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

[flowerbug]

Woke to the first snow of the year and had nearly 6" on the ground by dark. No plans to leave the house this week but will finish up sorting the last few varieties and get a box ready to send to @Blue-Jay next week. Still more photos to take and notes to update, but I think I can officially say my gardening year has come to an end.

it is so strange to me that people on the southeastern coast have such an early snowfall, but perhaps you are more inland and uphill and so i'm confused? ah, ok, similar zone so you must be inland enough for that to be the case... nevermind...

however, as a postscript i should also note that you had more snow than we had...

 

[heirloomgal]

I finally did a count on this years number of bean varieties.

This is always somewhat thrilling because from start to finish when it comes to growing I don't keep track of numbers, I just plant 'em and hope I can find space. (That's probably a bad strategy, but hey, so far it's worked! lol) So, 140. Not sure of the breakdown between poles, semi's and bushes yet.

I had 3 complete fails as a result of vole related fatalities. 1 from ants. My entire main garden bed was harassed by the voles; my yields were definitely knocked back significantly from plants getting killed 3/4 of the way through the season. It depended on how far along the pods were, luckily most were at least 1/2 way to maturity. The loss was severe but not as bad as it might have been. I have a new plan for 2026 to try and prevent that from happening again. No question about it, this was a bad vole year. But still, I can't complain it was a decent haul.

In early June DH was working outside and 2 baby weasels ran up having a real party playing together. They were so caught up in their game that they almost ran across the top of DH's shoes as they wrestled. Not a common sight for sure. I was confident this was a good omen for rodent pest control, but wow I was wrong about that!

 

[Decoy1]

Yes, 100% true to type. I think I grew 4 plants altogether. In your climate, do you find these a fairly easy to mature bean even if a bit late?

I do find that they’re late but they have made it in time reasonably comfortably. In a cool season it might be quite borderline.

 

[Decoy1]

I finally did a count on this years number of bean varieties.

This is always somewhat thrilling because from start to finish when it comes to growing I don't keep track of numbers, I just plant 'em and hope I can find space. (That's probably a bad strategy, but hey, so far it's worked! lol) So, 140. Not sure of the breakdown between poles, semi's and bushes yet.

I had 3 complete fails as a result of vole related fatalities. 1 from ants. My entire main garden bed was harassed by the voles; my yields were definitely knocked back significantly from plants getting killed 3/4 of the way through the season. It depended on how far along the pods were, luckily most were at least 1/2 way to maturity. The loss was severe but not as bad as it might have been. I have a new plan for 2026 to try and prevent that from happening again. No question about it, this was a bad vole year. But still, I can't complain it was a decent haul.

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In early June DH was working outside and 2 baby weasels ran up having a real party playing together. They were so caught up in their game that they almost ran across the top of DH's shoes as they wrestled. Not a common sight for sure. I was confident this was a good omen for rodent pest control, but wow I was wrong about that!

That’s extremely impressive. A great achievement.

 

[ruralmamma]

it is so strange to me that people on the southeastern coast have such an early snowfall, but perhaps you are more inland and uphill and so i'm confused? ah, ok, similar zone so you must be inland enough for that to be the case... nevermind...

however, as a postscript i should also note that you had more snow than we had...

I'm located in central WV with an elevation of just over 1,700'. My in-laws live five miles away in the next county and at a lower elevation and we generally average 4-5" more snow. The neighboring counties to the east have even higher elevations and more accumulation.

When I moved here I discovered that this area is a week or two behind for wild blackberries, ramps and other wild edibles than where I grew up in a neighboring county. That actually was an advantage as it meant I could help my grandmother harvest and process berries and then she would come help with mine a week or so later. I've always been one to push the limits and have successfully harvested jicama the last 4-5 years, though I start the plants indoors in February and baby them along until late May.