All posts filed under: Beans

Scarlet Runner Beans and Cardinal Climber Vines, Unique Flowers and Beautiful Shades of Bright Red

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My husband, Tim, also a horticulturist, has always been fascinated with the Cardinal Climber Vine, the pentagonal shaped flower with an embossed star shape of sorts shown sitting in the palm of my hand in the photo on the above left. I have always been intrigued by the beautiful red Scarlet Runner Bean, above right. This year, Tim, who is so awesome at remembering to plant seeds, got them planted by our front porch step this spring! Now that I have seen these plants in action, I love them even more! Each flower shape is so unique and intricately detailed! I cannot fathom how such small flowers, each smaller than a quarter, can house such fascinating floral architecture! They are truly miraculous specimens to behold! Especially, if you stop for a moment, to examine them up close, and even dissect them. I hope to one day, get my hands on a macro lens, so that I can capture the intricate details of flowers. Until then, you’ll just have to plant some yourself, or take my …

The Farmer’s Gift to Me

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            Beans are beautiful even in the fall. When the sky is crisp and blue When the beans have dried inside their shells to a warm and tannish, hue. Those beans are lovely, they provide so much, soft and fuzzy their shells to touch. I am rambling, this I know, but to these beans, so much I owe. Gratitude for family who comes together. Each fall, each October or September. To watch the harvest is such a treat, to see my brothers, my whole family. We come together, we share a day or two, to watch the beans and tractors brew, that earthly concoction of chaff and seed. The dust it drives us all to sneeze. But with that dust, we all receive another gift.. Those Iowa sunsets, so colorful, from the drift, of all that dust those combines made, So many colors in so many shades of orange, gold, purples and pinks, Our sky is painted with earthly inks. Ramblings, by Marie Stephens  Copyright 2013

Bounty of Beans

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“Beans don’t fry in the kitchen.  Beans don’t burn on the grill.  Took me a whole lot of tryin’, just to get up that hill.”  Sometimes, that’s how gardening feels, doesn’t it?  But then, when you get a crop, it’s soooo rewarding, even if it’s a small one, it still feels like a victory…..like you’re finally “In the big leagues”, and you’re finally, “Movin on up!”  I love that song, and as I have been writing this post, it keeps popping into my head, so I thought I’d share it so you can listen to it while you read:)   My two year old and I have been dancing and clapping along to the music this morning. This spring I planted beans.  A LOT of beans.  I had high hopes of sampling new varieties of Limas, black beans, Garbanzo Beans, Yin Yang beans, Fava, purple pole, green pole, yellow wax, and I think that’s it.  Everything was going great, until this drought came along, and nothing was happening.  I had almost given up on my …

I Garden Because I Can….Pun Intended

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Why do you like gardening? This is a poem I wrote about what gardening means to me, during the summer of 2012, when my family and I took on a huge garden plot…we planted around 100 tomato plants, thinking only a few would survive…but almost all of them did! I was in over my head, and it was so much work, but it was an experience I’ll never forget! Since then, I have taken on much smaller gardens, only planting about 6 tomatoes a year.