Help! The runner beans have staged a coup! 19 August 2009

They have taken over the front garden!

Runner beans compared to the shrub (in background) - they're about the same size!

As you may have noticed in the previous photo, the runner beans have even taken over a tomato trellis!

blooms and a baby bean on runner bean 'Painted Lady'

A third runner bean has joined the bloomfest, this one known as 'Potato Bean.' Some people say Potato Bean is synonymous with 'Aztec Half Runner' but at least for my source, this is not true, as Potato Bean is much taller. Its flowers are just as large as Scarlet Runner and its cultivar 'Painted Lady,' though as you can see, being white, they are not quite as stunning to behold to most people.

Still here 8 August 2009

Cup Plant blooms, sunlit on 27 July

I’m still here.  As those of you that personally know me already know, personal issues have kept me busy of late.  Today was the first day in a while that I got to spend much time in the garden.  The nursery lost so much business in our extremely cold, rainy June that they’ve already brought out their “buy one get one free” sale on all but the largest perennials, so I recently bought some more plants there, and today I planted most of them.  One was the relatively new echinacea, ‘Fragrant Angel,’ which is a creamy color somewhere between soft cream and lemon yellow, and while it is a bit fragrant, it is not as fragrant as its name might lead you to believe.  (Here is one of many pages about it on the web, which also notes the lack of strong fragrance, which many gardeners find important to note as many catalogs make it sound like it’s ridiculously fragrant.)  It was originally quite expensive, about twice the price of their regular perennials (maybe even a bit more), but I got it at regular perennial price in their sale, which quite pleased me, and to be honest, was the biggest reason I bought it instead of buying one of the other echinaceas in the sale.  Though I did also like its off-white color to provide some contrast to my three pure white echinaceas.  Even though I didn’t have any more space near them after planting the several more smaller-potted echinaceas I already got earlier this summer, and thus it is off by itself, though with its more daisy-like appearance than other echinaceas’ lowered petals (also noted at the link), perhaps it is best it’s closer to the shasta daisy than to the rest of its clan.

Anyhow, I also planted another hyssop (much larger in size than the three already in the garden, and blooming, unlike them), two more perennial salvias (Salvia nemerosa to be specific; ‘Blue Hill’ and a deep rose one which is a nice complement to all the mauve and pale pink flowers in the garden, as I have a tendency to pick those latter two shades of pink), another agastache, another rock cress, another pineapple sage, and…I think something else.  I also transplanted a mountain mint and the lemon verbena.  It’s been so windy this summer that the tall plants near the ‘wind tunnel’ are pretty much permanently on severe tilt (some at ninety degree angles or more!), and thus are shading the lemon verbena more than it otherwise would have been, so I hope its new home is sunnier.   I also finally FINALLY planted the poor front-garden dahlias (3 ‘Winsome,’ which is probably my favorite glad, as well as 1 each of ‘Thomas Edison,’ ‘Juanita,’ ‘Prince Noir,’ ‘Jersey’s Beauty,’ and ‘Kidd’s Climax,’ all from Old House Gardens)  – all of them are more heat-tolerant than most dahlias, which typically prefer the warm-but-not-hot days and cool nights of their originating land), and at the bottom of the box I’d been storing them in, discovered a gladiola that had been unwittingly buried beneath them (‘Atom,’ also from OHG, as are my other glads) and so planted it with the other short glads.  The glads have been growing quite vigorously in the warmer weather and the sporadic deep rains and with the manure mulch, but they haven’t budded yet.  Many other gardens have blooming glads now, though, although I imagine they planted theirs before I did.  I see more gardens with glads every year here and I am happy to see them coming somewhat back into fashion after decades out of style in gardens.  I also see the gorgeous huge blooms for sale at the farmers’ market every year now, which makes me happy too.   Anyway, I then used the last of the manure to mulch the dahlias and glad ‘Atom.’  I’ve still got the rest of the dahlias to plant in the back garden, which is often 10 degrees F colder (sometimes more) than the front garden on summer days.

In addition to ‘Atom,’ the glads I’m growing are:  ‘Apricot Lustre,’ ‘Bibi,’ ‘Elvira,’ ‘Fidelio,’ ‘Friendship,’ ‘Lucky Star,’ ‘Melodie,’ ‘Spic and Span,’ ‘Violet Queen,’ and ‘White Friendship’ (the last one isn’t on OHG’s website any more, but I suppose the name is pretty self-explanatory – it’s a white version of ‘Friendship’).  That sounds like a lot, but like with the dahlias, with several of them, I only planted one corm.  Also like the dahlias, I planted them in clumps with two to four types in each clump.  (I also tend to do this with hardy bulbs, though in those cases, they aren’t always the same species.)  I base my clumpings loosely on color, height/size, and bloom time.

One of my mums and one of my asters are already blooming, as has been common in other gardens in recent weeks.  I don’t know if it was the gloomy weather or the cold weather, or a combination of both, that triggered their early bloom.  (Some people posit that it’s short day length that triggers the fall-blooming flowers; others posit that it’s colder temperatures.  As far as I know, nobody has yet proven which is true, or whether for some plants it is a combination of both.)  Both of my blooming ones typically bloom in September here, sometimes into October, and some asters start blooming in October.  I’ve noted that most of my other asters and some of my other mums, as well as some of my goldenrods, are also already budded up.  In some gardens literally all of the mums or asters are already blooming; in many cases they began by mid-July.  It is odd to see so many of them blooming now here, and I find it sad that the autumn flower display, normally so gorgeous here in New England, will be somewhat less than normal.

My scarlet runner beans have grown rampantly this summer – many of the vines are eight feet now – and then this week they abruptly finally started to bloom.  So far the species (Scarlet Runner Bean) and cultivar ‘Painted Lady’ are blooming.  I suppose it is not surprising to hear that scarlet runner bean has scarlet flowers.  ‘Painted Lady’ has flowers that are half a bit of a softer red and half white.  They are climbing tall poles together (though not tall enough for them, but really, who would want to get out a ladder and harvest beans at nine feet anyway?) and look quite pretty blooming together.  My other runner beans are not as rampant (though in fairness, they are not supposed to be) though they have been growing strongly as well; they have yet to bloom.  Many of my other beans (garden beans, not runner beans) are blooming now as well; the purple ones are still blooming in shades of purple, and have been joined by other bean flowers in shades of yellow, white, and cream.   The peas died in the heat wave we recently had, but astonishingly to me, some of the fava/broad beans survived and have begun putting out new flowers now that it is comparably cooler (mid-70s today, but low 80s in recent days) and sunny again.  This is by far the longest they have ever lived for me in this climate.  My tomatoes have grown a lot (finally!) but still haven’t flowered.  The cucumber dropped its second cucumber as well, but has two more cucumbers forming (they formed before it dropped the second one).  As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve never grown a cucumber before.  It seems to dislike wildly inconsistent temperatures/weather.  Unfortunately we’ve had those a lot here this year.  Probably more than usual.  A high of 60 F was not uncommon for us earlier this summer, though that would have been quite uncommon in past years!

Runner beans 6 June 2009

Yesterday I went back to the nursery to stock up on bamboo poles/stakes.  Making the trellises for the peas and the (ornamental) flowering vines, and the support thing for the fava/broad beans (which consists of a bunch of poles with a single length of garden twine looped around them to help keep the fava/broad beans from falling over) used up most of the stakes I had from last year, and since all those things are still growing quite well in this unusually cool weather, I couldn’t recycle any of the stakes yet.  I was just outside staking the rest of the runner beans and pole beans that have already sprouted, and I’ve already used up nearly all of the 4 ft. and 5 ft. stakes I bought!  (The 4 ft. stakes come in packs of 25 and the 5 ft. in packs of 10.)  I also bought a pack of 2 ft. stakes (also 25 per pack) for dwarf plants that might need some support, like my edamames (soybeans) which are still slowly sprouting (unfortunately I think the hot day lulled them into beginning to sprout and now the cooler day has quite slowed it down) and the bush runner beans.  The nursery’s bamboo stakes come painted in a greenish-blue color, which I guess is meant to make them blend in (gods forbid that a pole actually appear in the American landscape), but which I actually find rather irritating because it tends to rub off.  By the time I finished staking, my palms were coated in blue-green!  It took five washings before my hands were free of paint.  The hardware store used to carry unpainted bamboo poles; I wish they still did.

Doing the staking allowed me to take stock of what’s going on with the new sprouts.  The scarlet runner bean (species) and runner beans ‘Potato Bean,’ ‘Four Corners,’ and ‘White Aztec’ appear to have had 100% germination or nearly so (depending on the species).  Runner beans ‘White Emergo’ and ‘Painted Lady’ are partially sprouted but not fully yet, and the one I got from another local gardener later than I planted the rest, ‘White Aztec Half-Runner,’ still has the tiniest of sprouts (I suspect that, like the edamames, the hot weather fooled it).  The purple-podded beans have similarly had erratic germination, with some having more plants up than others.  (See recent entries for descriptions of the purple-podded beans; see the bottom of this post for descriptions of the runner beans.)  The garbanzo bean still hasn’t sprouted, so by this point I am wondering whether it’s going to do so.  One plant of the ‘Aztec White’ appears to have had some damage to its leaves, but there was no pest visible so I don’t know what it was.  Some sites allege that ‘Potato Bean’ and ‘White Aztec Half-Runner’ are the same thing, but I don’t know if that is true.  I also don’t know if my ‘Aztec White’ is the same as the ‘White Aztec Half-Runner’ that I was given.  We shall see!

Yesterday I potted up the two daturas I mail-ordered (‘Ballerina Yellow,’ a double yellow, and ‘Evening Fragrance,’ a single white) and the old-fashioned petunias that I also mail-ordered (Petunia integrifolia, ‘Old-Fashioned Climbing,’ and ‘Rainmaster’).   I’ve nearly used up the outdoor potting soil.  I’ll have to find someone to give me a ride to get some more, as I’ve still got some plants to pot up, and some of the ones I overwintered could also do with larger pots.

Yesterday I noted that there were many more sprouts of mesclun – all four pots are now showing many sprouts – and that there were signs of life in the first of the seeded-in big pots, the one with miscellaneous greens (basically, any green that isn’t lettuce or baby leaf).  I haven’t checked on them yet today.  [Edit after checking More mesclun and miscellaneous greens up, amd the first sprouts in the huge pot of lettuce.]

I’ve been more diligent about cleaning and refilling the bird bath at least once a day, and have found the birds coming more frequently to it as a result.  Sometimes they get so impatient for me to leave the back garden that they give up while I’m still out there and come back at a later time!  I’ve found the American Robins, Blue Jays, and House Sparrows seem to especially like it so far.  I have an on-the-ground bird bath that simulates bathing in a big puddle, excepting that it’s raised a bit (vs. a puddle) to give them something to sit on.  It’s made in such a way that it gets deeper as it goes to one end, so that there’s a side that’s easiest to bathe in and a side that’s easiest to drink from, but so far this summer everybody seems to just be bathing in it.  Last year the squirrels drank from it, but I haven’t seen them do so yet this year (though they could be doing it while I’m not looking; it’s certainly possible more types of birds are using it while I’m not looking as well).

Runner beans

In America, runner beans are usually cultivated as ornamentals.  I don’t know why, as they are tasty!

Scarlet Runner Bean (Phaseolus coccineus) A Mexican native that was popularized by the great eighteenth-century English garden writer, Philip Miller, the Scarlet-runner is still very popular in Europe for the edible bean. Jefferson planted this lovely vine with its showy scarlet flowers in 1812, noting: “Arbor beans white, crimson, scarlet, purple…on long walk of garden.” In 1806 the Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon wrote that it was grown in America exclusively as an ornamental.  Whether for beauty or utility, sow the large, mottled seeds in a sunny part of your garden after the last frost. Seeds should be planted about one inch deep in well-prepared soil. The Scarlet-runner will climb up to twenty feet, and requires a trellis, arbor, fence, or bean poles to support its vining habit. Beans may be harvested and eaten when young and tender.

Painted Lady This bi-colored variety of Scarlet-runner Bean, with showy scarlet and white flowers, is an heirloom of garden origin. This tropical American species was popularized by 18th-century garden writer, Philip Miller. Jefferson planted Scarlet-runner vine in 1812 for its beauty and shade, noting: “Arbor beans white, crimson, scarlet, purple…on long walk of garden.” Sow the large, mottled seeds 1-inch deep in well-prepared soil after the last frost. Climbs to 20 feet and requires a trellis, arbor, fence, or beanpoles for support. Beans are edible.

Aztec White White flowered variety that produces large, white seeds. The fastest maturing scarlet runner at the Conservation Farm (4000 ft.).

Four Corners A beautiful, deep purple and black bean from the Navajo Reservation. Originally collected in the late 1980s. Produces bright red flowers that attract hummingbirds. Does not like intense heat of the low desert, but is prolific at the Conservation Farm at 4000′.

Potato Bean An heirloom that was sent to us from a family in Oregon. They had been growing it for many years. It produces huge, fat, white beans that are among the largest I have seen! Great for cooking. Vining plants set good yields. Delicious and hard to find.

White Emergo 80 days — Similar to ‘Scarlet Runner’ but with white flowers.  Vigorous growth with prolific yields of long, slender pods.  The beans are quite good when pods are picked young and tender.  They are full of flavor and fleshy with a fine texture.  Pick regularly to ensure a continuous crop.

Aztec Half-Runner Originally cultivated by the Anasazi, the “ancients” of the Southwest, these plump, large white beans make a hearty, thick soup. 4-5 in. pods are particularly succulent and delicious raw or cooked. 3 ft. runners do not require staking. (60-75 days)  [Since I got these from a local gardener, I pasted a description from a random webpage. I’m not positive this is the same bean, as I was told the seeds I was given would max out at a foot or less.  We shall see!]

Another day, another update 23 May 2009

I’m trying to be better about updating, so I’m trying to update at least every couple of days.  In that spirit, here is what’s going on in the garden today:

*After two days of heat (mid-90s F two days ago, around 90 F yesterday) and sunshine, the weather has drastically changed, and the temperature is cooler now, at midday, than it was when I went to bed last night (when it was in the mid-70s F).  It’s in the 50s F with a cool ocean breeze and it is thickly grey.  We have had a very dry May after a cool, wet early spring, and it was quite nice to feel a medium rain as I was walking home from the nursery, umbrella-less, this morning.  The rain didn’t last very long (maybe 10-15 minutes), but it continues to look as if it could start again at any moment.  I hope it does.  I continue to believe that no matter what watering devices and watering sources we humans come up with, there’s no substitute for actual real rain for plants.

*Speaking of the nursery:  While there today I got some more annuals –  flowers and coleus (I’ve been disappointed that their selection of herbs has remained pretty static in recent weeks, and am looking forward to the farmers’ market starting this coming week, when I will have new herb plants to choose from!) – and three crop plants, two of them heirloom tomatoes – one each of ‘Sioux’ and an Italian one – and a Japanese cucumber plant, which I think has ‘Kyoto’ in the name.  The potted cucumber actually has two seedlings growing in it instead of one.  We’ll see if they both survive.  ‘Sioux’ is supposed to do better in heat than most tomatoes (which I actually didn’t realize till I brought it home; I just liked the description when I was at the nursery), so I’m thinking of planting it in the front garden instead of in a pot.

*The ‘fruit days’ period (in biodynamic parlance) ends shortly today, so I went out after I got home and sowed a runner bean I was given yesterday, ‘Aztec Half Runner,’ which is supposed to be quite dwarf, about seven inches tall, as well as my edamame (as I discussed possibly doing in my last post) – soy beans ‘Lucky Lion,’ ‘Moon Cake,’ ‘Kouri,’ and ‘Tankuro’ – and the melons (‘Chanterais,’ ‘Hale’s Best Jumbo,’ and the rather dully named ‘Old Original’) and other cucumber, also a Japanese one (‘Soyu’).  I am, in fact, somewhat sensitive to cucumbers, and so I thought I would try growing the ones that we English speakers call ‘Japanese,’ which are supposed to have both a different chemical composition and a different taste than European cucumbers.  ‘Moon Cake’ is a bit of a mystery to me – it seems to barely be offered by any companies (if even that), and even the one that I ordered it from over the winter no longer lists it on their website!  It was just introduced earlier this decade, according to what I read this morning, and is supposed to be much taller than most edamames, averaging 5-6 feet.  My other three are all from Kitazawa Seed Co., one green seeded, one brown seeded, and one black seeded.  (See their descriptions pasted below.)  Green seeded soybeans are by far the most common ones in the US, perhaps because many catalogs erroneously list other seed colors as being only for dry beans (in reality, whether the beans can be eaten fresh has nothing to do with the color of the planted seed).

*The purple-podded beans have started to sprout, joining earliest bean ‘Arikara Yellow.’  So far, ‘Blue Coco,’ ‘Trionfo Violetto,’ and ‘Purple Podded’ are coming up.  (See descriptions pasted below.)  The runner beans have yet to show sprouts.

*I noticed while I was out sowing that the blueberries seem to have doubled in leaf numbers just since I mulched them with compost two days ago.

*The fava/broad beans are doing even better now that it’s cooled off.  They’ve increased their bloom count.  The ants are obsessed with wandering back and forth on them, like they always do.  I’ve never figured out why.  (There are certain other plants in the garden that they are also obsessed with – especially my autumn-blooming colchicums, but only when they’re in bloom.)

*Continuing my disappointment with Cook’s Garden (sure do wish I’d remembered Burpee’s had bought them out before I ordered), they just notified me yesterday that they were finally shipping my shallots.  It had been so long that I had actually forgotten I’d ordered shallots from them!  The notice piously said that they were shipping at the right time for me to plant them in my area, but it is well past the best time to plant shallots here.  Johnny’s Select Seed sent me their shallots a couple of months ago, and Moose Tubers (the root slips division of Fedco Co-Op) sent theirs a few weeks later.  (Both those are in Maine.  Cook’s Garden is farther away, in Pennsylvania.)  Well, hopefully they will be OK planted this coming week (they have yet to arrive), even though they should have been sent earlier.   My already-planted shallots appear to be doing well.

…

Soybean ‘Kouri’ Brown-seeded soybeans are uncommon in the United States. They are highly prized in Japan for their sweeter and nuttier flavor compared to the traditional green/tan seeded soybeans. Even though the seed for planting is brown, you will find the color of the bean dark green at harvest and it retains this color when cooked. The pod’s pubescence is light brown. The plant habit is semi-upright growing about 2 feet tall. Warm day temperatures and cool night temperatures are important for good results. This is an early maturing variety and seeds are sown from early May after danger of all frost to late June and harvested from late July to early September. Boil in salted water and bite or squeeze the beans from the pods directly into your mouth. Maturity: Approx. 85 days  (Kitazawa Seed Co.)

Soybean ‘Tankuro’ In Japan, the black-seeded soybeans are noted as having a richer and sweeter flavor compared to the traditional green/tan seeded soybeans. Even though the seed for planting is black, you will find the color of the bean dark green at harvest and it retains this color when cooked. The pod’s pubescence is light brown. The plant habit is semi-upright growing up to 2½ feet tall. Warm day temperatures and cool night temperatures are important for good results. This is an early maturing variety and seeds are sown from late April after danger of all frost to early June and harvested from mid July to late August. Boil pods in salted water and bite or squeeze the beans from the pods directly into your mouth. Enjoy! Maturity: Approx. 85 days  (Kitazawa Seed Co.)

Soybean ‘Lucky Lion’ This variety of soybean is prized for its high yield and excellent nutty flavor. There are typically 3 beans per each bright green pod. This is a mid-early maturing type variety, indeterminate type and grows about 2 feet tall. Warm day temperatures and cool night temperatures are important for good results. Prepare as an appetizer by boiling pods in salted water and serve cooked beans or “edamame.” Maturity: Approx. 75 days (Kitazawa Seed Co.)

Pole Bean ‘Trionfo Violetto’ Purple climbing French type bean. 75 days. Beautiful bean, long, slim and very crisp. Makes a stunning fresh bean salad when mixed with one of our green and yellow french beans. Turns green when cooked. Like most French type beans, should be picked when no thicker than a pencil for greatest tenderness and best flavor.  (imported from an Italian seed company)

Pole Bean ‘Blue Coco’ 59 days. Distinctive flavor and color. [Pre-1775 French heirloom.] The name ‘Blue Coco’ refers to the bluish-purple color of the pods and the chocolate (coco) color of the seeds. Leaves are green, tinged with purple. The fleshy, slightly curved flattened pods range from 6 to 7-1/2 in. long, and have a nice meaty flavor. Outstanding characteristics of this variety are color and ability to produce under hot, dry conditions. (Southern Exposure Seed Exchange)  I love ‘Blue Coco’ so much that here is a second description about it to entice you: Blue Coco (pre-1775) – Also known as Purple Pod and Blue Podded Pole. One of the oldest of the purple podded pole varieties, this rare variety was known in France as early as 1775. The young pods are delicious harvested young as snap beans and the beige to “coco” colored seeds have a meaty texture when used as a dry bean. The coloration of the dry seed varies with soil and climate. It is very durable and excellent for short season climates because it is quite early for a pole bean and is also very tolerant of adverse conditions. (60 days for snaps) Pole. EXTREMELY RARE. (pasted from Heritage Harvest Seeds in the UK)

Pole Bean ‘Purple Podded Pole’ This is a heavenly, almost fluorescent purple pole bean, hailing from the Ozark mountains. This lovely heirloom beauty was found growing in a garden the 1930’s by the old Henry Fields Seed Company. It is most likely of European origin and probably dating much earlier than that . Very vigorous grower of vines reaching easily over 6 -8 feet , but not out of control like some pole types I have grown. […] These gorgeous snap beans are stringless, nice and meaty . They are less than 1/2 inch across by about 5-7 inches long. The entire bean plant just glows and is quite ornamental with purple vines and veins in the leaves, and as you can see in the photo lovely bi-colored purple flowers as well. Fairly early for a pole sort. Seed is a buff brown color, with a hint of lavender.  (Amishland Seeds)

Plants go in, new plants come 12 July 2008

So typical of gardeners, today I went to the nursery, ideas in my mind of new plants to add to the improvements I just made with yesterday’s plantings, and curious as to what was there in the week since I’d last stopped in (and just looked, not bought) – and of course ended up finding new plants to bring back with me.  The front border is so full now that there’s not really much room left for large-pot plants, just on the back and one side (the other two edges are the hard edges of the retaining wall).  I’ve got an idea in my head to make a second, much smaller border against the house perhaps with hostas and astilbles (that area is both shady and hot, a difficult combination, though I’m not sure if it’s as windy as the rest of the garden), but that’s just a fragment in my head so far.  It would be bordered with rocks dug up from the garden like the current front bed and I generally think it would make a nice complement, and better unify the garden and the house, but it would mean almost all the grass in front would be gone then and I don’t know whether my landlord would really like that, and it would also leave a narrower path to the back yard, increasing the likelihood that people other than me would unintentionally damage plants near the path.

Anyhow, my original point was that the size limits matter more at this time of year because there are so many fewer plants in smaller pots at the nursery.  I ended up getting some more annuals (a number of the ever-shrinking tiny section of small-potted annuals; almost all the remaining annuals at the nursery are in big clumps in big pots) and two more herbs, a third catnip – this one just the straight species rather than the two ornmanetal cultivars I’d already planted, one last year and one this year – and oregano ‘Hopley’s Purple’.  Both of the herbs were in full bloom and the catnip was being wildly attacked by hungry pollinators, whereas the ‘Hopley’s Purple’ was just so pretty to me (looking at my garden, anyone can easily see my weakness for flowers in purpley hues).  Don’t listen to sources that say ‘Hopley’s Purple’ is hardy to my USDA zone or above; I’ve read from reliable sources that it’s only hardy to around USDA zone 7, dying if temperatures dip near zero.  Despite this fact, it blooms from early or mid-summer into the autumn, huge clusters of beautiful tiny purple flowers on deeper purple stems, with tiny leaves brushed with purple until they age, and it’s a lovely addition to a decorative herb garden. This brings my oregano total to six:  hardy marjoram (really an oregano), Greek oregano, sweet marjoram (a tender herb in the oregano genus), ‘Hopley’s Purple’, and the two ornamental oreganos I planted yesterday, ‘Amethyst Falls’ and cascading oregano.  (Despite being called Cuban oregano, my Cuban oregano is neither an oregano nor originally from Cuba.)

The largest potted thing I got was an agapanthus, which according to the tag blooms longer than other agapanthus.  It’s got beautiful white clusters of bloom (I believe it is ‘White Ice’).  Though it’s quite pretty, the reason I really got it was because it was wildly popular with pollinators, the most popular thing in an entire aisle of annuals.  It was so popular as I set it down upon reaching home, a flower fly was already hovering, waiting for it to stabilize so the flower fly could start eating.  I’ve never grown them before (they aren’t hardy here) and after reading about their super thick root system at this page I am thinking it might be good to place in in the sparse, especially windy, especially erosion proof section at the edge of the front garden.  Hopefully the page is right about how even gales can’t topple their bloom stalks, because that section of the garden sure does get some gales.

One of the pea plants has died and a second one is dying.  It looks like the fava/broad beans might have dropped some of their beans but there are some that are getting close to picking size (finally).  In what seems like overnight, the filet beans have gone from half-inch baby beans to near picking size.  I planted a Renee’s Garden Seeds mix I bought last year but didn’t grow, the ‘French Duet’ mix, which consists of yellow filet bean ‘Ramdor’ and green filet bean ‘Emerite’, which Renee’s says they get from a French seed house. I’ve not grown them before and so far ‘Emerite’ has been doing very well; it’s got a lot of developing beans on it.  If ‘Ramdor’ has any, I haven’t seen them yet, but the bean plot is kind of, well, messy. Between the garden beans, lima beans, akira beans (though they prefer cooler weather and I planted them late enough that I suspect they will die before producing) runner beans, garden peas, sweet peas (planted at the edge of the patch), hyacinth beans, and extra stakes to help keep the fava/broad beans and soybeans from toppling in the wind – there are easily thirty-five stakes in the patch!

Speaking of the sweet peas, I eat my words:  A second bloom appeared today, the rich pink of a summer sunset, edged with pure white.  The pewter blue bloom from yesterday is still there, and it’s visually the same height and about an inch over, so they look pretty interesting together.  It looks like each plant has one or two more buds already formed, but I don’t see buds on any other pea plants, be they sweet or garden.  Whether it’s dry or muggy, most days now it’s at least eighty, sometimes feeling like it’s about a hundred, and that’s just too hot for peas to generally really do very much. (And the front garden always, always feels hotter than the back, since it’s got a concrete retaining wall and is by a sidewalk and a road.)   I’m growing scarlet runner bean again, but this time I’m growing a different cultivar, ‘Dwarf Bees’, and it’s been blooming every day now for several days.  Hopefully it will keep up till frost as supposedly happens with this cultivar.  I’m pleased with this one; last year it took the other cultivar significantly longer to flower, though in fairness, I hadn’t added as much compost to the bean patch and there  weren’t as many other robust plants in the bed to help break the wind and cool off the roots.

The first two hollyhock blooms finally opened overnight after weeks of buds. They’re on one of the fig-leaf hollyhocks (which are supposed to be much more rust-resistant than the standard hollyhocks).  They are a rich magenta, deeper of hue at the center than edges, and are ruffled around the edges.  I never knew you could eat mallow family flowers and leaves (though presumably not EVERY mallow family member) until I met someone who’d lived in Cyprus for several years and said young mallow leaves are eaten as a vegetable there and the flowers are sometimes used for, say, holding dips at parties.   I’ve noticed that a lot of plants adapt to life in a windy site.  My perennial garden phlox, for example, are shorter than most of the other gardens’ phlox around here.  So far this is true of the hollyhocks as well (although they were planted last year, this is their first year blooming/budding); they often reached six feet in my old garden, and so far in this one the tallest is only about three feet tall.