Green bean harvest at Ground Squirrel Gardens!
By The Horse
@TheHorse (238364)
Walnut Creek, California
June 8, 2016 11:44am CST
I took my new kid client to the garden at work to help me water the garden there. I told him that the ground squirrels would probably get all of the "crops on our farm" eventually, but that one should never give up.
As we were watering, I noticed that two of our little green plants were throwing green beans! We shared three. The first one was delicious. The second (the biggest) tasted terrible. We spit it out. I was worried that he wouldn't be willing to share the third after his experience with the second, but he did. It was delicious.
When I took him home, I told his mom that we had shared some green beans, and she said they could never get him to eat vegetables. I told her that when kids help grow vegetables, they enjoy eating them. Hopefully, working in the garden will become part of my routine with this young man.
I'll try to take a picture of the green beans out there today. For now, I'll share a recent picture of my balcony green beans. They're yielding as well!
13 people like this
14 responses
@blitzfrick (2890)
• United States
11 Aug 16
I like them raw, too. Very few make it to my kitchen as I snack on them while doing the rest of my gardening. The young tender ones are the best.
1 person likes this
@andriaperry (118793)
• Anniston, Alabama
8 Jun 16
That is awesome you got him to try a green bean, I once got this little girl to eat veggies by when I cooked them we made a game of " what is this?" and she would eat some and tell me what it was, she did not ever like squash.
Nice beans, mine are blooming now.
2 people like this
@TheHorse (238364)
• Walnut Creek, California
8 Jun 16
The green beans here seem to taste best when you pick them early. My hunch is that our squash will be the last crops standing. The ground squirrels DO like corn and green beans, but they're ambivalent about squash. A clever game you played with the youngun!
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (238364)
• Walnut Creek, California
10 Jun 16
@LadyDuck We're in the same boat. In Orinda (when I lived there), it was the deer and bunnies. In Concord, it's the ground squirrels. In Oakland, it was the slugs and snails. And red tailed hawks and even blue jays sometimes get our dove eggs.
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
9 Jun 16
I am impressed, both at his willingness to try again and the fact that the squirrels left you anything
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@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
10 Jun 16
@TheHorse maybe he had other things to eat, lol
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (238364)
• Walnut Creek, California
10 Jun 16
@Jessicalynnt Last year the ground squirrels were desperate. I read that they get all of their water from the plants that they eat. No wonder they ate even the cacti.
2 people like this
@Blue_bubble (697)
• Raipur, India
8 Jun 16
Now I know why my mother wanted to me to help her in the garden lol! So that she could get me to eat all the veggies.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (238364)
• Walnut Creek, California
8 Jun 16
@Blue_bubble I realized that...but adults can be sneaky. Fun in the garden has lots of long-term positive results for kids.
@Blue_bubble (697)
• Raipur, India
8 Jun 16
@TheHorse Ahaaa I was just joking about that there. I know it's for fun majorly.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (174707)
• United States
11 Jun 16
That's how I got some of my friends kids to start eating veggies, too, pony! Good job!
Your balcony beans are coming along nicely...
We only planted tomatoes this year. Pretty likes watching them grow, even though she won't eat but possibly one per season. It's a good thing I love eating tomatoes fresh from the garden!
Pretty picked and ate the first cherry tomato a couple of days ago. The heritage blue tomato plant looks like the next one to ripen... This is the third year we've grown this kind of tomato, but the squirrels always eat those before we can get one.
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
9 Jun 16
This is true, of course, but so it another trick I have shared with others. When my daughter was quite little, I let her pick out one new vegetable each week, but only one. She could not select two, because then it would not be "special". She has loved veggies since.
1 person likes this
@teamfreak16 (43665)
• Denver, Colorado
8 Jun 16
Some of my neighbor's peas are starting to flower.
1 person likes this
