Although the weekend has proven to be overcast and showery, it's still quite warm. The beans and squash are starting to send out roots from the pots so it's more than time they went into the ground.
First the beans were planted, each bean surrounded by a bottomless-topless water bottle to protect them from woodbugs. 17 beans seedlings were nestled into the soil and the last 2 seeds were also planted and protected. These beans are all the Italian heritage beans from seeds given me by a friend of my husband. He's been growing them for years and the original seed came from his family in Italy. When the Remay cloth comes off, I may have to give each bean a bamboo stick to climb until the corn is tall enough.
Then the squash were settled in. I planted 3 butternut squash, a delicata, a patty pan and a spaghetti squash - the last three courtesy of a friend. Finally 3 zucchini were planted in the tires at the front of the Three Sisters Garden. All squash in the central part of the bed were protected by Hot Hats purchased from Lee Valley. The rest of the bed is covered with Remay cloth until the weather is reliably warm.
The final outside chore for today was to put protection in front of the mason bee boxes. I found several straws on the ground, probably the result of a woodpecker discovering some easy dinner, and a number of the holes in the plastic boxes have been breached. We've never experienced this before. My husband stapled mesh over the shelf to keep the predator away. The blue mesh was on a gas cylinder and the black mesh was unsuccessful gutter covering. Sure hope it works! Next year we will have to come up with something more permanent - some kind of metal mesh which doesn't allow a beak to force its way through.
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