Gearing up for a rainy week

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A little bit of pre-equinox prep today.

Need to add to stash: Brandywines, Black Krim, plantaholic’s white dianthus, mustard greens, 3 types of cleome.

Took out about 2/3 of the black bean plants and shelled them. I can’t beLIEVE how many beans I got— 3 cups from about 20 plants, maybe 5 squares. I was thinking these are a waste of space, but this is going to end up being at least 5, probably more meals, so that’s a pretty good ROI.

Put the rain barrel up on some scavenged ceramic pipes we found. Wish I had enough for a second layer, which would put the bottom of the barrel up above knee height. Barrel was pretty full, so lifting it was not fun.

Removed two corn stalks. There’s two more in the Wagon Wheel with actual ears; I expect the squirrels to get it, but we’ll see. I’m so torn about this; I loved growing corn, but lost 80% of the harvest to storms and critters. I was going to pull the corn by the fence also, but then spotted the big guy in the photo and figured I’d leave them alone (he sat there for at least 2 hours. I’m pretty sure he’s alive. I guess he just really likes corn juice). Update: the bee is still there 18 hours later, so I’m thinking maybe he’s dead. However, since he looks perfectly cabable of lifting the rain barrel by himself, I’m going to leave him alone for now.

The garlic bulbs came today; will plant those and my stashed tulips in two weeks.