2025 Little Easy Bean Network - Growers Of The Future Will Be Glad We Saved

[Blue-Jay]

Hello! I am sitting waiting for the latest storm to rumble over and wondering if there will be a dry day coming up to dig the garlic. It has been a “regular” rain summer after three years of drought and I had forgotten how nice and lush everything grows (including the weeds of course).

Three years of drought how awful. I hope the one year old drought we are having here doesn't go that long. We are in moderate drought but with the heat that we have had this summer if I had not watered all my beans I'm sure would be dead by now. I haven't watered now for two weeks and tomorrows forecast is for rain starting around 7 am and going on and off all the way to 2 am Thursday morning. So many times the rain forcasted just evaporates when the day arrives. If no rain tomorrow I will be at it again with the garden hoses.

All the beans are blooming or have bloomed. Many are growing pods and this is the time of the year when the beans are at their greatest water requirement if the seed is going to be well filled out and of good germination.

 

[ducks4you]

Our Illinois rain this year is SO SPOTTY!!! DH and I drove into C-U on Saturday, driving into and under a shelf cloud.
It.poured.buckets of rain There, not a Drop at my house 25 miles SE.
THEY had flooding...we had dust bunnies. Such has been our summer and the past few years.
A friend believes it's bc of those stupid 90K lbs x 3 wind turbines farm south of us...
Can't do it Now bc of my knee, BUT, If I can get my gutters cleaned out I have a nice new rain barrel in the box at the ready.
THE plan was/will be to hook it up to the SE gutter spout and hook a 50 ft hose--which I know will reach bc I have watered the front beds with it in the past--that will empty directly into my cistern adjacent to the house.
@Blue-Jay, IF you can set up something like That, your crops might have a better chance.
The nitrates in rain water are better for the plants, anyway.
Cheers for future irrigation at your place and mine...

 

[SusanneinHastings]

I've been scratching my head wondering why this bean might be called 'Black Snake'. It came to me today!
View attachment 76534

Can you tell me where you got the black snake bean? All I can find when I search is some kind of gourd, and Chinese yardlong beans.

I love your birch log bean pole garden. Very chic!

 

[heirloomgal]

Can you tell me where you got the black snake bean? All I can find when I search is some kind of gourd, and Chinese yardlong beans.

I love your birch log bean pole garden. Very chic!

Thanks!

I got it in a seed trade with a fellow who collects very rare seeds, lots of Appalachian beans and native varieties as well. I'm not sure where he got it from, but he knows a lot of people in the heirloom seeds collecting circles. I'm guessing he got it from one of his connections. The next time I talk with him I'll have to ask it's origin! I couldn't find anything about it either, but most of the beans on his trade list were like that.