Garden

Bean Damage
Originally uploaded by greycharleigh

This string bean plant is trying to recover. It had full-grown leaves and blossoms, but a rabbit sneaks out at night and chews it (and it's neighbors) to the ground.

I realize I probably won't get any green beans from it. Probably another chewing of the new growth will kill the entire plant. I've sprinkled some Swiss chard seeds in the area with these decimated bean plants, and I'll see if I can get them to grow instead. I don't know if the rabbit will prefer Swiss chard to the weeds in my yard, but I know for sure he prefers bean plants.

It's been time to put in my fall/winter garden, and I'm remembering why I didn't bother last year. Not too many things will survive over winter here. I'm hoping the chard will. I know beets will if they get established before it gets too cold. That's the catch. I need to get the plants started now or a couple weeks ago.

The same thing that happened last year is happening this year. It's been far to dry in early August to get the plants going. I had to wait until it got rainy last fall, and the few things I tried to get started were too small when the frosts came, and most died. Only some stragglers I had put in in the previous spring survived.

For a little while, I'll try to keep the Swiss chard seeds watered. It's going to be hard, though. It's so dry they'll need water every day or every other day to get the seeds to germinated and the plants to get established. Right now we have voluntary watering restrictions, and I don't know how long it will be before they become mandatory. Probably I'll still be able to haul a bucket of water to the tiny plot to water the seeds, but that's a pain with K around so I'm likely to put it off and the seedlings (if I even get any) will dry out. It's worth a shot, though, because right now I have absolutely nothing going for winter, although I'd like to put in a bunch of beets. I think if our weather turns rainy, I'll give it a shot and hope the plants get big enough to withstand a frost.