Seed Catalogs and Glenn Beans

It’s January, and you can tell it by the number of seed catalogs we get in the mail. The seed marketers know that we are sitting here with the temperature in the teens and snow on the ground. The beautiful pictures of the brightly colored flowers and healthy vegetable plants are a welcome sight.

I enjoy gardening, but confess that my wife and her mother do most of the work. My duties include keeping the electric fence up and operating, using the tiller between rows, mowing around the garden perimeter, and other grunt jobs. I am usually involved in a minor way with planting and harvesting. I do, however, have a major role in consumption!

Becky’s Uncle Glenn DeQuasie owned and operated a greenhouse many years ago. He developed a green bean that had a splendid taste and grew quite well. We have saved seeds from every crop to plant the next year. Someone in Becky’s family started calling them “Glenn” Beans in his honor. The picture below shows a small section of our garden this past summer. We had an abundant crop from these plants. As my late father-in-law, Charles Dotson, used to say, “We eat what we can, and what we can’t, we can.” Becky and her Mom canned many a quart of beans from these plants.

 

A couple of years ago the vines grew unbelievably well. The vines were running from the top of the poles across to the next set of poles. It was almost like a rainforest. The downside was that not many beans grew from them. I was telling a local Old-Timer about the situation and he told me I planted the seeds in the wrong sign. Huh??? 

I’m a Sagittarius; does that mean I should stay away from the garden when planting? Hammock, here I come! No such luck. When in doubt, check the Farmer’s Almanac (or Google). Sure enough, crops that produce their yield above ground should be planted during the waxing (New to Full) Moon. During the waning moon (Full to New) Moon is the best time for planting root crops, or those that produce underground. Nothing should be planted on the day of the Full or New Moon.

Last summer we planted using the guide in the Almanac and we had great results. We usually plant when we get the time and the garden’s not too wet. Have we just been lucky enough to hit the right signs all these years except one? Who knows, but this spring we will be planting in the right sign!