Mother  Nature must not have heard but I only get two days off every week.  Those two days are really the only days I can do anything in the garden.  Since Sunday morning is filled with church, Saturday is typically my gardening day.  WHAT was the weather thinking by raining all morning.  That was supposed to start tomorrow.  Alas, the weather forecasts can’t really be trusted rain-wise so I shouldn’t be surprised.   I made the mistake of soaking the been seeds overnight so I was pretty much committed to planting if I didn’t want to throw them away.   I could have waited for tomorrow but it is supposed to rain more then.  My todo list included a couple of 10′ boards for either end of my plot, building a pea trellis and planting pole beans.  I finished all except the boards.

Typically I use a net for the pea and bean supports.   I swear each year that I am going to reuse the net and every year I end up throwing it away after trying to get all of the plant material out of it.  I decided this year to do it a little different.  I picked up some green jute at the local hardware store and strung it between two rods at the top and bottom of two t-bars.  The string will end up stretching and probably get much looser than it is but I don’t think the plants will mind.  The pea trellis is finished and the poles are in place for the been trellis.

I tried a new variety of pole bean this year.  Last year I planted Helda and they did great but their flavor was a little intense for me.  A large Roma type bean I liked them but opted for a more traditional type bean this year.  I ran across Kentucky Blue Pole bean and thought I would give them a shot.  A cross between Ky Wonder and Blue Lake they are supposed to have the best of both worlds.  I sowed them fairly thickly as I had soaked to packets.  One would have been sufficient so I have a handful of left over swollen seeds.  I’ll end up potting those up in little containers and offering them up to a fellow gardener.  I had to pull some self seeded arugula before I could  add bag of compost and some blood meal to the bean patch.  I had planted the arugula last year and let it go to seed.  I now have enough arugula to feed half of the county.  We don’t eat much of it (a little too bitter for me) so a fellow gardener is going to liberate it from my patch.   I ended up washing the seedlings I pulled and they are in the fridge waiting to join some lettuce and spinach in the next salad.

I was able to offload some greens to a fellow gardener.  I begged her to take more but alas one can only eat so much Mesclun Mix.

All in all a productive morning and I got out of there without getting too wet.  The boards will have to wait for another day.