yesterday was a good day for taking a few pictures of the bulk beans
and getting the pictures edited and posted to the website.

this one shows the difference in color between the Purple Dove beans
grown in various locations. the lighter beans were grown in poorer
soil (with very little or no organic matter, clay and in some spots
very poorly drained). the darker beans were grown in the North Garden
which has actual loamy topsoil put down over the clay subsoil and that
area has had a lot of organic matter added and plenty more weeds buried
that grew there over the years. the two other pictures are just closer
shots of the lighter and darker ones. though if you look closely you
might notice that the darker beans are somewhat different from each
other too (by a little bit ).

https://www.anthive.com/img/beans/th...Lineup_thm.jpg

https://www.anthive.com/img/beans/th..._Light_thm.jpg

https://www.anthive.com/img/beans/th...e_Dark_thm.jpg

these are three other bulk beans Red Ryder, Fordhook Lima and Huey which
is a cross i've been working on to get it stable. this was the first
year i grew out enough to see how they did in multiple locations and
soil conditions but also testing how they did when interplanted with
Purple Dove.

https://www.anthive.com/img/beans/th..._Beans_thm.jpg

and a closer shot of Huey, notice the pinker color background when
compared to my other Tan Goats Eye bean that i normally grow instead (i
did grow some Tan Goats Eye beans too this year to make sure it wasn't a
soil or conditions variation). i'll put the link to the TGE beans here
just as an obvious comparison.


Huey is likely to become my main bulk small striped bean that i like to
use for making chili because it is firm and stands up to being cooked
a long time and it doesn't fall apart easily, plus i like how it looks
and grows (semi-runner) and it finishes pretty early and will work ok
as a shelly too (i think i'll have to verify this next year for sure).
since it is a cross from Red Ryder it has the characteristics i really
like from that plant (easy shelling, beans fall out of the pod easy
for dry and shelly stage, early, does well anyplace i plant it, etc).
this year i planted Huey alternating with Purple Dove and even in spite
of that it was pretty productive. i think next year i'll be block
planting it and should get double the harvest in the same area as i got
this season. note that while i'm not solely focussed on productivity
of a bean (i don't want to draw too many nutrients out of a garden at
one time) i do like it when a plant is moderately productive enough so
that i'm also not wasting the space and my efforts.

https://www.anthive.com/img/beans/th...0_Huey_thm.jpg

https://www.anthive.com/img/beans/th...an_Tan_thm.jpg


there's not too much else going on now other than when the weather
cooperates i'm trying to get a garden dug up and some flowers and
weeds removed from where they are trying to take over. at the rate
i'm going it will be sometime next May when i get this project
finished. that's ok.

i have some dry bean plants on the fence that need to be taken
off and today i may get some of that done now that the sun is out
and it won't be too windy or cold. at least if i just go out for
a half hour or so and then come in and get my hands warmed up
again.


songbird