8/27/10

Beans, victim of their own success?




Abby had been warning me about the beans. But like Cassandra's prophecy of the fall of Troy, the warnings went unheeded. Abby told me a couple times she thought the beans were dangerously over-running the corn and exerting too much pressure on the stalks. With my deferential attitude toward the three sisters I preferred to just let them do their thing. However the Lenape beans ran themselves clear up to the end of their sisters' short stalks. Lacking anything to climb onto to they were left with no choice but to reach out to each other. Their twisted embraces also entwined their companion corn's tassels. The corn, like the bamboo sticks from a couple weeks ago, have started to bend over from the pressure of so many entanglements. I'm also a little concerned that some of the tassels got caught up in this chaos before they had a chance to fully open and release their pollen. Is this garden becoming a victim of it's own remarkable success?
A man named Carl came up to say hello today. He lives across the street. He told me that he's been watching me and the garden since the beginning. I wonder if he saw me that cold raining day in May when I was digging in the mounds and pulling up bloated non-germinating seeds. We both agreed happily that the garden has come a long way.
(Pictures above of two methods I'm trying to get the beans off the corns back. I coaxed some onto the gate, and other I tied up to a long albeit flimsy stick. Will it work? Also pictured -- the very first Lenape beans to sprout. yay!)

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