When You Know You’ve Got It Bad (for Beans)

When you know you’ve got it bad (for beans) is after you put in five hours from 7AM till noon, mostly maintenance at this point, since everything for summer is planted (can one ever say that definitively?), and you wrap it up (2 or 3 times), come in and eat breakfast, which you never got around to doing, but it’s a real treat because Zackary’s nanny next door brought you a freshly baked, melt-in-your mouth, flan-like dessert to eat with your tea, get a good shower and wash your dirty garden clothes, and put on a nice white T-shirt and black leggings and sandals, which you would never wear to garden (and you do this purposefully, so you know you will not wander back out and start working), and you head for the computer to work on the next episode of “Late Bloomer” (shot on the Summer Solstice), but, first, you think, let me finish this last cup of tea in the garden and enjoy my handiwork from the morning. Then, this happens.

Kaye’s cup of tea resting on the fence

To my surprise, I notice I have ripe Contender beans.

Bean plants on corner of parkway, with pineapple guava, tomatillo, and encroaching pumpkin vine (can you spot it?)

Which means, I needed to harvest them.

Tray of fresh-picked Contender beans – Click photo to order seeds

I discover a Monarch caterpillar on the beans and run for my camera. I find it on the ground, photograph it and since it is not full-size, return it to the milkweed.

Small 5th instar Monarch caterpillar

I notice on one of the bean plants, the beans are grayish, and I fear that is mildew, or something, which I’ve never had on beans. Help me out?

Grey powder on beans

I quickly calculate, even though I succession-planted beans this year, with at least seven varieties of pole and bush, that I would have no beans in two weeks.

Large pot freshly planted with bean seed

Before you could say “Kentucky Wonder,” I had located the only spot I could find, a large pot that resides next to a slatted fence, and had planted about two dozen beans in it.

Kentucky Wonder Pole Bean seed from Botanical Interests – Click photo to order seeds

And now my hands were dirty again, as I’d thrown away two pairs of work gloves earlier, so I planted bare.

Dirty hand

Because all that hanging out on the corner of the parkway made me appreciate my newly-opened flowers, I had to photograph them. Then, I came in.

California Poppy with Desert Bluebells

Gardening is endlessly fascinating. This morning, I spotted my first Monarch butterfly in months, Monarch caterpillar, June bug (smashed it, but was it before or after it laid eggs?), milkweed bug (ditto), aphids, spiders, lady beetle, hummingbird, towhees, whitefly, and a myriad of tiny little indistinguishable insects on my eggplant.

When you sit outside slathered in citronella essential oil while the mosquitos are buzzing around your ears, like I did last night, enjoying the last vestige of daylight because looking at your garden is way more fascinating than anything else, you know you’ve got it bad (which means, good!).  When did you know you had it bad for gardening? Thanks for reading! Please subscribe and share. – Kaye

Stock up on Bean Seeds!

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Tags: biodiversity, critters, curbside gardening, do-it-yourself, farming on small scale, flowers, gardening, gardening web series, green your world, growing your own vegetables, Kaye Kittrell Late Bloomer, Monarch Caterpillar, organic, Photography, Plant photography, plants, seeds, urban gardening, vegetables, warm season, web series

Category: Curbside Gardening, Monarch Butterfly, Vegetables, Warm Season