Hyacinth Bean Vine

MANY moons ago, I found my first hyacinth bean vine at a yard sale and it was love at first sight! I love this vine even though it will swallow up an arbor - all it needs is lots of room. I was told the seeds/pods are poisonous and I've heard they can be eaten...educate yourself, though I can't imagine even wanting to eat them!

Once you have a hyacinth bean vine, all that needs to be done is saving the pods from year to year. They're also good at 'saving' themselves and can pop up in unexpected places - they're a wonderful gift to other gardening friends. The sweet pea-like flower is simply beautiful!

 As seen here in these pictures, it will cover where ever it's planted.

 After their bloom, these purple pods are produced and are lovely in an autumn flower arrangement. I let the pods dry on the vine to collect seeds for the next year and let them in the pod until I want to plant them the next year. The seeds are the size of a pea and black with a white stripe on the edge. It grows up to twenty feet tall and is a twinning vine. I generally give it a little help to get it started by tucking it in and around whatever it's growing on. All around, it's a fascinating plant!

 They do need protection from the bunnies - they so love the tender young plants!

If anyone is interested in seeds to plant in your garden, send me a SASE and I'll be happy to share seeds with you!

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On another note...

Last week I was honored to receive an invite to Home Talk to share my Back to Eden Gardening post.

 I'll be linking more posts there.

Canning Tomato Soup

Last week DIL M sauced tomatoes for me. Years ago she introduced a delicious tomato soup to our family and I decided to make the soup again. It's a quick meal on a cold winter night and is fabulous with toasted cheese sandwiches!

Because we're eating gluten-free, I changed a few ingredients but I'll give the original and add the changes in parenthesis.

Tomato Soup

Saute a bit:

 5 T. finely chopped onions

10 T. butter (or coconut oil)

Stir in and heat till smooth:

3/4 c. flour (or tapioca starch)

1/2 c. sugar (or rice syrup)

5 tsp. sea salt

1 1/2 tsp. pepper

Stir in:

10 c. tomato juice

(I added a cup at a time to avoid lumps several times)

Fill jars to within 1/2 inch and water bathe 1&1/2 hours.

If filled too much, it will cook over and run out of the jars.

Follow the usual rules of canning!

When I serve it, I dilute it with water but milk can be used - either way it's good!

Raised Strawberry Bed

I'm so delighted with our new strawberry bed! The new bed is my second time around for this bed because the one I did last summer was a big disappointment this summer. Plus, I wanted a real raised bed where I didn't have to bend over!

After the greenhouse left, my 'new' garden space looked like this in the spring of 2011.

- 2011 -

Fast forward to the summer of 2012.

Mr D made the box out of scrap cedar wood and is 16 ft L x 26" W x 24" H. He made it sturdy by re-enforcing it with 2x4's inside. I filled it with a two-year supply of compost dirt. This is what I found in the bin as I was emptying it...eek!

I transplanted the five raspberry plants and took the strawberry plants out of the old bed and piled them in a box till the new one was ready. Then came the fun part!

After four hours of transferring the dirt from the compost bin to the new bed, I 'hilled' the dirt in the box.

After adding a fifty-foot soaker hose that was placed on the sides and middle, I used my home-made version of u-hooks to keep it in place.

And ta-da! my new bed! The plants transplanted well, I harvested several gallons of potatoes and onions, and seeded a fall crop of radish and lettuce. Because the straw was left from the little potato patch, I used it to cover the whole bed, giving it shade from the hot sun and protection from the winter cold. Best of all, it was a mostly free project - the biggest expense was the soaker hose and it was on sale.

 The radishes were seeded on Saturday and by Tuesday they were up, having several rains the last few days.

Incidentally, both of these projects were done by Mr D in both of his cancer diagnoses. I'm especially grateful to him and to God that he's given me these gifts. My prayer is he'll be here next spring to enjoy the fruit of his work! If you want to follow along on our cancer journey, 'like' my Fleur Cottage face book page where I post frequently about it.

Link to:
Cottage Garden
Time Travel Thursday
Under $100 Linky
Transformation Thursday
Grace at Home