April 27, 2016

Pole Bean, Cucumbers, and Luffa Varieties

A squirrel dug out most of pepper/eggplant tray that was on the porch. Seedlings and just germinated seeds were flung about so there's no telling what is what. Ah well. At least most of them survived but I'll take it as a sign, and will get them in the ground as soon as possible.

I got the pole beans, cucumbers, and luffa seeded under their trellises right before some rain hit yesterday. The way the wind picked up and thunder clouds rolled in, made me immediately think tornado. But luckily it was just a fast moving thunderstorm. Ten trellises were seeded which leaves only 2 trellises to be planted with more loofa and bitter melon. The way it works out there'll be 3 trellises devoted to dry pole beans, 3 trellises for cucumbers, 3 for pole green beans, and 3 for luffa.

I was hoping to get more planting done today but it rained buckets and buckets till the whole backyard flooded. Since it'll be awhile before the ground can dry enough to plant the broccoli and Brussels sprout seedlings, I went ahead and potted them up into individual containers so they'll have more room to grow.

Dry pole beans:
Good Mother Stallard
Spagna Bianco
Borlotto Lingua di Fuoco

Cucumbers (using up ancient seeds):
Straight Eight
Japanese Long
Sweet Success
Sweeter Yet
White Wonder
Suhyo Long

Green pole beans:
Meraviglia di Venezia
Smeraldo
Rattlesnake

Loofa:
Chinese Okra angled luffa
Bonanza angled loofa
Extra Long angled loofa
Smooth Boy, smooth luffa
Summer Cross, smooth luffa

Bitter melon:
Green Giant

4 comments:

Margaret said...

Squirrels have been a particular menace in our garden over the past year. I think our mild winter meant our soil was softer for a much longer period of time and most of my beds ended up being a right mess.

I always find it interesting seeing what varieties others are growing - it always brings home the point that growing from seed gives you in incredible amount of choice. And fingers crossed that you don't have any more downpours and your garden is able to dry out relatively soon!

Phuong said...

Hi Margaret,
I'm always so excited at the start of the gardening season, spring is such a busy wonderful time. I hope it warms up soon for you, although your asparagus seem to be a harbinger of good things to come.

David Velten said...

We had a pair of harrier hawks nest in our trees. They shredded up all the neighborhood squirrels and fed them to their babies, then moved on. Result: no squirrels or chipmunks for a couple of years, hooray. Too bad you can't rent a hawk.

Phuong said...

That is so interesting about the hawks eating all the squirrels and chipmunks in your area. We have lots of squirrels and voles at this house. But our last place had hawks and owls and I never made the connection between them and the lack of varmints.