"The Bean Tree"

This is a "bean tree."  It stands seven foot tall, it's made of green willow, and it's my own creation...........well the idea of a trellis isn't mine, but the "bean tree" is.  I've used these for many years in gardening.  However, when we moved from our home in Show Low to our home in the country...............I left my "bean trees" behind, I've been kickin' myself in the hinny ever since.

Yesterday after getting three lil' grandkids up, fed, and ready for their departure from the ranch, "The Man" asked me what I wanted to do for the day.  I told him I'd think about it while he was returning the lil' chicks back to their parentals.

I knew the garden was getting planted over Memorial week-end (as it has for many years), further my greenhouse is being taken over by my heirloom beans with names like: Ram's Horn, Greasy Grits, Anazazi, & the beloved, Giant Speckled.  The runners on these beans are lovingly embracing my heirloom tomato plants and squash.........boy am I ready to plant!  So it only seemed right that "The Man" and I spend a very windy day, along the rivers edge, cutting willow.  I used the lopers, he used a saw.........pretty soon, we had a  truck-load of fresh, green, willow for my craft.

These "bean trees" are NOT hard to make, we can usually whip one out in about a half-hour.  I need ten by next week-end!!  We strip four branches, lay them on the ground and measure seven foot, then cut. We then stand them upright, get the feel of the willow and it's best fit, then start screwing pieces together at the top (think of a tepee).  Once the top is screwed, we make two layers of bracing at different heights on the "bean tree."  Sometimes we criss-cross, sometimes we square off.  Once these are completed, we sink the legs into the earth by about six inches and I plant the heirloom bean in the middle of the "tree."  Then I hang a homemade device from the upper portion of the "tree" to distract birds from my bean plants. 

These "bean trees" work like a charm and they are good for many, many years.  Once the bean plant has started it's upward climb (to the height of seven foot or more), and blooms.........you have a beautiful, piece of art in the garden.

My next garden art will be a loom.  It's part sculpture, part loom, part wildlife attractor and is six foot high and three foot wide  The vertical strings (the warp) are garden jute  The horizontal threads (the weft) are woven in from any materials you want........mine will be wool fibers combined with grasses, flowers, and stalks from my garden. I will weave willow, amaranth, echinacea, and sunflower stalks, dill, zinnias, and black-eyed Susans.  Friends, family and grandkids are all welcome to gather to weave rows on the sculpture. 

The spark of love, the joy of connection, and the knowledge that we are a tiny part of the whole tapestry is amazingly powerful. 

So.............get your creative juices flowing and share your ideas!"When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing............then we truly live life."---Greg Anderson