Bee plants, Runner Beans

Soaked a handful of Runner Beans last night (Jim Wright's Insuks), and placed on the soil today under the window. Same principle as last year: Provide summer shade (as well as enriching soil, providing beans, color, etc.).
Some more young zucchini seedlings planted out too, in the shade bed (they really had to be planted out).
2 of the 5 gallon buckets planted with the young tomato seedlings, one tub with Green Zebra, another with Yellow Brandywine. I'll be moving these under the Topsy-Turvy pots so that when I water them, the ones underneath catch the drips/fertilizer.
The sage is looking fantastic at the moment, and is attracting a few bees. I think its important that we plant as many bee-friendly plants as possible. Next to the sage you can see some blue-flowered borage, which the bees also love (although they appear to be giving it a miss at the moment).

In the front garden, in what used to be essentially waste land, as its far from a hosepipe, I have planted a mix of native flowers with some drought-resistant non-natives. Here you can see predominantly Blue-eyed Grass and California Poppy, but behind there is a red Geranium under a White Sage. The White Sage is a desert plant, not native to the Bay Area, but is very drought-tolerant and has nice spikes of flowers that the bumblebees love. I'll be putting some more of this out next winter, hopefully, along with some more bright-colored Geraniums to show up against their silver leaves. There are other plants you cant see in the picture, wildflower seed from the packet, but also 2 kinds of onions now coming into flower, and some nice tulips that have just finished flowering. Altogether its been great for a month or more now, and promises to continue at least for another month.

Spring madness

So much going on at the moment. First, all those seedlings had to be planted out

On the left are heirlooms saved from last years seed - pretty much 100% germination. They are now on about the second pair of true leaves, and potted 3 days ago. The spindly looking things are summer savory, which have now been planted out looking more healthy.
I've been putting out bush bean seeds and lettuce plantlets all over, and the zucchini finally went in.
The good news is that it finally looks like a good broad (fava) bean crop is on the way, despite all my worries. I've seen some bumblebee activity of late:

On most plants I can already see 3-4 rows of 2-3 beans, so they clearly were getting pollinated earlier, just took some time to turn into beans (see top picture).
Some of the Insuk runner beans are starting to take off, others have been succumbing to something (slugs?). Time to throw out a few fistfuls of seed, methinks.

Against the fence, some burgundy and "pencil pod black wax" (yellow) bush beans are popping up, and today I sowed a full packet of about 40 "Greencrop garden beans", all from Lake Valley seeds. Hopefully Bush beans will succeed where the pole beans failed in the heat last year and the year before.

Looking at my peas and favas this year, I had an idea - Favas tend to flop over a little, especially in the rain, but if I were to plant a few peas in their midst, the tendrils might reinforce the fava block a little. The favas dont need support, as a block, but one or two fall out. The peas might solve that. Next year, if I get the favas in early enough, say the start of November, then plant peas in say, January, then I might get both crops out, having fertilized the ground, by, say, Mid-April.