| Favas: We planted our fava beans November 11. They are now taller than the fence and they have a few very large beans on them. Based on the number of flowers, these plants should yield a ton of beans. And I really, really, really hope they do that soon, before the weather warms up.
Freaking huge fava bean plant!
Our first fava beans
Sugarsnap Peas: For the peas, let's just say: Lesson learned. Trying to skimp on the poles was a bad idea. I started by putting branches in the ground, hoping the peas would climb them. When the peas got too tall for the branches, I started tying the plants to the fence. Then I bought a set of 10 bamboo poles and tried to split it between my 50 or so plants. Bad Idea. First of all, the poles are flimsy. I recommend the wooden stakes like the ones I used for the tomatoes. The wooden stakes are not much more expensive and MUCH less flimsy. The only downside to the stakes is that they are very splintery.
Just as soon as the peas REALLY got big and unruly enough to be obnoxious (they took over a lemon tree and they are entirely covering a broccoli plant), they started producing delicious peas like crazy and they are nowhere near stopping yet. I want nothing more than to take all of these dumb peas and put them in the compost pile, but it would be silly to toss out good food that I have been waiting for since December 22! So I'm letting the peas stick around... for now at least.
Here's one set of my peas (there are more elsewhere in the yard):
My overgrown mess of peas
The bunch on the right are all bent over, covering up a broccoli plant. The group on the left is all suffering from powdery mildew, which is a result of the peas being shaded and dry. You can easily get rid of powdery mildew with either water or direct sunlight. Stupid peas.
Powdery mildew
Potatoes: I got a few "locally grown" potatoes from Whole Foods, waited for their eyes to sprout, and planted them. And look at what happened! Only thing is, somebody's eating them and I'm not sure who. But the damage doesn't seem to be too serious.
Potatoes
Who's eating my potatoes?
Broccoli: We planted our broccoli right on the cusp of it being too late in the year. So, since then it's been a race against the weather to produce broccoli before it gets hot out and the aphids take over. Looks like we just might win!
Our broccoli grew a broccoli!
To be fair, the aphids have had a few victories. I've removed a plant or two that got really eaten up. Ditto for the cabbage. And there's a very stark difference in size between broccoli and cabbage plants planted near nitrogen fixing plants (peas and clovers) and those not near a source of nitrogen. Those near the nitrogen are easily twice the size of the others.
The Berry Patch:
I finally completed my grand vision in the berry patch by adding bush beans and borage. Hooray! We've got 12 strawberry plants, three per quadrant of the bed. I planted lettuce in the corners, borage in the middle, and a row of bush beans down the middle. On one side, I put spinach in between the two groups of three berries. On the other side, I planted lettuce. Only two of the original three lettuces remain because the third got big and delicious looking so I picked it. I plan to fill in that area with more beans once the weather is too hot for lettuce. Ditto for the spinach (which is about ready to eat).
The berry patch, now with beans!
Oh, and our other news:
Strawberries!
We have strawberries! Almost. We're very paranoid about these berries. There are no doubt tons of critters out there who want to eat our berries, and they aren't allowed to have them.
Spinach - ready to eat
Red Ridinghood Lettuce - almost ready to eat
Squash: The last note here is a sad one. One of the many rogue squash plants that popped up where it wasn't supposed to be at a time of year when it wasn't supposed to be in season grew to be 12 feet long and beautiful. It grew flower after flower, both males and females, and then it appeared to begin to produce squash. Except the would-be squashes rotted and fell off the plant. The plant was still attempting to produce more squash but after 3 failed attempts, I put the whole plant into the compost pile. We'll try again soon, and next time I plan to tie the squash plants vertically to a stake both to conserve space and to keep the squashes-to-be off the ground. Cross your fingers that whatever happened won't happen again.
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