The garden on April 9th during the COVID-19 lockdown

It is my garden philosophy that I don't have to pull every single weed.  I don't use mulch, and I tend to let the garden lead me where it may... which some years means harvesting the fruits of the greenhouse plants, and the first flush of seeds from the heirloom beans to save - then letting the rest go by the wayside...  Other years I'm out there every other day making soup from every little bit I can scrounge.  Every year is different. I'm thinking this will probably be one of the latter years, with everything going on.

This year I have changed up the infrastructure a little.  That circle of bricks to the right in the bottom picture was there maybe seven years ago?  But the raised bed was not there until three years ago.  The time felt right to put it back, and I even put up a bean fence and put the Mayflower beans next to it.

The pictures do not show the last bit of what I did before sundown.  I was out in the garden at sunrise this morning -- and in the afternoon -- and at sundown, but not a lot of the time in between.  I sat for a while and knitted in the sunshine before noon :)

Before sundown I planted seven hills in the front of the long section.  Each hill has about five Kenearly Yellow Eye beans (bush) and a Zephyr hybrid squash seed or two on the right hand edge.  This is flying by the seat of my pants here.  It was about 6 pm and I looked over at the seed box and said 'ok, this is what is going down right now.'  Up until that very moment I was saying 'yes I will put the Zephyr somewhere' and 'yes I will put some sort of bush bean there, but I don't know what or how, yet.'

I took sixteen of the cement blocks and made Irene the start of a raised garden.

But, we are in the year of COVID-19, and the plan I had made to go back and get dirt at that garden center was upended by a new city ordinance pertaining to 'quarantine lockdown' someone posted about that is 'food, fuel and work only or be arrested'.. I'm sure that is a bit more than the actual law intends - they conveniently did not link to it - but I don't want to be subject to bad interpretations.. so now I'm avoiding that city like they must have wanted everyone to do.. right?  So that business I support doesn't get one of the few orders I might have done this year because of this? And it will probably all change again next week.  Last week they were still saying that garden plants were okay, but don't linger and don't browse.  This week, they've gone Machiavellian... but probably only according to people posting on Facebook who are a bit bored?  I'm not sure.  I'll remember this in a few years.

There is another store in the other town that not only has internet ordering (which the other one didn't - 'in store buy only'), but has curbside pickup without getting out of your car.  So I guess they get the money and we still get an extra vegetable bed for Grandma.

Who knows how 'essential' that is going to be this year, but in almost any year I would call it essential if someone wants to put the work into the soil for fresh food.

((climb down off the soapbox))

I guess I get a little worked up about gardens, and especially because without them, gardens that is, we are stuck buying everything out of a box that may or may not be there when we go to pick it up again.  We found that out a month ago - with all the empty shelves.  It's warm enough now (it wasn't then) so let's grow.

Corn experiments and toy emergency room

After breaking about half of the dry cobs of last year's flint corn out to kernels, I ran some food processor experiments on them.  We tried to use the old meat grinder, as well.. but it didn't work out well.  After many runs through the machine and sifting out the flour - there was still so little of it and Mark doubted the food value of it.  But, I really wanted to see what it would yield and what it would look like.  We fed the resulting mixture to the chickens for their dinner today.  I think it will be a dent corn type we plant this year - and continue my experiments towards making something pretty and edible, at least edible for chickens.

 I thought the red cornmeal was VERY pretty.

And it was a more 'dent' type corn, so it was easier to get to this stage than the flint corn had been.

And Esme had an 'ER' open for her toys - which had assorted problems.  The frog had a pincer clip on his back, the panda bear had a broken arm, the dragon had a toothache, and the giraffe had a fish glued onto his back where he couldn't reach it (apparently it was distressing for the fish, too)  She put them all in a doctor waiting room and drew pictures of each problem on a dry erase board to decide what to do for each patient.

We played Skyrim, doing the book of Love quest(s) and marrying Lydia, and adopting two little girls.  Esme was very brave killing some wild beasts - so I was brave and went and did a random quest which was almost too hard for our character - but we survived!  There was even a point when we had three dragons attacking in a row, plus a lion and a wolf.  Then we settled down into our new house at Breezehome and she played hide and seek and tag with the children in the town, quite a lot.  She is making some sort of drawing gift at her table for tomorrow and is 'glad you're going to work Mom', because she will be hard at work on it for most of tomorrow... and there will be some squirrel, apparently...or so Daddy says.

Project bits: I tied the ends in the market bag I had made for her swimming/skates etc sort of things at the end of last SUMMER.. and had never done that to finish it.  And I added a few more rows on the gypsy moth colors blanket I have been working on for about a year. 

Jewels from the Garden - beans and corn drying for the year

 Esme helping sort the corn and break out dry pods of beans onto a plate.  She was so bouncey, and wiggly, and overexcited - she wanted to wash everything and dance and jump and splash water everywhere... finally calmed down some.  I told her a joke because she was scowling at me - and said I had tricked her into looking happy... well.. after that she continued to smile, because she actually was having a little bit of fun.

 Breaking out the whipporwill cowpea pods - which are very long, narrow and crispy. 

A lot of the corn seen here was 'volunteer.'  It came up without my knowing what was there or how... we had ornamental corn there last year but grew all of our other corn elsewhere in the garden this year.  I planted a few seeds of Smoke Signals and Peaches and Cream corn in between each of the volunteers to make a full row that we would not step on - as they were naturally scattered a bit here and there and not quite in a straight line.

Upon examining the outcome - I think it was a cob of Hopi Pink and one of Glass Gems that got mixed in, or some cache of seeds some animal had buried from last year we hit with the tiller.    I have them drying out to shell into containers and label for the year.  The pictures don't do any justice to the blues and greens that are present in real life.. .a whole range of color - which is where I say they are our jewels from the garden.

 

And this is the bean crop so far.

The large buff colored beans are Ireland Creek Annie - which did very well.  I started with nine of those seeds and have 30+ and have more to break out in the coming weeks.  The Black Shackamaxon has a showing already and there are gallons of that coming later.  The red and white speckled ones are Taylor Dwarf Horticultural - something I didn't have room for last year.  

The Ireland Creek Annie and the Taylor are both my first 'major' expeditions into full rows of "reserved to dry" bush beans - as most of my harvests have come from pole beans up until now.  There are also some tiny white climber beans, whipporwill cowpeas and black eyed peas.  I planted some unlabelled Pinto beans (which I thought the white climbers were when I gathered them...odd...always have some odd ones out, right?)   Kenearly Yellow Eye (a semi-climber that says it is a bush), black seeded wax (one of those seeds is one, but I've lost it in the mix!), Bosnian and Provider seeds all drying out in the cabinet.

I've also got a decent collection of Mammoth Striped and Lemon Sunflower seeds this year... partly for the chickens, partly for next year.

Corn!

Mark says: 'Our produce has produced.'  We have some tomatoes to pick out there, too - but first to blanch and bag all of this and put it in the freezer!  Snoopy (shown below) and the black kitten Tink would not stop coming into the garden with us.  At one point Tink had put his head inside the bottom of my pants leg and was sitting there purring because he felt like he was getting attention by being that close to me.  Silly... I kept telling him he was a black caterpillar corn worm and we really had to do something about those before they eat the crop!

Esme with one of the first tomatoes from the garden

Esme with Snoopy puppy, one of Nova's - and a bluetick coonhound mini-me!

Different kinds of beans in the garden - Provider green beans on the left, straight and round - the White climbers I was trying out again from the odd seed that showed up last year, purple Shackamaxon and the Rattlesnake beans with tiny purple stripes, which makes it so easy to tell the difference!

Mark did a major floor cleaning in the kitchen and hall yesterday, and all of the laundry.  I followed suit today with a major cleaning in Esme's room... it needed it badly.  She had rocks and sticks stashed in toy boxes, one toybox had a hole in the bottom of it that water had gotten into.. some boards that had water and mold on them underneath...stashed candy in plastic bags inside toys and empty boxes scattered around, paper, school hats and cards and it wasn't really possible to walk in there without falling over anything.  I made her help me organize after the worst of it was done - spray down her dollhouses which were full of dust and grime, empty and spray out her garbage can, collect up and throw out anything food (except a few recent things from sleepover bag which went on her dresser), gather jewelry, her purse (she couldn't find it last week and so couldn't buy anything), teaset stuff, play food, my little ponies, playmobil people, stuffed animals  etc etc etc... It ended up looking, smelling and being SO much nicer in there you could almost believe it was new!  We moved her dresser and changing table, got a dress-up station set up and took out some things she had outgrown, as well.

The knit net I had made for her stuffed animals came in very very handy.  When bedtime rolled around she went and picked out exactly who she wanted to bring for sleepover ;)

We also went to the fast food and park in McKenzie with Grandma - and she ran a lot of energy off.  Even with taking five kitchen bags of junk/paper etc out of her room she was on excellent behavior all day.  In fact, I think she appreciates her room a bit again.. heard her in there playing cars on the floor and she has her Dreamlight again to use at night because it had slipped behind her bookcase and she didn't know where it was.

bits orange daylillies and nasturtium petals

 lunch today - cucumbers in mayonnaise sauce with nasturtium petals, mint, black pepper and a toasted flour tortilla.  The mint was the big win. I can't say I actually tasted the nasturtium petals at all, but it was the first one of the season, so ... maybe not enough of it.

Recipe: cucumbers in mayonnaise sauce.
It is so easy sometimes I don't remember I had to read it somewhere the first time - cut up the cucumbers as small as you want them... I go pretty small squares.  Then put them in a container with a lid - and sprinkle a little salt over them.  You could wait five minutes or so at this point, if you want to, especially if the cucumbers are kind of dry.    Put about a tablespoon or so of mayonnaise (Miracle whip is okay for this one -- it isn't for a lot of things I like, but it is for this) and put the lid on and shake it.    Some people put other things in this... vinegar, or etc... none of that in this.  I really did like the dried mint, though - it added a lot to this.

garden notes : Ireland creek Annie's are making beans now - they are between the cucumbers and are dry beans, so we will not pick them, even though they will look like they 'need' it... same with several other ones in the garden, like the Kenearly that is starting to vine up a small trellis, and the non Shackamaxon beans on the vertical fence.  I am waiting to see if the 'wax' beans turn waxy... they are not, yet.  The Providers continue to fill up the colander daily :)  I tried to convince some of the tomatoes and beans not to fight - we will have tomatoes soon, I think.

Our orange daylillies are blooming.  A dead armadillo incident happened to our yellow ones this year.. but the orange ones were saved specifically because they were surrounded by weeds and baby mimosa trees etc etc..

My father and stepmother left for home last night - hope they are doing well on the road back to Iowa.  We really enjoyed their visit and need to get pictures of them with Esme next time.. somehow we just kept talking and never did that this time.   They went out of their way to find me a lemon birthday cake and bring it to me on my birthday, which was extremely sweet (them, not the cake).   I admitted by geeky obsession with beans to them and sent them home with one of the more rare ones to plant in the colder climate... and a few other of our Tennessee treasures.  I'd like to order an extra batch of Japonica corn to send them that as an oddity - the striped leaves and purple silks...not sure if they would get any chance to plant that.

Esme and I went to town this morning before it go very very hot.. and took her to the park, and for a hash brown, and for to spend her allowance at the dollar store.  On the way there we talked about lots of things - and she really participated.  We talked about history, and what people did without stores to buy food at, and how they lived through the winter (lots of firewood) - and they need to be warm in the winter (with furnaces and they get wool from sheep and make it into things and clothes and boots to stay warm), and cool in the summer (she thought about shade and umbrellas), and how they do that.. and about droughts, and floods - how the corn needs water but not too much water, and the animals do, too...and many other topics.

She really not only has the information now, but can talk about it, relate things to each other and really understand how to find out what she doesn't know and why it is important.   I told her it was all like science, too - and when I said 'history' she said she knows that one - it was in school.  I related it to the past - when Grandpa's father was a child how things were, and that now was like the Jetsons for him - the future (and outer space)...  The one that really cracked me up was when we were talking about corn - which she saw in the field - and she knew it by the pointy things on top (tassels) and the strings (silks) that made the ears.  We talked about how the tassels and silks work together to make the seeds.. and she made a cross-reference to acorns and how they both grow the same.. she told me about the acorn seed being hard and needing water to break out a tiny vine that gets more water from the earth.  Then we talked about what leaves were for, besides being pretty.. and how the plant makes food from the sunlight on the leaves and the water down below and grows and stores that food in the seeds to grow many many more plants..   I told her that each single kernel on the corn and each single acorn on the tree can make a new plant, and that plant can have lots of new seeds (like a hundred, yes?) and on and on.  She said 'Wait Mom, I know this one - this is math, too.'  I really laughed at that one. 

At the park I read her a little bit of Harry Potter (trying to get out of completely running around in the heat) while pushing her on the swing, and watching her climb the ladders etc etc... then we went for a short walk around the walking path, and climbed a tree and saw the water which was almost dry in the ditch etc etc.. she read signs and we talked about them.  'No Motorized Vehicles' she saw on a sign - and when I asked her what that meant, she said 'You can't drive air-o-planes down here.'... Well, that is technically true *heh*.  She was trying to encourage some children in their Sunday clothes to get dirty in the trees - 'There's syrup up here - you want to see?'  and then we went for a drink and a hash brown.  She is picking up her change amounts a bit better, now.. and was able to slowly make the right change to the cashier at the dollar store - and look at her receipt to see written down exactly what the cost was, what we paid, and what the change was.

We brought a piece of cake and some pork, and one of the orange daylillies, to Grandma Irene, with Esme staying there for a few hours.   I need to go collect her in a few minutes, bring some garden produce to Irene, do chickens, pick beans, start laundry,  feed supper, give her a bath for her speech appointment tomorrow.. and go to bed as I have 6 am work.

It was a very nice birthday, and having today to semi-rest (with a little Minecraft) was a nice way to wind it down.  I have enough canned beans from Mark to last another six months until Christmas again *heh*.. and a few cans of pumpkin, as well.

Heirloom beans at KnitOwl

We just got back from the flea market and talking to lots of people about our seeds.  You can find out more about the seeds we have available this year by going to the KnitOwl shop  I hope we will have a few more days this summer we can take the seeds out and about without rain!  I've posted about seven varieties of beans and some of our corn experiments as well.

I'll be out in the garden checking on things later and might post a few pictures of how things are coming along. 

Went out and planted all but the reserved seeds on the Mayflower beans - in among the corn as I was planning to.  Saw that the Ireland Creek Annies and the Cherokee Wax beans are both getting tiny beans on them - ready to start producing soon.  The Taylor Horticultural are just about there, as well  as the Kenearly Yellow Eye.  I did go and look up the Ireland Creek Annies again and they are dry beans only - but the Cherokee and Pencil Pod wax (in two separate areas) are both useful for fresh beans and for dry beans afterwards.  I noticed the purple Shackamaxons are starting to flower on the fence, as are the 'random' Pintos I put in by the sweet peas.  A few of the black shackamxon 'star' sports are coming up in the corn but not many - that was just not a great time after the rain to plant those?

I looked at the Mandan corn and it is putting on ears and the ears are filling up and putting out brown silks.  It is going to come in long before the sweet corn.  I pulled a yellow summer squash and saw that the Zephyr squash, the pattypan squashes and the yellow cucumbers are all starting to put on fruit, as well.

Garden walk and bean journal

  

I'll  post the  pictures of the entire garden - and after that it is mostly just pictures of bean cultivars that we are growing - for me, for later.  As you can see our tomato plants (Grown from seed) are really taking off.  There are some tiny tomatoes growing already - but we're not sure if they are 'good fruit' yet.. we have yet to see. There is one in the middle that is a yellow Banana Legs tomato, and the rest are either Principe Borghese or Black Krim.

 

Over to the right of those square pavers are a few more yellow tomato seedlings that may or may not make it.  I need to find somewhere to put the eggplant seedlings as they are just about ready - but I probably need to dust those as in recent years they get eaten up so quickly.

Corn and sunflowers from the back of the garden. 

Black Eyed Peas (just one set of many) growing out by the ends of the corn rows.

A little 'sweat bee' pollinator having great fun on the corn tassels on the Mandan Bride corn.

I'm uncertain, but the purple tassels and the fact they are tasseling so early (just this back row) might mean there wasn't enough nutrients in the soil for them there... this is the row of Indian Corn I had planted, and all of the rest are Peaches and Creme sweet corn.

The feral carrot from last year I left among the perennials to capture what a 'common carrot' looked like in bloom.  As they are biennials this is not something that is normally seen - but they are just like the Queen Anne's Lace flowers taht grow all over the woods - only, culinary type (ie: not poison)

I think Jackson Wonder bush lima beans are very pretty when they begin to grow.

The Hyacinth bean (ornamental) is also quite pretty - it is growing up in a place near the sweet peas.

 Shackamaxon beans climbing up very high - and Rattlesnake beans to the right of them.

These are the strange white climber I got out of the tree last year and couldn't identify.  They are climbing up the front side of the fence and seem well ready to grab on and go up.  The pods were streaked yellowish with purple stripes.

Ireland creek Annie bush beans by the cucumbers

Bosnian beans by the peas

I planted black calypso beans in front of the Cherokee wax beans... and one Polestar ornamental runner bean by the hyacinth beans.

bit

It was a very early work day today.  After that I was out and weeding more between the corn - it needed it, and with all the grass that was pulled out, it needed hilling up around the stalks, as well.  I am hoping I haven't killed any/too many with pulling so much grass next to their roots.  The grass needed to go, though.

I plan to plant some cornfield beans in there among a few of them.  Did some research on what beans in my collection have been used as cornfield beans in the past - and have chosen the Mayflower / Red Nightfall beans to do that.  They have a history with the Amish and are listed under many names.  In the past I've only planted them on back fences and have been disappointed with how delicate to full sun and how late yielding they are.  This might be the better use for them... we'll see, I went through my jars and actually found a good quantity.  It is nice they are not so rare, too - so if they fail badly I will be able to find more if I want them.  They will appreciate some shade between the stalks as well as be light bodied enough not to pull the corn down with them.  I spent a little over two hours out there today and that was more than enough on top of the early freight day ... without it actually being done to my liking yet.  I had a nice raspberry, eucalyptus and tea tree oil bath afterwards :)

In the house I have eggplant seedlings that still need to go out.  The tomato seedlings from the other day are a little sunburnt but seem to be holding up.  There are little peppers on the banana pepper plant, and the very fringe beginnings of green beans on the Providers, which has a strange black edge leaf thing going on.  I should thin out the salad rose radishes again, as well... 

I did a few more rows on the big gypsy moth colors blanket, as I couldn't think of anything else I had energy for.  The dress I was making for Esme really needs to be tackled again - but I know the gathers will take a bit more thought power than I had tonight.  Esme was really wanting a friend, and playing with her on games she had made up... but there was only so much we wanted to take on there - she ended up disappointed I didn't play her picnic and balloon games to her liking... but then, I was a bit disappointed she didn't help me at all in the garden.  She just kept 'talking to the corn', asking it questions and saying 'uh huh, hmm, sorry to hear that Mama Corn, Daddy corn, kid corns - how are you, are you alright?'  silly... a bit strange, ha.  She did feed the chickens some of the grass and did not step on anything.

Also, halfway through 'Mrs.Lincoln's Dressmaker' book... taking that to work with me daily, and read a little of it at Esme's 'reading pirate party - you can do anything you want' party in our truck bed.  It was getting dark and buggy, though... could not actually interest her in reading her own books at first, then she brought out her Make and Do book which she loves, and went through reading bits in that..  I am planning to take her to the library again on Friday to return her books.  I think I have the second already checked out for after this one, there might be something else in between them, though.  I don't want to put much else on Friday, though... want mostly to stay at home and get things done.

Fairy butterfly then seed geekery

 Our fairy butterfly ready to grant wishes last night going to the Halloween movie event.

We have a Halloween school party tomorrow - I'm not sure if she is wearing the same general outfit or if she wants to change it up... she gets home in an hour or so, will talk to her about it.  She was in quite the surly mood last night and an 'interesting' mood this morning... we'll see.

And now, the seed geekery.  Beans and corn.  If you've had enough of this in past years - turn your eyes away now, or just glance at the pictures for the eye candy effect, and run away from the type ;)  I won't subject you to all the measurements and notebook scrawls - but they happened, this morning, while Esme was at school and I was finally feeling in the right frame of brain to 'obsess' in a constructive way.

Not counting what I documented in August  - this is the corn crop for the entire year.  It's not much, volume wise.. yes?  But the genetics are what I'm after, and the eventual hardiness for our soil and climate.  I also would like to choose for the easiest shelling type that has dried under our 'natural' conditions well.  Eventually, it will be excellent for animal feed, although I ended up with mainly popcorn types coming through in the end.

Types represented and mixed this year:
White Cherokee Eagle corn (dent type)
Mandan Bride (I don't see it - know it was there.. but it didn't dominate anything)
Smoke Signals popcorn
Japonica popcorn
Hopi Pink popcorn
Glass Gem popcorn
Peaches and Cream sweet corn (it mixed with one of the popcorns and is represented)

The dried beans from the year, not counting the small white ones - don't know what they are!  They were climbing another tree by the other fence where I had only planted Good Mother Stallards, and are obviously not those!

Blue Black Shackamaxon : planted in Location A and B, in location A it was easy to see that they all came out exactly as expected.  Ate a lot of these as string beans with the Providers.

Tennessee Greasy beans : white beans with black spots that were planted in Location B, climbed eight foot tree opposite of the beans mentioned above.   Some came out like the Hopi with c-shaped streaks (these may be Rattlesnake beans actually...I 'lost them' in the same location), some came out black like shackamaxon mixed with them in same location, a few variants between.  So really, this one is a tossup again like last year.. I should just be tracking what I planted instead of trying to give it a name!

Hopi String Beans : planted in Location A all came out white with black streaks

Bosnian : separate tin of seed elsewhere, might have been one planted here

others planted but not representing above:
Good Mother Stallard - did not produce or are mixed in and I can't tell
Kenearly bush yellow-eyes : did not produce, bush bean so it can't be the progenitor of above...
Mayflower : grew just a few then died
Provider :ate almost all that we got...maybe one or two seeds got saved a while back
Yellow Golden Wax :ate what we got, then it died....

 Two odd but distinct variations in the pile

Where did they come from - what are they?  Are they just oddball genetics in the original set?

 The ones on the left were grown last year as 'Tennessee Greasy Beans' but had come out white with black spots and streaks.  Now after being stored in glass for the year dry.. they are orange with black spots.  The Bosnian, on the right, which I expected to turn orange with age, are nowhere near that color.

A look at the whipporwill cowpea crop alongside the other beans
Mark didn't want me to plant them this next year - there were SO many of them, and there were ants on them when he went to pick them at the end.. but so productive, how can I not plant them?  I ate several bowls worth this summer and there was just always some there if it was needed, or dried to seed if I didn't get to them.  As a 'survival' food, this one really takes the cake as a no-brainer to plant.

Experimental corn crossings... August third

 This is the first third of the ornamental corn crossing.  This is the Smoke Signals, Pink Hopi and Mandan Bride mixed with last year's corn.  I think the Glass Gem had a hand in the one with the blue kernels, it was in the next plot and because I WANTED mixing, I did not shield any of them from each other.

notes: Pink Hopi and Mandan Bride were flour corns.  The corn from last year was a flint corn with some flour components.  The Smoke Signals, Glass Gem and Japonica were all flinty popcorns.  Most of this crop shows the flint or 'glass' kernel type.  There is one cob not pictured that was pulled a week or so ago that had more of the flour type kernel, larger, flatter and not as shiny.

Pink Hopi is showing through on this set.

 The Smoke Signals was the dark black vs. yellow and it shows up in several of the cobs.
The second cob from the left is nearly ideal, and will be passed through, as well as some of the more pink and purple kernels and some from the flour cob.  The Glass Gem is still to come. we will see how that turns out!

Esme had to show off that she helped me find the corn and shuck it in the field.

2013 garden documentation beans, cowpeas, sunflowers and tomatoes

Here is how the garden is doing this year... the sweet corn was a success and went in the freezer a few weeks ago. We've had enough tomatoes already to make about four quarts of good sauce, and the sweet peas and beans have been producing a good amount as well up until now.

Bosnian bean (with one dried pod from the sweet peas).  I planted one plant at the base of the sweet peas and it is now starting to really take off climbing the old vines and the wires.  I have saved about four pods and am waiting for them to dry and see if the beans are like they should be.

 Connecticut field pumpkin growing well

 Glass gem popcorn has been hit by something... wondering if we'll get an ear for seed out of it this year.

 Dark red cosmo flowers

 Lady peas - another heirloom given to me by a local.  The seeds were small and white, oblong, but about the general size of a black eyed pea.  I'm curious to see what the pods look like filled out.

 Another shot of the pods starting out.

 Black  Prince tomatoes, I think...

Japonica popcorn growing.. it is VERY short... hmm..

 Principe Borghese tomatoes from the seedlings we started indoors.

There are TONS and tons of these coming in now.. glad we bought the variety.

 Blue black Shackamaxon bean flowers

I have planted these in several places in the garden and they are doing well.

 Heirloom brown speckled cowpeas (whipporwill, as they were given to me) - is this the third or fourth year we've grown them?  It looks like there will be a good crop this year.  And the purple flowers are so showy..

 Whole line of plants at the end of where the sweet corn was up until a few weeks ago.

 Speckled cowpea pods starting out...

Autumn Beauty sunflowers - this was a seed packet from Azure Dandelion
I have two heads drying from the other seeds I had saved last year - they are growing much smaller than these.. but that happens.  The birds have favored the smaller sunflowers - goldfinches have flown away every time I've been out there.