Bean Pickin' Made Pleasant

I was right that if bean picking was made a little more pleasant that I would keep up with it better.  Picking about every other day seems to be about the right schedule to catch the beans before they get too stringy.

The trellises are just about all grown over now and make a quiet, secluded little tunnel.  I can go in there and feel like I'm in another world, quiet and cool, and the beans are easy to reach.  I pick from inside the tunnel and then go around the outside of it and there's not much bending and stooping.

As you can see, the top is almost solid leaves.

Each of these little blossoms turns into a bean.

I can' let them get much bigger than this because they get too tough and stringy.  I've learned that when I snap them, if there is a string, I might as well just throw it out because I really do not like to eat stringy beans.  I guess I should find a different heirloom bean that doesn't have strings.

I'm not the only one who likes this quiet spot.  A bird has built its nest of sticks right there.  I haven't seen the bird yet, so I don't know what kind it is.

And Jasper likes to come hang out with me while I work in the garden.  She really is a pest, but I can't blame her for wanting to be in here.

Twilight

Today is the kind of day I love.  Got my yard work done this morning; left around noon to do non-farm stuff; arrived home to find a few of the young chickens had escaped from the pen, but were still alive and not eaten by an eager puppy; tested the new "Pocket Hose", which worked like a charm; did my garden work in the cool of the evening.

A very productive day and proof of successful gardening and dog training (keeping fingers crossed) and I'm enjoying the beauty at twilight.

I still have a lot of area to fill, but here's a part of my front flower bed that is finally filling in.  

And more on the other side of the walk.

The bean trellises that Jordan built so I could walk under them.  They're proving to be successful and I'm picking the beans already.  Also, looks lovely.

Cornrows with marigolds.

The surprise sunflowers are blooming nicely.

Ginger attacks an unconcerned Harry.

Collaborative Efforts

I've been thinking about bean trellises all winter.  Last year, I hated picking the string beans because I had to crawl around on the ground scrounging through the wad of vines growing on the scrimpy (is that a word?) tomato cage things I used (well, truthfully, I really dislike picking anything any time).  So I was trying to think of some kind of structure that the vines could grow on that would be more accessible.  Something that would be cheap and utilize what we already had on the farm.

I thought about using some old cattle panels like we did a couple of years ago to make tomato cages, only taller so I could walk under them and have access to the beans growing on the inside of the trellis.  They've been very useful and I've already set them up and planted the tomatoes under them this year.

Obviously, I don't want to have to crawl through the middle of this.

Jordan and I put our heads together and came up with these and I'm very excited.

I described what I wanted - that I needed to be able to walk under it and easily pick the beans from all sides; that it needed to be cheap; light enough for me to be able to move around without having to ask for help.

Jordan suggested making a frame out of wood and attaching field fencing (we have unused rolls of fencing that we don't have any plans for) to it.  With a little more discussion, we designed this shape of frame and put the fencing up over the top in a U-shape.

Isn't this cool?  I hope they work as well as I think they will.  Jordan built these in just a couple of hours with treated two-by-two lumber and they were under 20 bucks a piece, not counting the fencing because we already had that.  They are approximately six feet high, so that I can walk under and still reach the beans over my head if they grow that high.  Although, it just occurred to me that if the beans grow on the very top and don't hang down, I won't be able to reach them.  Hm.  There always seems to be some unforeseen glitch.  Oh well, we'll see.  The vines may not grow that high.