Enjoying The Ride

[GoDawgs]

It's that time of year when things are slow in the garden. The spring prep and planting rush is in the rear view mirror but fall is slowly arising in the windshield. Meanwhile one enjoys the ride of picking and preserving.

Last evening I picked the first handful of Colossus field peas. They were shelled and added to a small box holding a palm full of the last shelled blackeye butterbeans. A small addition to lunch today. As usual, the nectaries located right above where the pods attach to the vines were being visited by a host of different pollinators, mainly all kinds of bees/wasps enjoying a late afternoon snack. I also discovered both green and brown stink bugs and dispatched about five of them.

The Cherokee Trail Of Tears beans are drying down for seed collection.



I might skip growing them next year The fresh beans come in the same time as the regular green beans. The shelling stage is a tad worky but the dried phase is easy peasy and they seem to be the one bean that the bugs don't mess with. It's a good one to have in the "got the seed if I need it" category. These are the shiny black CTOT seeds along with the first of the Alabama Blackeye Butterbeans I've collected so far.



This is Lemon Mint Monarda, the first time I've ever grown it. It's ok but there are better and taller Monardas out there. It was a last minute addition to the seed order and the vendor was out of several other possibilities I'd rather have. Still, the bees like it.



And finally, a pleasant surprise popped up in the yard near the garden... a rain lily. This one shows up about once a year and came up after that rain we had last week. There used to be a pretty red one around but I haven't seen it in several years. And so it goes.