Jack's magic beans

Or in this case, Joe's magic beans.  This week at work we had a potluck, and one of the dishes, green beans, potatoes and ham (one of my favorites) tasted just like my grandmother used to make!  When I make them, they never taste right.     Co-worker Joe told me he made them with home-canned "Greasy Grit" pole beans.  A former client gave him some beans as seed.   He asked me if I wanted him to bring me a bean.  A bean.    ONE bean.  Actually, he brought me 4.  They may not be magic, but might as well be gold, so I will baby them and see if I can get them to grow.

I am really getting into some of the more interesting aspects of my Appalachian heritage, including these 'heritage' beans.  I already had a link down the side of my blog to a man in Berea who has worked to save heritage crops - I think it is really interesting.

The rest of the crops are getting bigger every day:

This eggplant has proven to be as decorative as it is fruitful.  The stems and leaf veins are dark velvety purple, the new leaves are deep purple and change to green as they grow (it doesn't show up here) and the blossoms are a more intense purple than this shows.  Very pretty.

  

another view

When I mentioned the limas 'exploding' out of the ground in my last post, I wasn't kidding: 

 

The soil cracked and heaved up, and you could almost hear them burst out of the ground.  In about 10 days, I had this: 

I do some thinning, but plants grown in pots can be more crowded than in garden soil, because you can control the nutrients and water more closely. 

On the other side of the house....... 

 

Is it a purple Christmas tree?   No, it's my clematis this year. 

The yellowed leaves began 3 years ago.  At different times I've tried epsom salts and more nitrogen fertilizer, but it still yellows significantly.   It doesn't seem to be effecting what is otherwise a very vigorous plant, so I just keep an eye on it. 

So for now, things are looking really good.  I just won't think about the Japanese beetles and other bugs, the heat, and maybe drought of high summer still to come.