With More Rain Things Are Growing - Weeds Too!

The first of the greenhouse cucumbers.

The squash plants covered to keep the vine borers out.

The cotton crop is moving along.

The beans are finally climbing and note the purslane!

The tomatoes are always mulched - important for  happy plants.

This is the whole patch - can't wait for that first fruit.

The Black fig has a nice crop set.

The Goldfinches love the seed heads of Bachelor Buttons.

We have had some nice rain in the last week and the garden has responded well.  Unfortunately so have the purslane seeds - dormant weed seeds are amazing things.  I have hoed the garden twice and still new seedlings appear some places really thick.  Purslane is my most dominate weed and its all because many years ago I accidently brought the seed home from another garden and it has survived annually for over twenty years.
Last week I had to cover the squash plants because I saw Squash Vine Borer adults on the wing around my plants - I had noticed the Chicory blooming already on the roadside so I expected them to be out but I do think they are way early.  I used some spun polyester cloth I had and covered them.  I also covered my Alpine strawberries because a pair of robins has discovered what white strawberries are - too bad for me!
The tomatoes were ready to be strung up so I got that job done too.  The plants had grown in nicely and they are ready to begin training.  My wife helped by cutting all the strings to length and I kept busy tying plants up.  We were done in less than two hours - that's 75 plants!
Most of the apple bags that were going to drop have and I guess I had easily over 100 bags of the 800 drop and there may a few be more - but we still have a nice fruit set for this season.  My only concern is these 90-plus degree days may result in some sun scald.  I had watered the trees once because of the lack of rain but the last week we got nice amounts so I think the trees and fruits will be fine.
I am having some problems with this new posting system and still have not figured out the picture order - but I will keep working so the pictures get in the order that I want them so that they follow the text. Oh well...
Happy Gardening

Finally Some Rain

Beans planted next to the poles.

Beans are planted out of the peat pots.

 

 

 

The planted bean patch.

The planted tomato patch - all 75.

We finally got some rain on Saturday.  I really cant remember when it did rain the last time!- it has been that long. 
The tomato patch is planted and in the next few days I will start to string them up - I have 75 planted so stringing will take some time.  The pole beans are also in the ground.  I needed new pole so I found some nice 8-10 ft aspen poles in an abandoned field close to home. Wednesday I cut pole and Thursday I planted beans.  The beans were in peat pots so I could plant them next to the poles after I had sunk the poles.  My Grandfather George planted only pole beans and used old stick - i think they must have been Sassafras poles because they grow in groves in Southern Indiana and would have been a logical choice for his beans.  ( The pictures are a bit out of sequence but this new blog system is still a problem!!!)
The apples are all bagged and we are experiencing a drop but so far we have had less than 100 bags drop so this is good. The hot weather we have been experiencing is not good but hopefully not too much scald will occur.  I have only had apple scald happen when we have had really hot weather early in the bagging process - like June and like now...
Garlic scapes have been harvested and we are eating them in scrambled eggs with tarragon - really good.  Don't let the garlic waste energy making flowers harvest those scapes and eat them as the first crop of garlic.
Happy Gardening