Sunflower Progress & Cucumber Trellis

Sunflowers are doing great, almost 6 foot.

4 of the 8 Mammoth Sunflowers I planted from seed. They haven't formed a head / flower yet. Look at the size of those leaves. Some people use these types of sunflowers as a sight barrier...I see why now.

2 cucumber plants, planted about 2 feet in front of sunflowers. I used concrete reinforcing wire as a trellis for the cucumbers to grow on. I'm hoping it keeps them off the ground so that picking them will be easier and it will save ground space.

Squash Bug eggs on one of our squash plants. We've sprayed them with soapy water to kill them...hopefully. It kills the live bugs, just not sure about the eggs.

Tri-Pod Beans and Homemade Cages

Tri-Pod trellis I built for pole beans. You can't see it now, but around each leg  I planted 5 beans. Hopefully by mid-summer this structure will be immersed in grean.

Triangular tomato cages I built from Concrete Reinforcing Wire purchased from  a lumber yard. They are 6  feet tall, and I expect the plants to go all the way to the top...and even over.

First Squash. It along with another got picked and cooked tonight with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and  some fresh rosemary from the garden...not bad.

Mammoth Sunflowers - That's a 17 oz. water bottle at the base. There about 2.5 to 3 feet high now. 

I planted pole beans (from seed) around the base of 3 of the Mammoth Sunflowers. Notice the 4 bean plants surrounding the sunflower stalk. Once the beans get big enough, I'll run them up the Sunflower stalk...using the stalk as the supporting pole.

Broccoli, Cabbage Worms & Coca Cola

Everything is growing great. Have had a major infestation of Imported Cabbage Worms. I blogged about them earlier. I noticed the white butterflies all over my garden weekend before last and from what I have read, one can expect an infestation soon. Well, that's right. If you plant cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts and/or cauliflower and you see pretty little white butterflies dancing from plant to plant, grab a tennis racket and start swinging.
My wife and I have easily picked off around 200-300 of the caterpillars that hatch from their eggs. I think we have salvaged the broccoli and brussel sprouts, not sure if the cabbage will make it though.

New Plantings:
4 Eggplant
2 Pickling Cucumber
2 Straight 8 Cucumber
1 Straight Neck Squash
3 sets of pole green beans (planted around sunflower stalks)
About 15 Marigold seeds (meant to attract beneficial insects and repel harmful insects)

If you've ever wondered what Broccoli looks like, here you go. Looks like I'll be steaming some up very soon.

Sunflowers! Put a Coca Cola can next to the plants for size comparison. I am using  2 of the  Sunflower plants as  supporting structures for pole beans...more on that later.

Basil...I look forward to eating lots of this...especially with tomatoes .

Fortunately the Pineapple Sage has made a good comeback from the damage done during one of the frost. See earlier post for a picture of the damage immediately after the frost. Oh yeah, the leaves smell just like sweet Pineapple...it's awesome!