More Magic Beans

The roadside vegetable garden is looking good and staying on schedule for the last week of May. After years of using wood chips as a mulch there isn't much to do but plant when the time is right. I was also most pleased that all the hobby farm dung I added last fall has been essentially weed free. I did get a few free Anise Hyssop, Agastache foeniculum from the dung. They have been left for now.

There has been a most fine and plentiful crop of strawberries this year. We have been eating big bowls of them for desert. Someone or some varmint found the strawberries enticing too. We were picked clean of the ripe berries before Wednesday's harvest. Whoever or whatever it was left no traces and no evidence. It's a mystery. I'd almost prefer a one time human varmint as the culprit. There's plenty green berries left to ripen.

The rows are getting full. I have them marked with green stakes so I remember which rows have been used. I am very capable of seeding over potatoes that haven't come up or planting over seeds.

There is lettuce, rogue potatoes and self sown sunflowers.

Beets are growing and a second sowing of radishes is up. The first sowing never showed up.

The peppers are doing as peppers do, sitting there and waiting for what amounts to hot high on the low spot. Some years they sit and wait longer than others.

The first of the squashes were planted out. I have cucumbers and other squashes growing bigger in flats before I put them in the garden. I get better germination and less predation when I seed them in pots over direct sowing into the garden.

I planted potatoes and fine crop of dill came up. How did that happen? Well I planted dill once. I don't think I will ever need to sow it again. Like the sunflowers it is now a rambling weed in the roadside vegetable garden.

The missing potatoes are another story. I was bad and bought my seed potatoes at the grocery store and planted them right away without letting them sit out for a bit. Who knows if they had been coated with something to prevent sprouting or not. I went digging to make sure they hadn't rotted in the late freeze. They were fine and just starting to sprout, but still a long way from the surface.

The sack of red potatoes from the grocery store finally came up. So did a whole bunch of rogue potatoes. I try really hard when I harvest to get every last tiny tater. I never do. I always miss some and every year I have weed potatoes. I just dig em and eat em like the rest.

The tomatoes have settled in and started to grow. There are 22 tomatoes.  That should be plenty. I sure hope we don't get the late blight this year.

I had planned to put a fresh layer of wood chip mulch on this year, but they closed off the tree trimmer's dumping ground down by the river and my supply has been cut off. It pains me not to have a fresh layer of chips. It makes things look so neat and spiffy. I can expect to do more weeding this year too. My chips are getting thin.

Most of the pole beans were up. One pole was naked. Someone must have eaten the seed. I recall seeing a hole dug there shortly after planting them.

I need more magic beans.

These are saved Scarlet Emperor runner beans. I always let some of them grow way big to save and collect seed. The seeds themselves are this purple tie dyed looking thing. The vine has deep red flowers that has been known to be a scenic byway road stopper.

More magic beans were planted in a roadside vegetable garden that is bursting with tasty life. I think it's time to repaint my poles.

That's the vegetable garden in the last week of May, ready to grow.

And now for your enjoyment, a gratuitous shot of the sultry Black Iris.