Autumn legumes

A couple of days ago Jim came by and we harvested. We got about 8 large cucumbers, a few of each type of pepper (except for habaneros, which are still a bit behind), and about a laundry basket full of beans. We pulled the trellis for the beans on the house side so we could remove the vines from the netting out of direct sunlight. I just finished that today, so I decided to go ahead and replant for the fall.

Because of the density of the patch and the overabundance of beans we decided to plant a couple less per square foot. As before, I added a spadeful of well rotted manure to each square and turned the soil. I made five holes per square instead of eight, and planted beans and peas in the following configuration:




They should all be ready for harvesting around the first or second week of October.

As a side note, we got our soil test report back from the UK Cooperative Extension Service. The soil we tested was only what we added to the raised beds, not the original soil below. Our pH was 7.1 which, while being almost exactly neutral, is slightly high for vegetable gardening, the ideal being around 6.5. As far as the NPK levels, it was suggested we not add any phosphate (P2O5), though we should sidedress with nitrogen and potash (K2O). Also, adding a small amount of sulphur to the soil would help reduce the pH.