Japanese and Mexican beetles, and wildlife (squirrels, deer, birds & rabbits).  If the leaves on your plant begin to curl up and pucker, look for ants nearby.  Ants are attracted to the honeydew excreted by aphids.  For light infestations of aphids, at the first sign, begin treating plants with an insecticidal soap. You will know that you have beetles when you see holes appearing in the leaves. Use an approved insecticide to control beetles. 

Bacterial blight, evidenced by brown spots on the leaves, or water-soaked spots on the pods, can be a problem with beans, but cannot be treated. Plants will need to be pulled up and destroyed.  They can also be affected by mosaic disease, which turns plants a yellowish green and can hamper bean pod production. It also cannot be cured and plants will have to be destroyed. Don't put diseased plants into your compost - bag them and throw them away. 

Harvesting

Beans need about 58 days for production before harvesting.  Don't allow the beans to grow until the seeds bulge though because they will be past their prime and can also cause the entire plant to stop producing. Pick beans when they are still small and tender and pick regularly so they will keep producing. Cut the stems while holding the bean pod, and avoid pulling the plant. They don't keep well, so should be used or stored by freezing or drying immediately.

In exceptionally hot weather they may stop producing, but once the weather moderates, they will return to producing.

Freezing

Beans are an excellent candidate for freezing.  You can freeze them whole or cut them up into bite size pieces.  Then blanch before freezing to kill bacteria and stop the ripening process by dropping them into a pot of water that is at a full rolling boil, cover and boil them for 4 minutes. Remove with a spider and transfer to a pot of ice cold water to stop the cooking process.  Drain well, and lay out in a single layer on a pan covered with a towel to dry completely.  Flash freeze on a lightly sprayed baking sheet, then transfer to a freezer bag, removing as much air as possible. Double bag to avoid freezer burn or, even better, use a vacuum sealer.

You can also dry beans, but I've never done that before, so I'm afraid you're on your own there!

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Here are my two primary gardening books - I highly recommend both but especially the "new" square foot gardening book, if you want to try this method of raised bed, square foot gardening.

All New Square Foot Gardening

Guide to Mississippi Vegetable Gardening - available for your state too! It's a perfect guide to tell you what to plant and what works best in your region, and also when to plant. I love this guide!

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I am a simple home garden struggling through my failures and relishing in my successes. If you are thinking I am any kind of expert, you might want to read this little ole disclaimer right here.

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Wildlife on the Homefront

Photo Credit: Wildlife Select

Isn't that such a pretty bird? It's a Red Winged Blackbird and I had a pair of them hanging around the yard today. I've never seen these birds before and frankly I'm amazed at the variety of birds I'm seeing this year that I have never seen before. Since I'm using pretty basic birdseed, I don't know what is different, except that maybe the bird population is finally getting back to Pre-K Days* and before that, well, I was working full time so was never here to bird watch and enjoy them!

I have been a busy bee today with housewifely duties- picking up the clutter, cleaning up, putting things away, dusting, doing dishes, laundry, filling feeders, diggin' up this to put there, trimming and inspecting plants, watering, and generally catching up on things that tend to fall to the wayside when I am piddling in the yard and focused on being outside.

Which reminds me, before I get to the rest of my story ... Virgos, we are a funny lot. I haven't met a Virgo yet who isn't a list maker. I try to keep notebooks for these things, but there's that clutter problem I seem to have these days {which is so UN-Virgo like behavior} and then I can't seem to find my notebooks, so I end up with scraps of paper all over the place. To-do lists for outside, to-do lists for inside, shopping lists, recipes I want to make {lest I forget what I bought those ingredients for}, notes for things I need to research, phone calls I need to make - it's crazy!

But today, I realized that I actually do this in my head too!

I never took notice of this before, but I sure do! Here's the conversation I was having when I realized this ... "Okay, run this to the compost and dump it, move the sprinkler, come back inside and throw the towels in the washer, and finish putting up the lemon juice in the ice trays." I knew if I didn't make a list, I'd forget something so yeah, I literally said this in my head, and frankly I've noticed, sometimes out loud.

But then... when I head out to the compost pile, I see some weeds that need to be pulled and I start pulling them, totally forgetting that I was going to move the sprinkler. Then, some pretty finches start flirting with me, so I start whistling back at them and talking to the lizards and the dragonflies who follow me around the garden, when I take notice of the bare spot in this southern facing garden where I can't seem to get anything to grow. Then I remember the pop-up volunteer Lantana plant I saw in the middle garden and think, "that would be perfect here, since the other two I planted here have done so well." So I go and dig it up, get some of the dirt out of the wheelbarrow and relocate it to the new bed.

If I'm lucky I remember to move the sprinkler before I get distracted by something else! All this while the washing machine that has now filled up with water, is waiting for me to fill it with towels and close the lid so it can get to work, and the lemons that I started squeezing but left half finished are still sitting there too. This goes on all day, every day - it's really a wonder that I ever do finish anything!

So, now the rest of my story.

But... a warning. This next part is probably not for the weak-hearted, so if you're super squeamish, well... ya might want to skip over this.

Last night when I took Boo out, I noticed something - an animal of some sort - struggling in the grass off in the distance. After bringing Boo back in, I went back out to investigate and discovered that it was a squirrel. Poor thing was alive, but weak and obviously dying, and he was literally covered in flies. You could just see the terror in his little eyes.

I had noticed him in the yard a few days earlier and knew he was injured - he was hopping like a rabbit and I could see from a distance that he appeared to be missing his tail. But, he kept ducking into obstacles when I tried to get close to him. Now that I had, I could tell he was a juvenile - just a baby.

Well, it was clear his injuries were really bad - one front leg had been bitten off and was just a stub, which was the reason he was hopping. His tail had been completely ripped off and the wound on his rear end was gaping and horribly exposed. It wasn't just his tail that was missing, but a hole had been torn in his rear end and it was pretty obvious that a dog had likely gotten hold of him. In his youth, he apparently had not learned how dangerous some dogs are.

After seeing him, I honestly don't know how this squirrel survived as long as he had, and I felt terrible for the little fella. I shooed away the disgusting flies and scooped him up with a shovel - he struggled, terrified, wanting to get away, not certain what my intent was. I carried him to the spigot outside to give him a good rinse, grabbed a pair of gardening gloves and placed him in a box, carrying him to the garage, where at least the flies wouldn't be crawling all over him. He seemed to become a bit more at ease, probably relieved to be away from those flies, who had already deposited eggs on his wound and yes, there were already maggots. I know ... its gross. My heart ached for this poor little animal. I couldn't help but wonder if he had let me get close to him before, maybe we could have stitched him up and saved him.

I soaped up some paper towels and washed him off, dabbed some tea tree oil on his wound which ran the maggots out, found an old pair of tweezers, and literally plucked the darned things off of him, drowning them in alcohol. I honestly don't know how I could stomach such a thing ... yuck ... {which is exactly why I ditched any ideas of a job in the medical field} but I'll be damned if I was gonna let that little guy suffer these last few moments of his life, so somehow they didn't even bother me.

Once his wound was cleared, I wrapped him in several layers of paper towels, and then tightly in an old towel - swaddled like a human infant. Using an eye dropper I offered him a little water just to wet his mouth - goodness knows how long he'd been laying there suffering - and he gladly took it. I even offered him a piece of seed meat from the bird feeder, which he took and chewed on. I've had animals all my life and many of them have lived into their 20s, dying of old age and taking their last breaths in my arms, so I knew this little fella was dying and I prayed that it would come soon to end his suffering.

Animals can't speak, but one thing I have learned is that you can certainly read a lot from their eyes, and it was there that I saw this transformation from the terrified little squirrel I found laying in the grass, to this little guy who was calm now and at peace. It was just amazing.

He curled up in the towel and I held the towel to my chest, against the warmth of my body, where I'm sure he could hear the beating of my heart. I had no fear of him biting me now at all. He was content and just laid there peacefully. After awhile he began to have convulsions. He stiffened, struggling to reach out with his one remaining front claw, reaching for something to steady himself. I offered my finger and he grasped it as his little body shuttered and his heart stopped. I imagined that at least for those final seconds of his short life, he must have felt some comfort, perhaps as he did in the protection of the nest against his mother's body, when he was first born not long ago.

I don't think that I'll ever look at a squirrel quite the same again.


*People seem to get uncomfortably silent when I mention Hurricane Katrina, though honestly that is an important measuring stick for those of us who lived through the experience. Still, I decided to just start referring to it as Pre-K to take off some of the pressure.