Butterbeans planted - July 20, 2024

The Husband and I went to the garden about 9 this morning to erect a fence for the pole butterbeans.  We used T-posts and chicken wire, raising the chicken wire high enough off the ground to get a hoe under it for future weeding.  

But the butterbean seeds I ordered last week had not arrived, so we couldn't plant. 

We left the garden about noon, and I came straight home and checked my email from the seed company to see when the seeds would arrive.  The "track package" link sent me to a generic page that said the seeds would be shipped sometime in September.

Oh, heck no!

I called the company.  The dude checked the order and said they were on their way and should arrive within a day or two.  Whew.  Those butterbeans take 88 days to mature.  We're cutting it close.

We ate some lunch, then The Husband went to get diesel for the tractor so he could cut Nanny's front field.  While he was gone, I planted the paniculata hydrangea I bought last week and mostly forgot about.  As I was coming around the house to fill a watering can from the hydrant, a FedEx truck was backing into our driveway.  The driver said, "I come bearing gifts!"  

"That's my butterbean seeds!"

"Butterbeans?" he said.  "MMMMM...I LOVE BUTTERBEANS!"

"Me, too!  With ham in them."

"And some cornbread!"  

"Aw, yeah!"

When I went to the front door to take the butterbean package in, there was another package on the doorstep.   This one contained three hardy lantana plants.  I planted them, then took the butterbean seeds to the garden and planted them.  Then I weeded the rows very well and put down landscape fabric between the rows.  Then I bagged up two contractor bags of debris that we'd left in Nanny's yard last weekend and loaded them into The Husband's truck.  Then I mowed Nanny's back yard until I ran out of gas in the lawnmower.  By that time, it was 5:00.  I'd been in the yard or the garden all day, was covered in dust and dripping sweat.  Time to give it up.  I left the lawnmower where it sat and came home to shower.

It was a mistake to sit down in this chair on the back porch.  I'm hungry, but I wanted to log the butterbean planting date (which I just did with this post), and I wanted to check for replies to a question I'd posted in a gardening group about whether or not to prune the hydrangea I just planted.  (The consensus seems to be either wait until early spring or leave it alone for a year.)  And now I'm even hungrier, but I'm not sure I'm able to get up!