It's been hot and rainy. Great for the garden, not as great for the gardener's motivation! I ventured down to the garden this morning before the heat of the day. Even though I was pre-coffee I did some weeding and tomato staking. I also took a few photos of the garden's progress. The garbanzo beans have baby beans on them! This photo is blurry, I need to get Michael to show me how to take better close up photos.

You can see the little purple(!) blossom a the bottom of the plant stem. What a cool plant. I don't think I planted enough to get much yield, but it's fun to see how garbanzos grow. This variety is Black Kabuli that I bought from Fedco. 

We had a strong thunderstorm a couple days ago with high winds and the garlic got knocked over. It looks like it will be ready to harvest soon, I need to research harvest-readiness signs.

The Rosa Bianca eggplants are sooo happy to be under row cover. Not only does it provide excellent protection from flea beetles, it raises the temperature just a bit. I planted basil between the rows and the basil is thriving as well. I just sheared the plant in the photo last week and already there are more leaves to harvest.

The experimental bed of pole beans is looking good. The lower leaves sustained some slug damage, but the plants are thriving now. For these beds, I laid down woody weed stems over grass and weeds, then I put down cardboard. Then I cut holes in the cardboard and piled up a little hill of compost in the hole. I planted directly in the compost. 

Last week I broadcasted annual ryegrass seeds in a few paths that were bare soil. I am hoping that the grass will shade out any weeds and that the ryegrass will winter-kill and provide some free mulch. Sounds too good to be true, but I am hopeful. The seeds are quickly germinating in the wet potato patch.

The garden this time of year feels like the third lap of a mile-long track race. A bunch of work is behind us, but there's still some running to do before the finish line, or in our case, bountiful harvest. Since the garden isn't really the best for spring crops I have pinned my hopes on summer vegetables and I look forward to our hard work paying off soon.