Designer Bean Poles

Early Sunday morning, between bouts of rain, when I went to the tomato patch with a cup of coffee to stroll the perimeter, I spied the yard-long beans at the far edge of the plot. While devising my tepee system for the other garden plot, I'd completely forgotten about these beans. I had planted only one pack of seeds, enough for one short row. They were old seeds, and I had expected that they would not even sprout, but, behold, every seed had come up. Presumably, they'll need staking, too. But, since there's just one row, the two-row system I'd made for the other beans would be overkill here. I'd have to come up with another plan.

After making my loop around the tomato patch, I headed back to the house. On the way, I stopped to get something from my Jeep, and ended up cleaning out all the books, cups, and receipts from the passenger seat. Beneath all the clutter, I found a pack of giant sunflower seeds I'd bought earlier in the week. Cool! Into the garden they'll go, as soon as the ground dries a little! I brought them inside and stuck them in the pocket of my gardening apron.

The next day, while I was driving and pondering how I was going to support the yard-long beans, I remembered a conversation I'd had with another gardener last year. He plants his running beans in the corn row, and simply lets the beans run up the corn.

The one time I tried growing corn, raccoons got every single ear. I have no intention of planting corn, ever again.

Then, I remembered the giant sunflower seeds.

They'll have stalks as big as my wrist.

I hurried home and, braving the mud, stuffed a sunflower seed into the ground between each bean plant.

I probably should have planted the sunflowers first, to give them a head start, but this may still work, if those sunflower seeds sprout and get busy growing right away.

And won't they look cute?

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Support System

Last week, I noticed that the green beans are putting up runners, already. In the past, I waited too long to put up a support for them, and the runners twisted themselves into thick green ropes before I gave them a "trellis" to climb. This year, I decided to get the jump on them, and so I spent Saturday afternoon cutting bamboo canes and using them to rig up a support system for the beans.

First, I drove tall wooden tomato stakes into the middle of the two rows at about 6 ft. intervals, then I wove a strand of hemp twine up one side of the stakes (looping it around each stake) and back down the other, creating a double strand of twine between each stake. The twine strands need to be fairly taut, but not necessarily guitar-string tight. It'll tighten up in the next step. (Last year, I used bailing wire instead of twine. It made for a really strong support, but was a pain to remove in the fall. Let's cross our fingers and hope that this twine doesn't stretch and sag and let the vines collapse before the season is up.)

The next step is to set the canes. I stuck each cane into the space between the twine strands, and gave it a propellor-like twist before driving it into the ground in front of (not behind) the bean plants. (This is what tightens the string.) I spaced the canes about a foot apart. The result looked something like this:



This is last year's fence, done with metal posts and bailing wire instead of wood and twine. It was guitar-string tight, and strong enough to hold an old, leaky water hose (pierced extra times for good measure) laid down the length of the upright "V" for use as a sprinkler.

I suppose if I wanted to get fancy with it, I could tie strands of twine horizontally between the canes to give the runners a more convenient hold, but the system worked well enough last year without additional strands. Training the runners up canes at one foot intervals created spaces that I could reach into to get at the beans that hung on the inside of the teepee.

I have two rows of running beans (lima) left to stake, but first I must go on another cane-hunting expedition. Fortunately, it appears that the lima beans have not yet considered putting out runners, so I may have a little wiggle room, time-wise.

However, it has rained here all weekend - not a pounding flood, just frequent gentle showers, punctuated with bouts of sunshine. The tomatoes look like they've grown a foot in the past couple of days. So does the grass between them. Though they appear to have just been sitting there, doing nothing, the lima beans may explode with runners in the next few days.

Thus, on the gardening agenda this week is to (1) set more wooden stakes and create another trellis in the lima bean rows, and (2) run the tiller in the tomato patch when the ground dries a little.

Geez...it seems like I just did that!

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Tilling and Staking

Okay, got the tomatoes staked, and the whole tomato patch tilled. Some "yard-long" bean seeds that I planted earlier in the week have begun to sprout. Peppers are coming along fine. Later in the day, I added basil, sage, dill, parsley, and oregano plants in the tomato patch, and eggplants and dill in the original garden plot. I planted rosemary and bay laurel, too, but I may move them tomorrow, as they are supposed to be perennials, and I don't want them to be plowed under next year.




My gardening assistant - having volunteered to help, mind you - was happier than he looks when the job was done. Or maybe he'd just noticed that I'd bent the crap out of the wagon tongue before he joined me in the garden.







But just LOOK what I found
while I was working!













The original garden plot is still too wet to till. Gourd-y, the scarecrow, stands vigil in the beans until I can get out there to work.

Here we go....

Today, it's about 85 degrees, and the sun is shining. It hasn't rained for a couple of days. The last time I was in the tomato patch, grass was poking up between the rows. Looks like it's time for a tillin'.

Rumor has it that the little black tiller is coughing and sputtering. I'm thinking that whoever tried to crank it forgot the crucial step of talking to it, first. It's especially necessary the first time out. So, as soon as I get on my gardening attire and hitch the wagon to the lawnmower, I'm heading to the shed for a chat with Blackie and, hopefully, an afternoon of tilling.

When that's done, if I have any energy left, I'm also going to set some fence posts so I can do a Florida weave with the clothesline rope I just bought at the garden center. I'd like to get the stakes up for the running beans, too, but that's not likely to happen today.

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Rain, rain, go away...for a little while

I needn't have worried about watering my seeds. The old folks say that if it rains on the first day of the month, it'll rain for the next 15 days. It rained on the 1st of May, and nearly every day since then. A few of the tomatoes that Nanny planted in the "original" garden plot have drowned. The new tomato patch, which is situated on a hillside, looks good so far. (Later, I may have to dig moats around each tomato to keep the water from running downhill.)

The beans came up well. Squash and okra are up. Cucumbers, which I planted well over a week ago, are just starting to show themselves.

I'd like to plant more things, but if I were to step into the garden right now, we'd need heavy equipment to pull me out.

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