The Ultimatum

I had a talk with my green beans today.

They've been sitting there all summer long doing nothing. Nothing. I've watered them, I've fed them, I've weeded them. The vines are beautiful - full and lush, loaded with blooms. But something goes wrong between the bloomin' and the beanin'; we've harvested one small meal from them the whole summer.

So today I told them, "You've got one week. One week to show me what you've got, or you're outta here."

I explained to them that there are two new rows of green beans sprouting, just on the other side of the tomatoes. Pretty soon, they'll need supporting. The old beans have a good fence. It can be moved, once I get the old bean vines off it. So I repeated my warning: "If you guys haven't wowed me by next weekend, you're history."

We'll see if they listened.

While I was in the garden, I cut four big sunflower heads - big as dinner plates - and put them in the shed to finish drying. If I can figure out how, I'm going to roast them. The rest, I left for the birds to eat.

Thumped the biggest watermelon again (not that I can tell if it's ripe by that method, but it is vaguely satisfying to thump them). Daddy says the curlique will dry up when the melon is ready. This one looks pretty far from dry.

The pumpkin vines have little pumpkins on them, soft-ball-sized, and bigger. Maybe we'll have some home-grown jack-o-lanterns, or at least a pie or two.

For the past couple of weeks, we've had some good rain showers, and the blight-stricken tomatoes have found new leases on life. They're showing new green growth and have begun to bloom again. It'll be interesting to see what they do before frost.

The billiard-ball squash is about ready to eat. I'm excited to see what they're like - would cook some for supper tonight, if I hadn't already told the husband he's taking me out to dinner. The seed packet said that the fruit grows rapidly once it starts, and that is surely the truth; only two days ago, the billiard balls were marbles. I hope they're not too big to eat by tomorrow!

Weekend plans: two buckets of pears await. I intend to make pear butter out of them. Let's hope it turns out better than the peach jam.

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