July 26, 2008

I picked the first of the "Celebrity" tomatoes that were planted in May. Also transplanted some marigolds from the front yard that were interfering with a sprinkler. One looks good the rest look wilted. My neighbor, Pat gave me another pepper plant from the pony pack she had bought on sale, so I planted it with the herbs and marigolds. I fear it's too late to produce, but I'll give it a try.

I made a pole bean tepee that cost me nothing. I found an old ski pole in the garage and I pushed it into the center of one of the garden boxes, then I drove 1' stakes in each of three corners and half way between each stake (I left one corner open for the cucumber I had transplanted there). Then I tied garden twine through holes I had drilled in the stakes and attached the twine to the top of the ski pole. I’m sure the pole isn't tall enough for pole beans, so I'll have to buy a long bamboo pole to attach to it before the beans get that far. I had a partial package of leftover "Kentucky Wonder" pole bean seeds, so I soaked them for two hours, then planted around 7 stakes to climb garden twine. I placed the seeds on top of soil & covered them with 2" of compost. I used the deeper planting, as the bush beans I planted earlier kind of came to the surface in places.

I planted a hill of "Early Golden Summer" crookneck squash that were leftover from the spring seed packet. I planted three seeds in a hill of compost at the south end of the garden, as the squash plants planted earlier have just about outgrown their space, and removed the boards from the carrots, as they are beginning to germinate.