2023 Little Easy Bean Network - Beans Beyond The Colors Of A Rainbow

[heirloomgal]

‘Julifreude’ which I think means ‘Joy of July’ or something close. ‘Augustfreude’ might be more like it over here. But this is a REALLY good snap bean. This season, it’s second only to Fasold. This is a super find. Such a great texture and great production.

More progress on the drying room! Ceiling is up, and half the walls. Need to fill cracks on beams and build some benches, then paint. This used to be DH‘s toolroom/shed/storage space so I’m happy he’s renovating it so we can share it. He gets the benches for storing and I get the rest. 😀 It’s a great deal!

 

[flowerbug]

...
More progress on the drying room! Ceiling is up, and half the walls. Need to fill cracks on beams and build some benches, then paint. This used to be DH‘s toolroom/shed/storage space so I’m happy he’s renovating it so we can share it. He gets the benches for storing and I get the rest. 😀 It’s a great deal!View attachment 59406View attachment 59407

looks like a very nice space.

 

[heirloomgal]

looks like a very nice space.

Thanks! I’m excited! I’ve been wanting to do this for about 16 years.

 

[heirloomgal]

Network bean Parker’s Half Runner! 5 seeds down, only 55 more to go! 🤣. The pods are yellowing and bulging so I think it won’t be long now until they’re done.

 

[flowerbug]

i was out weeding and while i meant to weed a whole different garden i ended up weeding parts of three others instead including the largest bean garden inside the fence.

as i was getting near the end of weeding around the edge i noticed a lot more chewing on bean plants in there than i've ever had before so that was increasing my curiousity... and then i saw some disturbed dirt and found a groundhog hole in there. this is the first time i've had one dig a hole on a flat ground area anywhere here and also the first time one dug one inside the garden fence area. i have no idea if the critter was in there or not and i tried to stick a sharp ended (metal even) pole to see how far it went. it went further than the length of that pole...

so i filled in the top that i could get to with some dirt and then stuck a shovel, a garden fork (heavy metal tines) and the pointy ended thingy (it's actually a weed knife kind of tool) in there and hope if it is outside that den it won't try to go back in. i'll check it out again in a while and perhaps i'll get the hose and see if i can flood it out. i did not find an exit so i'm curious about that because i did not think a groundhog would dig a hole without some kind of exit being possible... so we'll see how this goes...

 

[Branching Out]

That bunny is too cute! Can you leave her wander around your yard without fear that she'll escape or get caught by something? That's amazing that you can have loose and she doesn't run away.

Looks are deceiving. She is a wascally wabbit, and takes off on us every time she notices that we are distracted. Yesterday I had to chase her down and herd her back from two properties away; we are indeed afraid of losing her, so of late we only let her roam freely when there are two of us to monitor and corral her. At ten years of age she can still move at the speed of lightning, but then shortly afterwards she flops down in the dirt completely tuckered out. When she is well-behaved we love to watch her forage in the garden, where she has a remarkable choice of plants to nosh on. She does nibble the occasional bean leaf, but when that happens we shoe her along to more appropriate plants like dill, oregano, carrot tops, or lettuce. A lot of the lettuce that I grow has teeth marks on it. 🤣

 

[heirloomgal]

i was out weeding and while i meant to weed a whole different garden i ended up weeding parts of three others instead including the largest bean garden inside the fence.

as i was getting near the end of weeding around the edge i noticed a lot more chewing on bean plants in there than i've ever had before so that was increasing my curiousity... and then i saw some disturbed dirt and found a groundhog hole in there. this is the first time i've had one dig a hole on a flat ground area anywhere here and also the first time one dug one inside the garden fence area. i have no idea if the critter was in there or not and i tried to stick a sharp ended (metal even) pole to see how far it went. it went further than the length of that pole...

so i filled in the top that i could get to with some dirt and then stuck a shovel, a garden fork (heavy metal tines) and the pointy ended thingy (it's actually a weed knife kind of tool) in there and hope if it is outside that den it won't try to go back in. i'll check it out again in a while and perhaps i'll get the hose and see if i can flood it out. i did not find an exit so i'm curious about that because i did not think a groundhog would dig a hole without some kind of exit being possible... so we'll see how this goes...

Last summer when I had a groundhog show up, he began to dig a burrow right under out carport only feet from where I was standing in the peas. The dirt was flying into the air, that's how I noticed her even there. There was no possible exit for her on the 3 sides unless she wanted to dig a long tunnel all the way under the house to one of the 2 other sides, and there is a long paved driveway too. I wonder if they dig burrows without exits when they plan to have kids.

 

[flowerbug]

while surveying one of the bean gardens yesterday i noticed a bean that might be a new one (a cross). today i took a bit closer look and could not resist sampling to see if it was edible. it was.

painted pony and purple dove cross. i hope it will get plenty of seeds as i really hate it when i only have a few to work with... and really going to be impatient to have to wait for dry seeds and will be excited to see what the seeds look like.

massive numbers of bees of many kinds all over the place, including in the beans. thank you Momma Nature!

 

[flowerbug]

i have at least two plants out there with this type of pod and in the right place for them to be the cross of Purple Dove and Painted Pony. now i have to be patient and hope the groundhog will ignore them long enough (it did eat half a bean) to get well formed seeds before i pick them to finish drying inside.

 

[Blue-Jay]

i have at least two plants out there with this type of pod and in the right place for them to be the cross of Purple Dove and Painted Pony. now i have to be patient and hope the groundhog will ignore them long enough to get well formed seeds before i pick them to finish drying inside.

So do you think they were crossed this year or are they a cross that happened last year? If they crossed this year it wouldn't affect the pods or even the seed. The seed mother will still produce seed and pods this year that will still look like the variety that the seed mother normally produces. It will be next year when things change if the cross happened this year.