It’s not Christmas in July, it’s cucumbers gone crazy; a cucumber tree!  I had to rig up a bamboo tee pee to help hold up a tomato cage full of volunteer red grape tomatoes inside the fence.  I set the tee pee up so two sides of it were close to the fence that has black eyed peas growing, so they could climb on it as well.  (That actually was good geometry in high school!) I learned last year I would be needing a tee pee inside there cos black eyes are strong and aggressive vines and they did go up 7′ last year. Then I ran garden wire from the fence to the one pole of bamboo to give them  wire paths to go on. Then my co-gardener, DIL Eliza suggested running a piece of wire from a small wooden trellis at one corner, up to the top of one of the tee pee poles.  Now, cucumbers have gone wild and she suggested another wire from the pole toward the cucumbers, lol, and yes, cucumbers are traveling that path now too.

So the back part of the fenced area is a spider web of garden wire and bamboo poles, but things go crazy here and more so this year since we’ve had such good rain for a while now.  An old(er) lady has to be careful negotiating her way around inside there to pick cucumbers or Swiss chard.  We’ve eaten a few cucumbers already, and I just picked 2 for Dylan and Eliza this morning.  There are lots of flowers on plants growing in 2 places, and something is so different with them this year, cos I’ve never grown cucumbers successfully before.  Good rain, good earth, good sunshine.

The black eyed peas are starting to flower.  Here’s another blog about these interesting plants, with beans that are soooo good, especially fresh.  https://sarasinart.net/2014/07/27/black-eyed-peas-2/  The vines are sturdier than other kinds of beans and get very large before they begin to set flowers.  That older blog tells you to beware of wasps and yellow jackets that are attracted to these, cos that is a big problem. But they’ll let you pick beans if you’re careful not to disturb them.  I  plant these farther away from the house at a place where Dylan seldom walks, cos he’s allergic.

They are benefiting from the tee pee of bamboo and the wires from the fence to the tee pee.  They get so heavy that if I allowed them to climb only on the fence, it would mash the fence down. Cucumbers would too, so they get a tee pee that looks like a Christmas tree. Merry Christmas in July to us, with cucumbers and black eyed peas all around. Did I mention that I love my garden?  This lot beside my house is where most of the rambling garden is, and the lot actually has a name,  and a little sign to say it has a name.  It’s called Black Bird Park.  Wonderful things happen in the Park.