The Mystery of the Stealth Bean Nipper
Un-nipped, Recovering, Nipped
Our beans have delighted us by sprouting and putting out their first sets of leaves. However, now some mysterious creature has been nipping off the new leaves. I immediately suspected PF, our resident rabbit, but Jim assured me that the fence was intact.
Nonetheless, when the depredations continued, Jim went out and—at great risk of exacerbating his allergies—ventured behind the massive juniper at the southwestern edge of our yard. There he discovered that the wind had knocked several boards just loose enough that an intrepid rabbit could squeeze through.
The fence slats have been nailed back into place. As an added precaution, we’ve covered some of the bean rows with tunnels made from scraps of hardware cloth or chicken wire.
We’re especially protective of a rare variety of tepary bean we were gifted by fellow gardening enthusiast Ursula Vernon. (You may know her by her other identity, that of an award-winner writer and artist). Ursula supports Native Seed Search but, living as she does in the hot, warm, wet South, she could not use the Pima Beige and Brown tepary beans they sent her as a thank you. Being devoted to saving of heirloom varieties, Ursula sent the seeds to us. We’ve been eager to see if we can get this particular variety to thrive in New Mexico.
We’re hoping that the nipped-upon plants make a comeback. The interesting thing we’ve discovered about beans is that some varieties, even when clipped back to little more than where the first leaves formed, are capable of leafing out again. When you think about it, such versatility makes sense, especially for plants like tepary beans, which originated in desert regions where anything green screams “Salad!”
Now that we’ve fixed the fence and given the baby plants armor, we’re eagerly watching to see what happens next.
Next mystery: Figuring out what creature has been making those perfectly round holes along the soaker hose. I suspect Skinny the Thrasher, myself. His long and curving beak would be the ideal tool…
