Look what I found, peering under the sprawling canopy of prickly leaves in the back row of box two. I had no idea. Must have been the first bloom; all the rest are the size of my little finger or smaller. That means a lot of squash in our future, and that's alright by me. mmmmm...
And we now have fresh herbs to add to the salad. Dill, oregano, basil in pots by the back door.
Because it's all about the lettuce, right? We'd been taking 2.5 lbs. of lettuce out of the first box every week, mostly green while the red oakleaf type matured more slowly. The second planting in box two was done by a just-sprinkle-it-in approach that turned out to be too concentrated for the area seeded. The plants were too crowded, and grew pale and spindly. A hot spell didn't help either. I've thinned them out quite a bit, but it will take weeks until they mature and become more substantial in flavor and crunch. The red oakleaf has matured nicely, and the flavor and texture is perfect. They were also spaced and thinned more deliberately, so now I can harvest the oldest leaves from each plant every few days. Several of the green leaf plants that I cut down to stumps a couple weeks ago have pushed out new leaves. I did not expect that. Nice bonus.
One of the two surviving bean plants found the twine and spiraled its way up a couple of feet. The other plant seems clueless about it's next move. Maybe a twist tie will educate it to the way of the twine. While the number chard plants is disappointing—only six plants from a whole pack of seeds—they provide all the we care to eat. The zucchini is predictably out of control. Periodic trimming doesn't appear to slow its growth, and flowering is good. The carrots will remain on a wait and see status for some time to come. They are all about thinning at this point. Green peppers good. Peas nibbled to stubs. Must plant something in place of those (garlic?). Onions! Looking good, should start thinning soon.
