Jackie, I have done that before, LOL it definately is better with salt. I love to can beans too! They are really handy when you end up with company and don't know what to fix.
UGGG the black seeded simpson is the kind I like the very least. YUCKY..LOL I plant it all the time the ask myself why did I do this again. I think I get spring fever and forget why I don't plant it.
I am a little further south of Dallas closer to Austin. We plant the fall/winter garden around Sept. As soon as the summer plants die, or stop producing. I pull them and work the dirt and plant something new. I am trying to make sure I rotate the plants well though. I use this website as my to do list. It says when to plant what. It also has some good artcles on how to's and such for natural gardening. http://www.naturalgardeneraustin.com/information/index.html
Oh I was going to say that for weeds in my garden I lay down 4--5 sheets of newspaper (not the glossy ones), then I cover them with leaves. We have huge oak trees so a ton of leaves. It helps like a mulch would with the water evap. but it also is wonderful in keeping the weeds out. At the end of the season I just till it under. I have done this for 3 years now.
Aggie, maybe I'll try that next year! Excuse me for being dense, but do you lay more dirt on top of the paper and plant your veggies on this? Or do you plant your veggies under the paper and cut holes in it? I'm afraid I need specifics!
Garden update 2009 Wow y'alls garden sounds impressive! We just added another raised bed this year, but we were in the middle of filling it up with soil and our truck trans died. We did manage to also do part of our field with another garden so far its doing really well. Here is my veggie blog http://samsveggies.blogspot.com/ Sam
If you don't like the Black Seeded Simpson, what kind do you like to plant? I am always looking for something else. Thanks
Jackie - maybe if we could get all the Cantons together...TX, OHIO, CHINA...we'd see some sort of canny resemblance between us all! Black-seeded Simpson is the first/only lettuce I've planted and I just don't get too much result (or maybe I'm expecting bigger leaves. From what I've had, I'd have to harvest 100 plants to have enough tiny leaves for one salad! I must be doing something wrong!? My friend has some beautiful buttercrunch (?) in her garden and it looks and tastes delish!
Our favorite is called green ice. It is a light green and is very mild flavored. Not so bitter. We love it.
