summer garden officially started

Saturday was beautiful here.  It was the first nice day I had free to work on tilling up the backyard and do some serious planting. I expanded my existing 4' x 19' garden space to include three more 19' rows (two eggplant and one green bean):

and a tomato grove:



In addition to the row of Garden green beans seeds, I also planted Black Beauty zucchini seeds in two 3' mounds:

 
As per the directions, I planted four seeds on each mound and will thin to the strongest two once they've germinated, which should be in 5-10 days.  The green beans are supposed to germinate in 6-8 days.  I'm leaving town for almost a week, and I'm excited to see what will have germinated by the time I get back! 

It feels great to have so many of the plants I've been growing in the greenhouses outside and in the ground.  Right now I have 23 eggplant (not counting doubles) in the ground, and eight more black eggplant that I'm still hardening.  In tomatoes, I have eight second generation tomato plants (all indeterminates) and nine third generation (all determinate but one):

These plants, combined with the 50+ first generation tomato plants currently producing and ripening fruit should make for a very continuous and bountiful tomato harvest this summer. 

When I get back in town, I'll dig up another row and plant the last eight eggplant.  I'm planning on sequentially planting my green beans this year to extend the harvest, so in two weeks I'll start another row of green bean seeds.  Two weeks and two more rows and my summer garden will be officially planted.