I think the Hyacinth Beans need to be cooked a certain way to be consumed (maybe to remove oxalic acid (or something like that).

Here are a few pictures of my yard/flower gardens.


My brother made me this outhouse from old barn boards that he had left over


Backside of above area


Behind the garage/house


One of our asparagus beds


Our raised bed garden.

Wonderful photographs, Jeanne. Is that a grill-turned-planter to the left in photograph 3?

Jan,
I have eaten the runner beans just as you would any string bean ,( phaseolus)
... raw while immature ,about half grown, after that they get a bit tough and less tasty
....cooked as green beans , before the seed matures inside , while still flat, rather looks like a pea pod at this stage, good stir fried or cooked (Boiled) with a bit of onion & bacon for seasoning.
....The beans can be let to fully mature ,picked, hulled, and dried , I have not eaten them in this way only because I don't grow enough to bother. if you did this they should be soaked over night before cooking like any dry bean.

I have grown the hyacinth beans but never eaten them . they have a different name ''Lablab''and I too have read some parts may be toxic

Great pictures, Jeanne! Those tires are soooo pretty! And I just love the outhouse

I am so ready for Spring. For the first time I am winter sowing seeds in plastic milk jugs. I hope it works. I have a few more milk jugs I want to do. I am planting mostly flower seeds-store bought. I want to do the next jugs with my own seeds that I harvested from my flowers and some flowers that I passed by here and there this past fall.

Here are some pictures of some of my flowers from this past year. I just downloaded pictures from my phone onto my laptop. I am not good about remembering names. I just love their beauty.

I am pretty sure this is a passion flower vine. But please correct me if I am wrong.


This is either a garden mum or an aster. I promised myself that I am going to start making maps of where I put what so I can remember what is where......Check out the chain link gate in the back. I had some odd and end gadgets that I wired onto it and stuck it there as a background.


This is a candy corn vine. This is the first time I have had this plant and it did so good for me. I will be getting another one this year. Wish I would have googled how to collect seeds from it.


This is my candy cane or some kind of striped garden phlox. I should know the name of this one for sure but it escapes me at the moment.


This is a hydrangea that my son gave me and planted here for me. I have a much better picture of it somewhere. It is planted along my back fence and is in full sum but loves it.


In the left of this picture is a new shrub I can't think of its name right now. It has nice pink flowers in the spring. In the center is a garden phlox. The plant I wanted to show is the one on the right which is my spiderwort. I love this flower. It loves it here in this spot along my back fence.


This is my hacinth bean plant. I have loads of seeds if anyone wants some. I love growing this vine. It does so good for me.


If anyone has seen my flowers I hope you have enjoyed them. My next post will be of a few of my flower beds that I created last summer/fall.

Here are a few of my latest flower beds that I have made. I have way too many plans for things to do this next spring/summer/fall. I want to move my garden shed and have the Amish build me a pagoda, or pergola, or something similar to it as soon as I find the plans for the one I want with a porch swing to look at the river view in. This is my biggest project.
Here are some of my last ones.

A friend of ours made this a few years ago for the local parade. He had it in storage on a flat bed that he wanted for another purpose so he gave me this ferris wheel. Of coarse, I had to create a place to put it. So I made this area in my front yard where my granson planted a tree he grew in school. Then I planted some reblooming white Iris in the front of it. I have redecorated the ferris wheel since this picture with new blue garland and Christmas lights.





We got this wagon from our nephew. My DH painted it and I did all the work of making the rock garden except for some help with placing the rocks and firewood border. I buried some large tubs so that my 2 Russian sage could not send out roots. I can't wait to see what comes back and how it looks this year. Some of these rusted items came from my DH's 1st cousins auction.


I call this my bird sanctuary area. This dump rake was in our field along the fence with this tree growing up into it. I told my DH that I wanted it for my yard so a friend cut the tree away so we could get it out of there. I said just leave the main part in the rake and just put it in the yard. When I got looking at it, I thought what a great place to put bird houses. Which was the beginning of this flower bed. As you can see, I like to recycle what other people don't want anymore. The eagle came from the same cousin's auction as above.

A lovely show on such a cold and snowy evening.
Thanks for reminders of Spring

had to edit spelling , my fingers/brain are cold been out in the barn feeding.

Thanks Cinda, so it must be snowing right now where you are. I think we might get some snow in the next 2-3 days but not sure if it will be measurable. We have some snow on the ground but only about 6 inches all total. I am not complaining but we could probably use the moisture come early spring. We farm so we need sub moisture.

Looks like a passion flower to me, too.

Love the creativity, fun, and whimsy in your garden.

Debra, I am always looking at other people's yards for ideas. I love going to 2nd hand stores to see what treasures I can find for my yard.

Here is a better picture of my hydrangea that my son gave me. The one I have in the front yard is not doing near as good as this one. The old bike was my son's when he was young.


This is a Mock Orange that I planted a couple years ago. I hope it continues to grow.


I love coneflowers. A couple of them along side this cement next to the garage got really tall and beautiful purple. I hope to find more flowers like this one at the bottom of the picture. Can't think of it's name right now. I had 2 of them and they got such beautiful flowers.



Here is a better picture of my Spiderwort plant. It gets bigger every year. Does anyone know if I can harvest seeds from it or if I can divide it to get more plants? This bike was my other son's when he was young.


That's all for now. I hope you enjoy looking at my flowers. I can't help but take pictures of them. Digital cameras make it so convenient.

blue23rose said:Great pictures, Jeanne! Those tires are soooo pretty! And I just love the outhouse

Thank you all for your comments. My brother made the outhouse for me. It was a surprise. He did a barn board project inside his garage and made this from the wood he had left over.

I saw an old grill that someone had painted and made a planter out of it so when our grill quit working, I decided to do the same thing with mine. I have to keep it watered so it doesn't dry out.

My friend made painted tire planters for her yard so I copied her idea and stacked mine. The paint is holding up pretty good. I have to remember to keep my flowers back a ways from the wood fence because the horses reach over and eat as much as they can.

The purple plant below your passion flower looks like a mum to me.

I love that bike!

My Spiderwort plants are hybrids and they may not come true from seed. Not sure if there are species that do come true.

Does your Spiderwort grow in full sun? All of my spiderwort plants are growing under an oak tree and do well.

Thanks for commenting, Vickie. Yes my Spiderwart is in full sun in my back yard. It probably gets some shade in the morning from the 4 rail fence until the sun gets higher in the sky. This 4 rail fence is on 3 sides of your yard. Along the whole back I put down landscape fabric and then red mulch. So it stays pretty damp under it. I bought an other Spiderwart a couple years ago and divided it and planted both plants in my 2 rail raised bed area. They both came back last year and did fairly well. That is also in full sun. I am anxious to see if they come back this year and how they do.

Any idea what kind of shrub this is. I put the plant stake next to it so will have to check it for the name when the snow melts.

The snow has now melted and I went out and found the plant marker for this plant. It is a Weigela flor Polka. I can't wait to add spring flower pictures.

Thought at first Photina, but I don't think that is right. Maybe post the photograph on the Plant ID thread?

My first thought was weijalia, but I am looking on my phone and can't see real well.

Thanks Debra and Arlene. I will try the Plant ID thread. I could always go out and dig in the snow and see if I can find the plant ID thingy.

Nah, much more fun (and warmer!) to let other folks play detective. We have some pretty good ones, I think.

My first thought was weigela too, but then I thought it might be a crepe myrtle.