boom dada Beans?

Remember I mentioned that I wanted height in my perennial border since all of my shrubs are growing so slowly there (they'll get as high as the fence, I swear, I just don't know when)? Enter helpful brother-in-law again. He called last night and said, "I'm inoculating beans, want some?" and while this may sound like gibberish, I now have a pair of six-foot tall "teepees" made of bamboo stakes in my perennial border, hopefully to be covered in leafy vines full of beans by the end of the summer. We shall see. Right now they look mostly silly or I would have posted a picture of them. Maybe once they sprout.

And not to rub it in, but Alana has totally made me realize how glad I am that for the last couple of years I have spent money on the shrubs, so now I can have fun with the perennials and veggies! I know I will have to do the same thing around the flagstone patio eventually but that is still low on the list (fall plant sales, don't fail me).

I also FINALLY got myself a new pair of supposedly heavy-duty "landscaping" gloves (less padded than work gloves but much sturdier than plain old gardening gloves) to replace my old sad ones with the fingers all holey. They were not cheap but with any luck they will last as well as the last pair did (+5 years and that was with some real work going on). And these actually even came in my size. Which is apparently Men's XXL. I never explained that I really am a BIG girl, did I. Size 12 shoes, not so bad. Cute gloves that fit? Not so much. But damn if I don't have some really nice manly-looking gardening gloves now.