What's happening around here

I have been picking green beans galore & discovered 10 foot pole beans don't work too well on a 5 foot trellis.  They were a tangled mess and I pulled the vines today.  There were lots of blossoms, but they were just too much of a headache to pick. 

Today I planted a 2 x 4 box of carrots, a 2 x 8 section of Ambrosia corn, several squares of bush Roma beans, some mixed gourds for the grandkids, and lots of late cucumbers, Boston Pickling and Marketmore.

The corn in the first section is almost finished and it sure has been good.  It was a new variety & I won't grow it again, but when Lowe's had their seeds BOGO I bought several different varieties.  This one was Early and Often that matured early, but just was not as sweet as Peaches & Cream.  I've got 3 other sections planted at various intervals, all different kinds, but right now I don't have my garden map available to tell you what kinds.

The blackberries have been outstanding!  Out of my little bitty patch I have made 3 cobblers, made 10 pints of jam and have almost enough in the fridge for another batch of jam.  Tomorrow's picking should be enough to make jam.   The berries have been HUGE and we have enjoyed them so much.  I have some branches that I weighted down to root so I can expand my garden and they seem to be doing fine.  These pictures were taken in May and the plants are about double this size now.  As best I can tell there are 5 plants here.  It was supposed to be a temporary holding spot when I planted them, so they are quite crowded.  DH built a frame for bird netting and it was worked really well.

I had also harvested onions and garlic a week or two ago and I am very pleased with the harvest.  I ordered garlic from We Grow Garlic.  You can order individual cloves (last year's prices were $1.45 to $2.90 for the varieties  I ordered).  It was an economical way to try different varieties.  They shipped large bulbs and I will order different varieties this year.  I will have a dedicated box for garlic, potato onions, shallots and leeks.

Varieties I tried last year:  Shandong, Thai Fire, Vostani, German Hardneck, Red Toch, Persian Star, Krasnodar white, Italian Mountain Red, Italian Late and Early Portugese.