2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[heirloomgal]

We suddenly have warm weather and the green beans are perking up. Poor things! The Sugar Snap peas are over 9.5 feet tall!

This made me realise something @meadow - my peas did not get stalled by the cool wet weather. They're not 10 feet tall mind you, lol! But they do actually seem more like 'true' cool weather crops because nothing checked their growth, they've just kept on keeping on. Unlike the lettuce that literally waited for heat to start growing. Huh.

Sorry, that wasn't a post about beans.

 

[jbosmith]

Hi, Eleanor, Owner, Grower, & Seed Steward at Great Lakes Staple Seeds here to respond to some posts regarding my company.

I can't speak to Zeedman's experience, but I thought you'd be amused to know that some of your sorghum that I ordered last year came out so nice that my partner won't let me thresh it. She combined it with some 'Amber' that I got from a friend, and it now lives in our kitchen, on top of the cabinet that holds all of my bulk grains, bouquet style.

I was just flipping through Jack Lazor's book the other day and thinking I needed more grain growing space.

 

[jbosmith]

This made me realise something @meadow - my peas did not get stalled by the cool wet weather. They're not 10 feet tall mind you, lol! But they do actually seem more like 'true' cool weather crops because nothing checked their growth, they've just kept on keeping on. Unlike the lettuce that literally waited for heat to start growing. Huh.

My peas in my cold gardens are beautiful this year, while the ones that had 90F heat soon after planting still don't look great. I was snacking on some of the Amplissamo pods today, and they are quite good when eaten like a little snow pea!

Sorry, that wasn't a post about beans.

I snuck in a post about sorghum to unintentionally make you look good.

 

[Decoy1]

@heirloomgal re Noir de Belgique; it's a legit variety. Its full name in French was 'Noir hâtif de Belgique'.
Hopefully it does well this summer, so there will be plenty of seed to try it early as a forcing bean next season

From Denaiffe, 1906:

View attachment 49855

Vilmorin's description:
View attachment 49856

Very pleased to have this history as I’m growing Noir de Belgique too - from the same source. Thanks for the great research.

 

[flowerbug]

well the deer have sure cleaned out the North Garden, there were a few areas they were not eating many of the plants so i was hoping i'd get some results from those but when i went out this morning even all of those are now gone. i've never had this many of my bulk beans get taken out by the deer so it's been a surprise this year how it has gone. my other large bulk bean garden is just now sprouting and short of camping out there for the next few weeks i don't think i can keep the deer away from those once they find the sprouts. so i expect to be cleaned out there too. i'm probably not going to replant. i have other projects which need to get done.

in more positive bean news the beans in the gardens inside the fence are doing ok. i'm weeding through the gardens before the purselane takes over so i get a good look at each plant.

 

[heirloomgal]

well the deer have sure cleaned out the North Garden, there were a few areas they were not eating many of the plants so i was hoping i'd get some results from those but when i went out this morning even all of those are now gone. i've never had this many of my bulk beans get taken out by the deer so it's been a surprise this year how it has gone. my other large bulk bean garden is just now sprouting and short of camping out there for the next few weeks i don't think i can keep the deer away from those once they find the sprouts. so i expect to be cleaned out there too. i'm probably not going to replant. i have other projects which need to get done.

in more positive bean news the beans in the gardens inside the fence are doing ok. i'm weeding through the gardens before the purselane takes over so i get a good look at each plant.

I'm so sorry for you @flowerbug I hope they move along and find some new things to eat instead of your beans.

 

[heirloomgal]

All weekend I kept bumping into a single, fleshy rabbit. I would turn corners and there it would go, scampering off. I noticed this evening he actually is eating some of my lettuce leaves. I placed the cavy cage over most of them, for tonight anyway. Do rabbits ever bother fairly established beans? Nearly all the pole beans are climbing, and the bush beans are mostly flowering, though not all. I wonder if I should be worried? I set the dog after him this afternoon just to give him a fright, but I doubt that will be a permanent state of mind for him.

 

[jbosmith]

All weekend I kept bumping into a single, fleshy rabbit. I would turn corners and there it would go, scampering off. I noticed this evening he actually is eating some of my lettuce leaves. I placed the cavy cage over most of them, for tonight anyway. Do rabbits ever bother fairly established beans? Nearly all the pole beans are climbing, and the bush beans are mostly flowering, though not all. I wonder if I should be worried? I set the dog after him this afternoon just give him a fright, but I doubt that will be a permanent state of mind for him.

I had a baby rabbit get trapped inside the electric fence around my garden last year, and it chewed through the base of several beans, leaving the tops to wither. That said, it's the only time I've seen one do that.

Setting the hounds on them is a good plan! Our back yard is (admittedly unintentionally) setup so that the dog can patrol the entire outside of the garden fence, and I haven't seen a rabbit or woodchuck in the yard all of this summer.

 

[jbosmith]

Token bean trellis picture, mostly so that @heirloomgal can see what I mean when I tell her how far ahead she is. These are Seneca Allegheny Pinto. The garlic in the background is mine but the stuff in the foreground is the farm owner's.

 

[heirloomgal]

Wow @jbosmith ! What a fantastic photo! I am fascinated by your bean trellis system. Could you post a little about how you did that? Equally amazing is how utterly weed proofed your garden is!