Jon shows us how to deal with Mexican Bean beetle pests on a mature crop of beans. Learn more about this pest on the HGIC website.
Beans
Garden update: beans, eggplant, chard
This has been a tough year for bean-growing, at least around these parts; both the Derwood Demo Garden and my community garden have seen large populations of Mexican bean beetles, as well as hungry rabbits. Continue reading
The Three Sisters Garden

This year at the Derwood Demo Garden we acquired some new planting space, which I decided to use for a growing technique we just haven’t had the square footage for in many years: a Three Sisters garden. Growing corn, beans, and squash together in this symbiotic way is an innovation of several Native American peoples, particularly the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois. Each of the sisters has a role: the corn, grown in small groups in separate hills, creates a tall structure; the beans twine up the corn and stay high up for picking; the squash spreads out to suppress weeds and deter animals. Continue reading