Yeehaw!!! First Eggplant this year!

I was picking beans and weeding as I went - found a LOT of cucumbers (probably too big to pickle whole - so they are slicer pickles - hmm - quick lime?????  Yum!)  - and then came across (cucumber vine directly beneath!) my first eggplant this year!  And - of course when I went to remove it - got too excited and broke the eggplant below where I should have - but the plant was ok (thank goodness!) and I see I have another one growing - still in the very baby stages yet!

Picked some beans - couldn't remember whether the Coco Rubico was a dry bean or a green bean - but they got picked.  Then I found the Vermont Cranberry - and I KNEW that was a dry bean!  So - went to the other side of the row and picked over there.  Soybeans (I pick green) are blooming like fools - no beans there yet.  Which is as well.  Picked a nice bunch of Dragon's tongue - although I THOUGHT from last year those turned yellow with red stripes, or maybe those are the green ones with the red stripes - hmmm - have to think on this - either that or look it up!  NEXT year - I want to make sure the beds are the appropriate width (this is a VERY narrow 4foot wide bed) so I can have more bush beans!  Pole beans still go right down the middle of the bed - accessible to either side - and divide the dried beans (put a SIGN POST there!) from the green/yellow/striped whatever beans!  As to kinds of beans - well, I've whittled it down to those I like the best - and maybe should run the dried beans in after the peas are done.

Peas - Oh wow - the Asparagus pea is BLOOMING - 4 inches tall - and it has the CUTEST red bloom on the top!  Worth it just for the flower!  Although unless they taste wonderful - next year it gets PLANTED with the flowers!

Peanuts - hmmm - I suspect I keep thinking they are a particular kind of weed - and pull them.  At present - out of 2 plantings - and much more densely than otherwise - I have FOUR plants left - this is NOT a good average!

Herbs - I need to do some major harvesting - probably tomorrow!  By that time I will be ready to dehydrate  or freeze them!

Squash - I have at least one that is playing Pinky and the Brain - and thinks it may take over the world - right now it has headed for the corn patch!  Definitely using those sapling trees for rungs in squash ladders - will be making up 8 of those this winter - 1 for each 4' area of squash - except, of course, the summer squash I usually have is a bush type.

Oh - and one of the summer squash has BLOOMED!  Another is GROWING - FINALLY!  and of course the 3rd - is STILL 1.5 inches tall.  The 4th didn't even bother to come up!  And the seed is fresh seed!

Sweet corn is still tasseling - I need to start watching it CLOSELY now!  And my poor okra is STILL 1.5 inches tall!  Oh - this is the TALL Clemson Giant which I've raised before in IL.  Definitely taking a master garden course somewhere this fall because I'm doing SOMETHING wrong!  And out of 2 dense plantings - still less than a half dozen plants spread over 12' x 4' section - and only 1.5 inches tall!  After 2 months! Ugh!

It still amazes me how fast the weeds are growing - I weeded the pea bed just I am thinking last week - and when I picked on Monday - I gave it a quick going over.  There are weeds there already!  Of course - this is the first year THAT area is under cultivation!

As for the mini orchard - I still have the one peach.....

And maybe 4 pears.......

I FINALLY got the bulbs and the peonies in - am NOT expecting ANYTHING - although I did see a couple of buds on one peony.  And - SURPRISE - a lot of the bouncing bet or whatever that one plant was - are STILL alive!  Most (not all) the Iris is also alive as well!  And the transplants of the day lilies seems to have taken hold.  Unfortunately - that fence row garbage weeds/brush has decided to grow again - so I need to get going on that!

I left the transplants for the coles right where they were for today - I got out there LATE LATE LATE!  I was up at 4 AM - had breakfast and all - was running on too much strong tea yesterday and approximately 3 hours of sleep - and kitties that decided it was time for me to refresh their water bowl!  this would have been fine - BUT it was DARK outside!  and by the time it was light again - I had gone back to bed (545 AM) and instead of sleeping the 1 hour I expected (should have set the alarm, I know!) - slept until after 9!