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meldy_nva

The deer did it!

meldy_nva
11 years ago

Another thread mentions green beans blooming but not making. I sympathize. Since early spring I've seen blooms, but few pods. Most years, late July finds me giving neighbors buckets of beans because I've eaten, frozen, pickled and canned so many that I don't even want to look another bean. For the record, I grow Fortex, a tall non-hybrid vine that enthusiastically produces near-stringless long green beans with great flavor.

This year, I've picked 8 beans ~ not 8 buckets or even 8 meals: eight pods. I've blamed the heat, the lack of bees, the city water due to drought, the seed-producer because I bought a new pack of seed instead of saving last year's, but mostly it's just been a puzzle.

DH discovered what was happening: midday on Friday, 2 deer jumped the fence, went past the beds of fresh tender lettuce, ignored the tomatoes (they ate one plant this spring but the metal mesh seems to have deterred further nibbling), and carefully tippytoed their way up and down the bean rows, nipping all tender stems including those with blossoms. One even inspected each plant from the bottom up, lifting the leaves to look beneath, to be sure she wasn't missing anything.

The heat is tolerable, the city water is wet, tiny silver bees are doing the honeybee's work, and the seed-producer can't be blamed for the deer's appetite. The puzzle has been solved; I guess I'll be buying beans at the farmer's market.

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