Summer Garden - Almost Done

This weekend I had ambitious plans in the garden.  I wanted to work up some rows and plant a few more things.  First I moved the electric netting fence 10 feet back. You can notice the grass on that side.  I'll let the goats in there to eat it.  On July 4th I plan to pull up 4 hills in there and plant four types of pumpkins.  You can also see the Louisiana Purple Sugar Cane growing tall.  It is really healthy.  The other day I cut off a section with my pocket knife and ate the can.  Wow!  It was so sweet and delicious!

 Next, I moved the "metal mulch" off of the ground that I wanted to work and placed it on the garden walkway.  The ground under the metal mulch was soft and moist.  I could tell it was going to be easily workable.  So I got my garden spade and got busy.  I finally got it done.

I pulled up two rows and planted one row of white buckwheat on the last row you see on the left.  I'm trying a new experiment with buckwheat as a cover crop/green manure.  I intend on turning it under when it begins to bloom.  Buckwheat is a "miner" that pulls nutrients from deep within the soil so they will be available for future crops.  I like to eat buckwheat, though, and may try to grow some for grain.  We'll wait and see how it goes.

The other row, I planted multicolored zinnias from seeds I saved from last year.  I just thought it would be good to have some color in the garden.  It will be nice to pick flowers for a bouquet for my wife.  The next row is a row of black-eyed peas.  Then the row on the right is a row of okra that contains 3 varieties: Clemson Spineless, Burgundy, and Beck's Big Okra.



On the other side of the garden (the north side), I planted a row of sunflowers.  You can see them popping up below.  These were from some seeds from 2010.  The germination after nine years was about 100%!

And here are some cantaloupes:

Here is another row of sweet corn.  This variety is an heirloom, Stowell's Evergreen.

Here is some Burgundy Okra.  You can see the burgundy veins in the leaves.  They produce a burgundy-colored pod.  I notice something is eating on some of the leaves.

Here is a zoomed in photo of the blackeyed peas.

What I didn't have pictures of are the birdhouse gourds, luffa gourds, and butternut squash that I also planted.  I also planted three varieties of green beans since my early crop didn't do well.  I don't know how they'll handle the heat, but I'm giving it a shot. They are all popping out of the ground now.  As I said, I intend to plant four varieties of pumpkins on July 4th and that will complete my planting until early August when I put in the fall potato crop.