"Jack" and the Beanstalk

At Parent Ed in mid-to-late-April, the special activity was planting bean seeds in a plastic bag. The Boy planted his seeds in the soil against the side of the baggie, so that he could see them sprout. It was fun to watch their roots sprout, followed shortly by their stems. After a while, they looked like this:


Mommy figured they were probably too big for the baggie, and it was time to plant them outside. Since they were pole beans, Mommy had to first get them something to climb on. Soon, The Boy and Mommy got to work:

(photos by Middle Girl)

Here is how they looked that first morning (May 7), right after the transplant from the baggie:


Then, they withered. I think I transplanted them too late; they really did not do well for a couple of weeks. I thought I would be buying a new climbing plant for that pot.

But then, things started looking better! On May 27, I could see that they were going to make it, so I fastened them to the trellis with red twist-ties:


They really responded to the trellis! They sent vines up the poles, as you can see in this photo from June 4:


I loved watching them climb up the poles. They seemed to really respond to the feel of the poles, growing around and around the poles as if enveloping them in an ever-tighter hug. Just like children, they flourish when their sense of touch is triggered. You can see it in this photo:



These next two photos were taken on June 10. They have grown taller than the trellis. Now what are they going to do?



And this photo was taken on June 12. The vines growing over the top of the trellis are even longer, and are growing around each other as if the other vines are the poles! Now they're hugging each other!


But where will they go from here?

Hey, "Jack's" Beans! It's time to stop growing up and start growing beans, whadda ya say?