I put snap beans in the ground and they came up in a couple days and are taking off! I created five "rows" - at least a row in the SQFG idiom - and planted three. The remaining two will be put in some time next week. In this way, I should get four harvests of beans (each Contender plant produces 2 sets of fruit).
Someone asked about where I planted the bell peppers (between rows of cucumbers and tomatoes). Their concern was that they'd be crowded out by the vines and not get enough sun or even nutrients. In my experiences over the years, bell peppers do okay in the Spring but great in the Fall. If you can get them through the dog days of July and August. The cucumbers and tomatoes shade the peppers during the hottest days. While I had fair production in early summer, it was that Fall crop of peppers that was worth the wait. Based on the average market price for green and red peppers (I picked about a 60/40 mix), the garden produced enough peppers in the Fall alone to cover all the expenses involved over the year for the entire garden (all plants, fertilizer, manure, top soil, etc). That means that the hundreds of cucumbers, dozens of tomatoes, thousand or so cherry tomatoes, bushels of snap peas, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc, etc was all lagniappe!
