This was a good week for the Tummy Treasure Gardens.  My excitement began Monday morning when I peeked out between rain clouds and saw all the pole beans were coming up- and boy were they ever! They’re growing incredibly fast, they must like all the rain we’ve been having.  That would be the sprouts you see here at the base of the bamboo poles.

Moving around the corner to the back bed, I also found that one of my cucumber varieties was poking up as well.  The Poona Keera from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds are all popping out and soaking up the son.  There are no signs yet that the Marketmore’s are coming, but I’ll give them a few days break.  I also was excited to see the long beans at least have sprouted.  Of all the things I’m trying new this year, this is the one I am most excited to see come to fruition. This is a picture of the cukes basking in the almost-sun.

And then!  Andy spent a great deal of time on Saturday filling in the third bed with some compost from some very generous friends.  We gave it a few days then to allow the rain to settle it and compact it up a little bit.  Then on Tuesday I added several bags of organic garden soil to top it off and stir into the mix and before I knew it, I was marking off my grid and putting in the plantings that have been so desperate to be in the ground.  The sweet red and yellow peppers are in here, as are some Kale, Radicchio, my Ping Tung Eggplant, Broccoli, and some more pole beans- this one a yellow variety.  I also have some lavender and thyme in this bed, and my patty pan squash.  I did sow some seeds as well for more spinach, carrots, and tatsoi, but left about 10 squares blank at the end of the day.  I really need to sit down with my seeds and see what I missed and what I want more of.  I think probably a few more lettuces will go in if nothing else.  This next weekend Andy will put the fencing up around this bed after I’ve totally finished planting it.

As long as I was emptying my starter pots of plants, I also went ahead and finished planting the hot peppers.  These ones I put in pots, as last year I discovered they did phenomenally well in pots compared to everything else.  The two varieties I planted this year were Chili de Comida and Anaheim Chiles- both started from seed from Baker Creek.  The Comida Chilis were a low germination variety, so I’m very pleased that I have three of them doing very well.

As far as the pots go, I think I have decided that planting such things like spinach and radish in pots doesn’t give me any advantage.  As it stands, the radishes in the pot still have some growing to do, where the radishes actually in the garden, planted several weeks later, are bursting to be picked- they’re gorgeous.  Same with the spinach.  While I felt I had a bit of an advantage planting spinach in the pot, the spinach in the garden grew quickly and is ready to eat now.  I’ll finish with the pot of spinach and the pot of radishes this week and then put something else in those pots.  I have plenty of eggplant and okra that could go in the pots, or maybe the last tomatillo sprout.  We’ll see.  I’ll get the rest of that third bed planted in the next day or so, and then it’s all just weeding and waiting!  The peas are looking fabulous, and any day I expect to see some blossoms poke their heads out.  Only one of my fennel plants germinated, and while I think I’ll let that one continue to grow and see how it does, I think the rest of that square foot will be planted with some carrots or something- we could never have enough carrots.

Overall, if the weather continues to cooperate, it looks like it will be a bountiful year for the garden.  The only thing that is still up for debate is whether or not I want to attempt a winter squash this year.  Last year’s turned out terrible, but I started them very late. If I started now, I might have a chance of success.  We’ll see.  This year’s growing season is a whole month shorter than last years.  Last year I planted the majority of my seeds on April 27th and the following week. This year most went in June 3rd or later. That’s a big difference!