I just returned from my garden, victorious! I harvested a purple bell pepper, a yellow banana pepper, a dark green heirloom zucchini (zucchino?), a handful of green beans, two beautiful beets, and four carrots, three of which are perfectly usable, and one which needs a little help, plus one little onion. My plan is to roast the beets, one carrot, and a Japanese sweet potato for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow, and use the rest of the veggies to make a ratatouille to serve over rice for the next few days.
I'm beginning to wish that I had planted more beans, as I really enjoy eating and canning them. I also discovered that there are varieties of purple beans, so next year I may try starting some from seed. It would be very cool to can green and purple dilly beans.
So far, my zucchini haven't been productive at all. I'm hoping that will change, but one of the things I'm learning is that zucchini really don't like the heat that much. They collapse pretty quickly unless they get watered often. I'm determined not to make the same mistake I did last year and let the zucchini plants collapse.
You can still plant green beans! Some gardeners recommend planting successive crops to have a continuing harvest, so you're in luck.
ReplyDeleteZucchini does like the heat, actually. It just needs lots and lots of water. The zucchini fruits are mostly water.
Also, if you want more climbing beans or climbing plants, I saw that one of my garden neighbors is using one of those metal over-the-toilet shelf systems. I bet you could find one on freecycle. I've also seen people use old ski poles. I guess you can probably get really creative.