Last weekend, I spent some time pulling up some plants that weren't doing so well, probably from getting so much rain in a short time in May and June. Some of the tomato plants and green bean plants were yellowing and I spotted squash bugs on some squash plants. So those came out. Harvested green beans one last time before pulling them and got enough to can 5 quarts. Also, the chard had gone to seed and I was waiting to collect seed, which I did, then pulled those.
After that, or rather during that, Earl was expanding one of our 4' x 8' beds into a 4' x 12' bed. We used a large cattle panel to make a sideways arch in it with about 6-9 inches on either end. I planted spaghetti squash on one end and sweet meat squash on the other end. Just inside the arch next to the panel, I planted Chinese red noodle beans to grow up the arch. On the south long side of the bed, I planted basil and okra. Behind the basil, I tried direct sowing a couple of tomato plants. Beyond that, some lettuce in hopes that the shading from the other plants and those growing up arch will shade them and allow them to mature despite the heat (this is an experiment!). And on the far other side, north side of the bed, more zinnias.
In a few other empty spots, I tucked in sunflowers, patty pan squash, more yellow squash (our favorite), jicama, and more Chinese red noodle beans, as well as more zinnias. Oh, and lemon cucumbers!
I bought some large faint-gridded poster boards last week and drew my garden beds on them to scale in order to start planning out the fall/winter garden and what I need to be starting inside. This is a new thing for me, but being a visual learner and loving seeing garden plans in books, I thought it might be fun and helpful. Really wanting to take advantage of the cooler growing seasons even more this year.