Nasturtiums in Bloom

The nasturtiums have started blooming the last couple days. Maybe there will be enough next weekend to do some experimenting with them in the kitchen. All three varieties are starting to bloom, though the Vanilla Berry variety is not nearly as all over the place as the other two. They're still flowering though, so maybe next year I should stick with this smaller plant.

Vanilla Berry

Fava bean plants are growing strong and have loads of flowers on them. Some of the flowers towards the bottom are beginning to wilt and show signs that they'll produce a pod. Should have loads of fava beans in another few weeks to put in the freezer. Alas, some sort of bug has also taking a liking to the fava bean plants. It doesn't seem to be hurting the plants at all, but there's these little not quite sesame seed sized black bugs that are clinging to a couple of the stalks. They're so numerous that the whole stalk in that area looks black. Those areas also seem to have quite a few ants crawling around...not sure how the black sesame seeds are related to the ants but until the fava beans start to show some discomfort with the situation, I think I'll leave them be.

Strange little black bugs

All my leafy greens have been getting munched on by something over the last few weeks. I've got several holes in each leaf of my Asian mixed greens, Swiss chard, and the beet greens so I spritzed everything with some neem oil. If that doesn't work I'll dig up the bottle of Bt I have laying around somewhere.