Still the garden grows...

I returned from my week-long east coast jaunt late Wednesday night to find everything in the garden very much alive and well. A special thanks to everyone who helped while I was away. The volunteer sunflowers are over 8 feet tall and showing no signs of stopping their skyward ascent anytime soon. Entering the cloche in any fashion other than an army crawl verges on the impossible. Rattlesnake beans are fruiting readily, though the scarlet runners seem to have been spottily pollinated; each flower cluster only managed to produce two or three beans out of around fifteen blooms. Although one bean is nearly ten inches long.

As I understand it, frequent harvesting of beans and peas, tomatoes, zucchini, pretty much any fruiting vegetable, will encourage the plant to produce more fruit. In the case of peas and some beans, picking the pod when it's a bit on the young side will ensure it is tender (and delicious).

Quinoa continues to thrive. According to the seed package the plant was to reach a height of four feet; this one is over six.

The first zucchini fruits appear.

An updated photo of the garden's growth since last week.

One for the road

Leaving for New York tonight to attend my cousins' wedding on Saturday. The ceremony's upstate in Binghamton, but I'll be spending a couple of days in the city with my sister and brother in law prior. Then a few days in D.C. to catch up with an old college friend, Brian.

For the interim, the garden will be in the hands of my able-bodied roommates (I'm praying for rain). I've shot a few pictures of some garden produce as it's coming along.

Dew sprinkled quinoa starting to form the main seed cluster.

Peas overflowing on the vine.

Rattlesnake pole beans filling out nicely.

Pumpkin blossom nestled between the beans.

Scarlet Runner beans and blossoms.

A pic of the garden today (most of it anyway). Even with all my careful attention to spacing, everything seems to have grown rather close together. I guess part of me didn't expect it all to grow so prolifically. The tomatoes in the cloche are beginning to press against the plastic. When I get back next Wednesday I will have to figure out the best way to deal with their rampant growth.