When the day's heat was in decline in the early evening, Richard and I went out to tend my Dry Edible Beans. He had already done the weeding.
He put up "cattle panels" for the pole beans to have something to climb. The peas are now officially done so he carefully carried the long panels which had supported them to the middle of the double rows of pole beans.
I remember when we thought we could skimp on trellises for the climbers. We won't make that mistake again. Those plants want to climb. If they don't, they just around on the ground, producing far fewer beans, and creating a mess to harvest.
On this day, I spent some time pulling off the debris from the cattle panels and carefully twining the tender vines up the wires. I also replanted my Missouri Wonder Pole Beans, which failed to germinate. I wasn't surprised. I saved the seeds from last year; with all the stresses of that season, they didn't look the happiest. The new seeds are planted now.
The last step was to put straw around the base of the plants for mulch. The mulch will keep the soil (and the plants) from drying out so quickly. In this heat, in this unusual season of little rain, and in the high winds we seem to be having, every little bit helps. Of course, we never know the end result earlier in the season. But we do the best we can.
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