Community Garden Plot Update

In the foreground here you can see the bean trellis I was trying to describe in an earlier post.  It consists of two bamboo teepees from last year with a crossbar running between their tops.  Bird netting is wrapped over the crossbar and extends down to the ground, where it is staked to the middle of the bean bed.  There is too much excess netting at the ground, it makes it impossible to use the hoe inside the bed.  Next time I will hang it with the excess at the top.  (If you've never used bird netting, trying not to snag it is like N trying to avoid poison ivy - you'd swear it moves around when you're not looking.)  All but one or two of the lima beans were eaten in their infancy by some sort of rodent, so I replanted the lima bean section with regular green beans, and they're doing well though they're still pretty small.  Most of the plants have little flowers on them now, so hopefully there will be way too many green beans soon.

My cucumbers are starting to produce; I made a jar of refrigerator pickles with the first round of pickings and am hoping to get a few more pounds this week to do a batch for storage.  They don't seem to be climbing as well as in my garden at home, and since I planted several varieties I'm wondering if that's because they get better light here?  I've seen cucumber beetles in there, too, and a few leaves have wilted mysteriously, so I'm worried the bugs will be spreading some sort of disease.  I'd still prefer not to use a pesticide, though, since I work in there with A in a baby carrier and R runs around helping me find bugs, dig holes, and pick things

The corn is getting quite tall and the tassles (the pollen-shedding part at the top) are open on a few of the plants.  Suddenly I remember that I used to be allergic to corn pollen...wonder how that will turn out?

I'll update you on the progress of the other crops later!