Loofah central

Last year we grew a lot of loofah (luffa? I’ve seen both spellings) gourds and processed them (removing the outer skin from dried gourds) here in the front garden. Obviously a few seeds escaped!

We have almost two pounds of seeds if anyone wants to grow their own…

Showy evening primroses

They look very showy in the morning here too! 😂
They also make a good background for the coreopsis. The big green mound of leaves in the back is the Maximilian sunflower. A Gaillardia flower is peeking up at the base of the photo and to the right of the sunflower plant are some blue bachelor’s buttons (also known as cornflower).

Bean sprouts (and their friends)

Slippery silks pole bean are up in both beds 1 and 4
Marketmore 76 cucumber in bed 4.  None of others up yet.
Vaquero bean (a pole bean) in bed 1.
Bolas maycoba bean next to lettuce leaf in bed 6.
Greasy grits bean (a green pole bean) in bed 1
Mbombo beans (a bush type) in bed 5.
Blue lake green bush (another bush type) in bed 5.
Dutch corn salad greens beginning to make immature seeds.
“hilled” potatoes with more dirt added, so they will grow more roots and thus more potatoes.
Inca pea beans are the only ones not up yet.
Oregon sugar pod peas all fruiting now with more flowers.
The lettuce is thinking about bolting so I’m picking any that are growing taller.

BEAN CENTRAL HERE WE COME

A very kind friend came over this evening and helped us attach a 100 ft roll of welded steel fence to our new wooden backyard fence. Now all I have to do is clear more of the non-bean plants near the fence base, and wait a few weeks for the soil to warm up sufficiently for tepary beans. I might start some runner beans in the shadier areas so they stay cool longer.