Gotta say, I had more trouble with beans than I have ever had with anything I’ve planted…..so far…. I must have planted 150 seeds total and ended up with 40 growing bean plants. I planted the first round of say 50 seeds of pole beans. (Stringless Blue Lake) They would get eaten before they even sprouted by mice or birds, I never did figure who came first. I’d put up wire protection to keep the birds out and the mice would get through the wire and eat the entire second planting of 50 more, which did sprout this time. So I planted one last time….as it was too discouraging to watch this drama unfolding….and put rabbit wire, bird netting AND fencing…..as well as the decorative wire I put for the seeds to climb on. But by the last planting, I had run out of pole bean seeds, so I used what was left of the bush bean seeds. Nothing could get in now, not even me. I just pulled the 3 stage protection off when I saw there were beans to harvest last weekend. They have just started putting out fruit…..I’ve gotten maybe 10 beans, and they were good, but the worth the effort? I don’t think so. It’s gonna take at least a bushel of beans to make me want to do this again. ALTHOUGH, when they are done, the bean patch will be the perfect place to plant next summer’s tomatoes. That, my friend, is what’s called a nitrogen fixing silver lining.
ps. Itty really loves the beans and has taken to doing all kinds of tricks for me to get me to turn one over to her, since even she couldn’t get through the razor wire. I’m teaching her the Combat Crawl in honor of the “army training ground look” the back yard has taken on. Stop, Drop and Roll are next.