The Garden Is Taking Off - Part Two

In last year's addition everything is starting to leaf out nicely.  This section holds three beds of potatoes, a bed of pole bean tipi's, a bed of cucumbers planted on either side of my trellis design for this year, and ends with a bed of summer squash.

The potatoes have only been hilled up once and have started to flower.  I've read that once they flower you can begin to harvest them because they will put more energy to the flowers than the tubers.  I don't know if this is true and it seems far too early in the season to start harvesting, so I will be leaving them in the ground until the stems die back.  I hope to get many large mature tubers like I did the first time I attempted to grow potatoes.  The larger tubers seem to keep better.  If we have any left over by next spring I will be using them to plant next year's garden.

 

The beans that have come up are starting to put out many new leaves.  I have a feeling that it won't be long until they are climbing the poles of the tipis.  There are still a few bare spots that I will have to attempt to replant for a second time.  I don't know if there is a problem with the soil where I planted them or if I've kept it too dry or too wet.  It's hard to say why some just aren't coming up.  Either way, I have to replant if I want the tipi's to look filled out.  One lonely bean plant climbing up a pole won't fill out much, not to mention it won't make for a large harvest either.

 

Some of the first cucumbers to come up are starting to put out good growth and the second round of plantings have all sprouted, so things look good for the cucumbers harvest so far.

 

The summer squash has really started to grow as well and I can even see the tiny beginnings of flowers forming in the centers of the plants.  The weeks of drying zucchini aren't far away from the looks of things.  I'm not sure what I was thinking planting 6 of these kinds of squash.  There may be a lot of zucchini bread in our future.