The Zucchini are finally cropping, although irregularly, so far I have harvested about 16. Its going to become a regular part of meals from now on. A few of the cherry tomatoes have ripened, but mostly they are going to take another few weeks. Last week, I took out the Fava beans, with 2 meals from one packet of seed. Quite sad really, but if you count from the number of plants - about 12, I suppose its reasonable. Still, something seemed to stop them podding half way up. Perhaps a glitch in the weather? It did get occasionally hot and cold. The more tender leaves did give an interesting alternative to spinach - with an interesting fava-musty taste and chewy (but not stringy) texture. They went particularly well with Oyster Sauce.
The lettuce are starting to bolt (send up flower stalks), so its time to get those out of the ground before they get too bitter. Thats a function of the hot weather - even in Ireland my lettuce bolted when it got hot.
I've been able to clean out the tomato bed somewhat, by taking out some swiss chard (a decent crop, and useful in soups, but some leaf-mining bug destroyed many leaves) and the Fava beans, and weeds that came to light while doing so. That left room to put in some more runner beans that I had in pots waiting for just such an opportunity, and with the sunflowers starting to show some height (about 5 feet), they have something to climb, at least to begin with.
The bed against the house is now full of 4-foot high corn, which oddly, is male-flowering long before any cobs seem apparent. I hope there is still some male pollen around when its needed. The runner beans there are climbing nicely, some on sticks and string and some on the corn. So far, theyre about 5 feet and climbing fast.
Happily, a robin has built a nest beside the back door, and as I write, there are 3-4 hungry mouths gaping wide. Cute.
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