garden update: zucchini and green bean germinated, sugar snow pea flowered and harvested

I returned from my trip to find almost a completely different garden from the one I left thanks to the watchful care of my guest gardener.  Seven zucchini had germinated and already sprouted their primary leaves.



As instructed, a few days ago I thinned them to two seedlings on each mound.  All six of the plants were very healthy, so I´ve given the two I removed to a friend (and guest gardener/photographer).

Several green beans had also germinated, although they´re struggling somewhat to put out their primary leaves.



I think that they´re being eaten nightly by slugs.  I´ve had this problem with green beans before.

The Snowy White eggplant also sprouted (thorny!) buds in my absence:



The buds are quite large now, but haven´t yet begun to open.

Both varieties of sugar pea are doing really well.  The sugar snap pea plants are now approaching 5´ tall, and the sugar pod snow pea bloomed and grew pods in the week I was gone.



I can´t believe how fast the pea pods grow.  I´ve harvested them three times in the past two days already.

Sugar pod snow pea:

The garden space itself is now almost complete.

I put in the last row of eggplant this past weekend.  These eight black eggplant are a little behind all the rest, but they seem to be doing well in the ground. 

I´m planning on sequentially planting green beans this year, so I´ll probably dig up and plant the next row of beans this weekend. The beans should be the final planting of this year´s summer garden.

I just ordered some more seeds from Seeds of Change.  I´m planning on trying out a few new types of bush bean to see if I can find something that the slugs don´t like quite as much.  Arriving soon should be Bountiful Stringless Snap Bush Bean and Robert's Royalty Bush Bean (which is on backorder, unfortunately).  I also ordered more fino verde basil and some holy basil for a friend.  For the fall garden, I ordered a new type of radish (French Breakfast) and spinach (Renegade F-1) to try, in addition to some Taisai Chinese cabbage, which is supposed to be like bok choy.  I always like trying to grow something new.  I´m hoping to extend the growing season of my leafy greens well into autumn, and possibly even have a winter harvest.

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.