beans and eggplant

we got to eat our first beans today! okay, there were only three, but the flavor- wow. I don't really think the variety is haricots verts (literally french for green bean) as our neighbor had told us, or they would be very skinny. the skin has a velvety nap which feels smooth in one direction and spiky in the other. anyone know what bean variety this is?



it's a little hard to tell from the photos, but the eggplant is tiny- barely as big as half of my pinky. these will be ichiban eggplant- the skinny, thin-skinned variety. my favorite!

today we went back to Liberty Sunset (made the rounds of all three Red Hook garden centers- this one's my favorite) and got more topsoil and some compost. the mosquitos are becoming ridiculous (having a next door neighbor that neglects its yard doesn't help) so I looked up plants that would repel them. apparently they hate anything that has a lemon scent (thus the use of citronella as a repellant) so I bought a couple of bunches of lemongrass. plus I can cook with it! also a wandering jew, the name of which I think the L.S. employee was embarrassed to say. I sprinkled the patch with compost and filled it with topsoil and was able to finish just as it started to rain. love what the rain does to the garden- we're having a near- perfect spring into summer.

I asked the woman who helped me at Gowanus Nursery (from them I bought tall echinacea flowers, Coleus inky fingers and fava beans) about the birds attacking the Sedum. She said that they were going after aphids on the leaves- so it's a good thing! she assured me that the aphids have their life cycle and in due time I won't need to worry about it. in the mean time my plant is chewed to bits. I hung old cd's (was saving them for some special project) from fishing line. the sun's reflection on them is supposed to scare birds away. but as soon as I was finished hanging them and went inside, three birds flew right over to the plant.

I found out later that fava beans are a cool weather bean, to be planted in spring or fall. b suggested keeping them on the shady side of the garden till fall. don't know if they'll produce in the fall, but it's one more thing to learn about.