Bean Counter

That's right ... I'm counting on my beans!

The 'rattlesnake' and 'garden of eden' pole beans have reached the top of the string trellis. Lettuce and arugula are growing down the center of the bed. The bean vegetation is supposed to provide some shade for the greens, extending their growing season. I'll let you know how that works out.

The 'jade' bush beans had very poor germination this season, despite multiple plantings. I used last year's seeds, mind you, but they looked viable to me ... no brown spots, not shriveled and dried up. Shouldn't they last more than one year?

One full bed of 'pink-eyed, purple-hulled' cow peas have sprouted and are growing well. We missed these beans last year. There were no seeds available! Today I planted more of these seeds ... ~ 15 feet or so ... to fill in the end of the bed recently empty after the harvest of the fava beans. I planted the rest of the bed in 'black' beans which I plan to dry on the plants.

A nice row of Asian long beans are growing where edamame should be growing. I could not get the soy beans to grow on the left side of this bed - again, despite multiple plantings! A few sugar snaps are growing down the center (terrible rate of germination this year) and a complete row of edamame on the right side. A few edamame stragglers are growing at the far end of the long beans.

The excuse I have for such poor germination of my legumes this year ... I think the seeds may have simply rotted in the ground due to the cool and damp spring.