So far this year, most of our time in the garden has been more pleasant. The girls even get to come up sometimes now:
Everything is coming up already, and we have two rows of bean tripods this year:
Hard to see the second row of tripods because they are further down the garden. The closest tripod row is Scarlet Runner Beans and Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans and you can see that they are already up. The plants you can see directly in front of this row of tripods are buckwheat, which is planted in with tomatoes, basil, and borage. The buckwheat is intended as a "chop and drop" crop to mulch the tomatoes. It pulls nutrients up from deep in the soil and will, hopefully, nourish the tomatoes. It also attracts lots of beneficials. The borage is supposed to help deter harmful insects and the flowers are edible as well as being beautiful, and the basil is supposed to be a good companion to tomatoes. A very intensively planted little patch so we'll have to see how it works. The strip that just looks like dirt closest to the bottom of the photo is cosmos and marigolds. Cosmos draws lots of beneficial insects to the garden and the marigolds are said to deter harmful nematodes the following year if tilled back into the soil. Under the bean tripods are zinnias, which are supposed to be good companions to beans. Just past the beans are the peas, which have had stakes and twine for climbing put up between the rows - the first two rows are Amish Snap peas and the second two are Alderman Peas. The Amish Snaps are growing great had I think every seed came up. Not so for the Alderman Peas but I am hoping they are just slow starters. Just past the peas is half a row of red cabbage and half a row of green cabbage, then half a row of cauliflower with half a row of broccoli, with thyme, oregano, chamomile, and calendula in between. This is also an intensively planted wide row, the success (or failure) of which will play out over the summer. Next comes another wide row: two rows of red onions with two rows of dill in between. Then four rows of beets - two of Early Wonder Tall Top and two of Detroit Dark Red - also in one wide row. Then Scarlet Nantes carrots, French Breakfast Radishes, Hyssop, and May Queen Lettuce (which is up already). The second set of bean tripods is planted with Sultan's Golden Crescent yellow beans (the only yellow pole bean I could find), Cranberry Beans (which really do look like cranberries!), and Mayflower Beans (which are said to have come here on the Mayflower), all with zinnias underneath. After this is more red onions, sage, and carrots, followed by a large section of hills to the end of this garden plot. The first set of nine hills has three each of Longfellow Cucumbers, True Lemon Cucumbers (can't wait for these this year!), and Russian Pickling Cucumbers. Next are five hills of zucchini, six hills with two of Philadelphia White Box radishes, two of Borage, and one each of Tarragon and Tansy. The last five hills are summer squash, with the final row in the plot being more marigolds. That's everything in the first plot, the one I refer to as Garden #1. Garden #2 is German Butterball Potatoes, French Fingerling Potatoes, shallots, and white onions:
