July 28 Update

Things are busy these days.  There are things to harvest and lots of weeds to pull!  First the report on the beautiful braided onions: stupid idea.  I should have known it, too.  I pulled the onions before the stalks were fully dry so I could prepare the bed for a sequential planting of kale.  When you wrap wet foliage into a tight bundle everyone knows what happens - compost.  The braid decomposed and two of the bundles plummeted to the ground before I could take the rest down.  I figured out what happened, un-braided all of the onions, cut the stems to 3 inches and I'll tie them with twine in a row in bundles of three so they'll get plenty of air.

The pole beans are going gangbusters and it will be hard to keep up with them over the next few weeks.  The rattlesnake snap beans are producing like mad - apparently the heat is no problem.  The Kentucky Wonder bush beans are producing OK, but I'm not liking the squatting to pick - I won't be putting those in again.  The Ideal Market pole beans are doing very well; not quite as prolific as the rattlesnake, but very well.

The batch of Good Mother Stallard beans growing up the sunflower stalks are coming along well.  They grow and flower well, but they don't put out any pods until it cools down in August.  All of the sunflower leaves have been trimmed back, now it's just the beans soakin' up the rays.

The tomato rows have been dressed up with marigold bushes - they're regular marigolds, but they're twice the size they were last year.  I figure it's because I'm using the organic fertilizer recipe I found through Mother Earth News.  Everything is coming in super huge this year and that's the most obvious variable.

Also showing incredible growth is the cucumbers.  This year I put in a white cuke variety and a novelty type sold as a "mexican sour gherkin" or "mouse melon".  Looking forward to harvesting both of them.  Should be a good crop if the foliage is any indication.:

Succession planting for the year includes kale, beets and carrots (paris market variety - it produces a root like a golf ball so the soil depth isn't a problem) and two varieties of winter squash.  I planted the squash late, so I hope to have enough season left to produce and mature some fruits.  They were planted on July 23 and looked like this:

Next year I need to remember to put them in earlier to ensure enough time for harvest.