The Garden is Changing....Again.

This is a picture of a hole. It is the hole where my heirloom bush beans were. This is my first time growing beans, and I wasn't sure how it would work. I knew that I wanted to have dried beans for soup all winter, I didn't want to eat them fresh. The lima beans are still there, on the left. I think they still have a little bit to go before they are ready. The plants are still lush and green. I thought that the heirloom beans had bit the dust. One set of them was turning yellow and falling down on the ground, it looked very dead. I thought for sure that those would be no good. Imagine my surprise when I open a a yucky-looking pod and beautiful black and white beans fall out.

Excited, I starting pulling all the plants from those two rows. I hauled them all up to the back patio, where they sat in a giant pile until we came back later to pull the pods off of the bushes. I have a humongous pile for the compost tomorrow.

I was having flashbacks to the beginning of the summer, when I was pulling the pea bushes/vines straight out of the ground to make a monster pile. I think we will still have to dry the beans out some, but I am excited to shell them tomorrow and see how many of each kind I got. The two kinds I grew were painted pony and calypso.

Painted Pony

Calypso


The kids thought they were beautiful, and wanted a few to keep. I have to agree that there is something enchanting about those shiny beans in the palm of your hand. I am not sure why, but I feel a little like a squirrel.

There are other signs of fall in my garden. One is that my giant ornamental grass is blooming. It sends up beautiful red fronds of blooms that bend and sway in the breeze. Also, everything is getting a little leggy and large, the greens are changing from the bright neon of spring and summer to the duller, bluer green of early fall. You know what I mean. The air is starting to feel different already. Part of that is this funky cool summer we had.

The sweet autumn clematis is blooming. I used to have more of this, but I lost some that didn't make it through the winter. The autumn joy sedum is turning pink. Things in the garden are turning yellow or brown and curling up. It is sad, to be losing summer, but in a way, I am getting to be ready. I love fall, too.

I love making dried flower arrangements...using garden stuff to decorate the yard for Halloween. I love picking apples, and gathering corn stalks to tie up in bunches around the yard. I love making pies and apple butter, and carving pumpkins, and making giant stacks of really cool gourds everywhere inside the house.

I really get into Halloween decorating. I even dress up usually. So, I am not sad when fall comes. I welcome it, even though I cringe at the frost warnings. I still hope we will have an indian summer, and it will stay warm and beautiful through October. I am not ready for the cold yet. I am just saying, when I see a big hole in my garden, it doesn't really bother me, because it's about that time.