Fresh Salad

I pulled my one large lettuce plant today. It's not exactly a tight head, but with having all the plants crammed inside the house trying to get light from the windows I decided to go ahead and eat it. Delicious!

Little Carrots

I pulled a few carrots from the square, white, plastic pot. They were smaller than the ones I've pulled out of the clay pot. I'm pretty sure I planted them at the same time so I don't know why they aren't growing as well.

Here are both pots and the tub of lettuce sitting on the kitchen floor:

Carrot Number Two!

Ta Da! Here's my second carrot. 5 and 1/4 inches long. It's supposed to snow tonight. I hauled one of the pots of carrots and the tub of lettuce inside. The others are all still out there, covered in a tarp. I'm hoping for the best.

Brrrr

It was 27 degrees outside when I got up this morning. I didn't realize the temperature was going to drop so low last night. I hadn't done anything with the plants and the leaves had frost on them. At least the top layer of soil in the pots outside the screen cage was frozen, but the pots inside the cage seemed to have stayed a bit warmer all huddled in there together. I drug some of them inside to thaw out and then put them back outside when the sun had warmed things up some. You can see the big broccoli leaves got a bit droopy. That's garlic in the front middle and the lettuce in the front right.

I hope the soil didn't freeze so much as to damage the carrots. They look good on top. Perhaps I should pull one up and check on them.

The little lettuces didn't get a lot of growth before this freezing weather has hit. I know they're supposed to like cool weather, but I don't know how they're going to do in the flat out cold.

Awww.. My First Carrot

I decided to pull up a carrot today to see how big they were and because some of them are crowded in a bit. It's a tiny little thing, but they're definitely growing. And delicious- I'm munching on it as I type this.

The broccoli is looking better although there's still no sign of a head. Most of the onions, at least from above ground, appear to be doing exactly nothing. Some of the garlic leaves are looking a little sad, but they're all sprouting away. Two out of the four I planted last have just broken the surface of the dirt. The first lettuce I planted is growing away. The others are still pretty small.

Purple Broccoli Leaves

My broccoli plants seem to be having some issues. The littlest one all but one leaf has turned purplish and the new leaves on the larger ones have done the same thing. I put some additional fertilizer on them this morning. Maybe that will help.

More Garlic

The rest of the garlic I planted has now sprouted. In the photo you can see the first one that came up and on the left one of the ones that just appeared recently. They ended up a bit too close together I thought so I tried to pull up the little one to put it in its own pot, but I wasn't able to pull it out. I acquired a couple more pots so I stuck two more cloves in each this evening as well. I love garlic.




No sign yet of anything that appears to be a broccoli head. Here's my tallest plant. You can see the one in the background that was eaten by the caterpillars. The blue/green pot has the last set of carrot seeds I planted.


Speaking of carrots, here is also a photo of the first set of carrots I planted. I don't know how things look underground, but the leaves above ground are growing away.


Lastly, here's a little lettuce I just thought was cute.

Growing

I transferred three little lettuces to the white tub in the front of the photo. It has no drainage holes, so I'm a little concerned the plants will drown in a good rain. It's supposed to rain some tomorrow, so I put the screen over it to provide some protection. We'll see how that works or if I might need to do a solid cover in a downpour.
More garlic has appeared. Most interestingly, the two cloves from the Trader Joes Colassal Garlic are growing. I had read that some grocery store garlic wouldn't grow because of something it was treated with. So it'll be an interesting experiment to see how it does. It's a better deal than the $10 I spent buying cloves off of thegarlicstore.com. As for those, I have three up now and two no shows.
The carrots also seem to be doing well.

Garlic!

One of my garlic cloves has sprouted! It's one of the ones I planted after letting it sit in the fridge for two weeks. The ones I didn't do that with haven't appeared yet.

Everything else is looking good too. As you can see in the photo the carrots in the white container are getting bigger. To the right of the carrots is one of the broccoli plants. The teal container has carrot seeds I recently planted. The container next to it and the two in the far back are onions.

Finally, the lettuce is growing as well. The second seed took a little longer to get going but you can see it on the left in the photo.

Carrot Problems

I just got home after a weekend trip and found the last container of carrot seeds I had planted had a hole dug in it. It's not that tall, so I'm thinking a squirrel climbed in there. The seeds hadn't sprouted yet, so I'll have to wait till they do to see how much damage was done. Half of the carrot seeds I'd planted in small containers for my mom had met some mysterious demise over the weekend, so I stuck the remaining ones in a large container and also tried thinning out one of my containers and transplanting the ones I pulled out. With such small, delicate root systems, I don't know if any of them will survive. If not, I'll toss some more seeds in there.

I dug up one of the cloves of garlic in my attempt to put it in a larger container. At first I thought all I had was a container of ants, but the clove was down in there, looking pretty much the same as when I stuck it in, only dirtier.

Lettuce be happy

Here's the lettuce that has sprouted. I think the other seedling may be starting to poke through the dirt too. I planted a couple more today for mom.

Here's what I've got:

Lettuce
http://www.parkseed.com/gardening/PD/5137/
heads 5 inches
50 days to harvest

Broccoli
http://www.parkseed.com/gardening/PD/5836/
heads 6-8 inches. plant 16 inches high/wide.
66 days to harvest

Carrots
http://www.parkseed.com/gardening/PD/5879/
6-7 inches long
62 days to harvest

Onion
http://www.parkseed.com/gardening/PD/5208/
125 days to harvest

One of These is Not Like the Others

The soaker hose did the trick- my plants were happily growing upon my return today. To the right is a photo of one of the broccoli plants which had a growth spurt while I was gone. Before I left I stuck a couple lettuce seeds in a pot just to see what they'd do. I thought it might be too hot still, but one of them has sprouted. The onions look about the same.

The carrots have also been growing. I am curious what these other little seedlings are that have sprouted in both the carrot pots and one of the onion pots. I haven't decided yet whether to pull them out or see what they turn into. See the middle of the photo below for the odd man out.

Soaker Hose

I picked up a soaker hose today to try to irrigate the plants when I'm out of town (and probably when I go back to work too so the ground will stay moist). It's not a perfect solution, but it'll do for now. As you can see in the photo my carefully laid out carrot seeds in the square container shifted some in the dirt, but more little seedlings appear every day. The other photo is of two of the onions.

The composter is still producing flies and curious neighbors. Another lady stopped on the corner as she was driving by this afternoon and apologized for asking, but wanted to know what it was. That was about five minutes after the lady across the street came over and asked. It is unique looking. It's slowly migrated toward the front yard too as I try to move it into full sun to help with the decomposition, thus making it visible to anyone driving by.

Specks of Green

More little seedlings have popped up in the carrot containers over the past couple days. A couple of the onions sprouts also made an appearance since yesterday.

Lots of Flies

Almost a week into my first composting experience I can't say much for any progress actually producing compost but I've increased the fly population in my yard exponentially. They literally swarm out of the composter when you unscrew the top. I'm hoping as things decompose a little more in there it'll get better. I've got what I believe to be a pretty even mix between greens and browns- fruit/veggie scraps, leaves, grass clippings, and newspaper/cardboard. I've wetted it down as best I can (water just flows out of the seams at the bottom when I dump any more in). It's sitting in the sun. All that's left is time. For now though the only good thing I can say about it is that it doesn't smell. Unfortunately I can't say the same for the plastic containers in the kitchen we've been putting the kitchen scraps into. They smell terrible when you crack the lid on them and actually even sorta reek even with the lid on if you sniff at them. It's a smell I just had not experienced before.

As for more pleasant matters, the three little broccoli seedlings are looking good... as good as a two centimeter tall stalk with a couple leaves can look anyway. There are a few wispy little green shoots in one of the carrot containers that may be carrots. There are none in the other container though, so I don't know. The broccoli I planted for Mom hasn't sprouted either. I've also forgotten what container I planted it in, so I've been peering at all of them and whispering encouraging messages.

The aloe babies I transplanted into old yogurt containers are looking much more greenish than brownish, so I'm taking that as a positive sign that I didn't kill them in the transplant. I'm thinking I either pulled them a bit too early or gave them too much water at the beginning.

Hello Broccoli

The three broccoli seeds I planted have all sprouted. Look close right in the middle- they are tiny! It's the first sign of growth for my fall garden, so it's very exciting. The carrots and onions have longer germination periods.

Starting My Fall Garden

Yesterday my seeds from Park Seed in SC arrived as well as the garlic I ordered from www.thegarlicstore.com. I planted a few containers each of carrots, onions, broccoli, and garlic.

I put the carrots in my two largest containers and did my best to spread out the seeds, but as tiny as they are it was tough. Keeping them moist might turn out to be a full-time activity since right now I'm watering (more like misting) them with a spray bottle.

I have three containers each of onions and broccoli and am planning on one piece of produce for each container. Finally, I did a window box with three cloves of garlic that I bought and then another container in which I stuck a clove from Trader Joe's just to see if it would sprout. I stuck some of the other cloves I purchased in the fridge as the tip on the instructions that came with them suggested, and I'll plant those in a couple weeks. There's still a little space in my reinvented garden cage, so perhaps I'll do another couple containers of broccoli then too or perhaps the lettuce. I'm considering waiting until Spring for the lettuce. Right now I think it would be too hot for the seeds to germinate.

And yes, you read that right, the garden cage has risen again from the tangled mess of bent screen I found when we got back from vacation due to a storm that hit while we were gone. I picked the three straightest screens of those remaining and turned them on their sides and attached them together to create a tunnel of sorts. Then I closed the ends with some chicken wire-type material. I didn't have enough to full enclose one end so there's a gap at the top. I haven't decided yet if I should worry about that. I also haven't staked the new structure down, which I'll need to do before the first wind comes along. When I do that though I'll lose all physical access to the plants since I don't have a door like I did with last season's taller garden cage. All issues to be worked out in the future...

Composting Death Star

I just got an early birthday present- a composter! It's an Ecomposter and looks kinda like a big hamster ball. Just as I finished putting it together (no small task) a couple that lives down the street pulled up on the corner. They stared out at it a minute and then rolled down the window and the wife asked what it was because they couldn't guess. I'm excited to give it a try, although I'm not sure how long it'll take to get some usable compost since we don't generate a lot of fruit and vegetable scraps. It took a couple hours to put together and cost $100 on woot.com, so I hope it turns out to be a good investment. If nothing else it's sort of an interesting lawn ornament...

Goodbye Summer

My summer garden has met its demise. I pulled up everything but the tomato plants and two gnawed on butternut squash plants. I left those in the cage and asked the neighbor to water them and help herself to whatever grew. While we were gone a storm took out the cage, leaving it a tangled mess of screening. The neighbor said she got some tomatoes off the plants though. The butternut squash plants look like they never recovered from their encounters with the deer.

Ugh

Just found a squash borer larvae on one of my zucchini plants. I must have gotten him soon after he hatched since he hadn't bored into the stem yet. I didn't see any others obviously, but I didn't do a thorough search either. I have a bad feeling with going on vacation this is going to be the end of my garden.

Again

I think the deer may have been back. I only have two zucchini plants out in the open now and I just noticed that it looked like one of them had been munched on. It hasn't been looking that great for awhile, but I'm pretty sure this was fresh munching. The pieces of leaves still left were green. On the plus side that means the netting over the butternut squash and the screen around the rest of the zucchini served their protective purpose. On the downside, if I leave the butternuts uncovered when we're on vacation I might lose the whole thing. Or if I leave them covered the bees can't access for pollination purposes. I'm already a little concerned I may have been abandoned by the bees. They can still access the zucchini but it doesn't look like they have recently when I've checked in the mornings.

Another Butternut

A second female butternut blossom was open this morning along with a number of males. I've been tossing netting over the plants at night to keep out the deer, but that means the bees can't pollinate so I have to do it by hand.

Baby Butternut!

I had a female flower open this morning on the butternut squash plant along with a lot of guys. Finally! It's on one of the plants that the deer nearly stripped of leaves, so I hope it makes it.

The zucchini plants are looking a little better now that it's not 100 degrees out there. They're also in a slightly shadier spot now that I moved them to try to protect them from the hungry deer. Hopefully they start producing zucchini again.

The bean plants on the other hand are looking sad. They never perked back up after their experience with the deer and although they've all flowered again and have little beans growing, they are dropping leaves like crazy.

There are a couple tomatoes now on each of the tomato plants that were stripped clean by the deer, but they're too small yet to guess how they'll turn out. Those were the plants that I had trouble with the rot. The other plant continues to do well considering I've cut off a lot of the branches because the leaves had turned yellow.

The basil has little white flowers on it. We made homemade tomato sauce using the homegrown tomatoes and basil last week and it was delicious! The mint plant is also happier in its new spot on the front porch where it gets more shade and I'm going to pull off some leaves and try to make some mint extract soon.

Take that!

I decided late last night I'd better do something or risk another night time raid. I found an old roll of screen in the shed (after leaping around in the back yard waving my arms to turn on the motion sensing flood light so I could see- I think that might need some tweaking). I tacked the screen over the top of most of the plants. It wasn't pretty, but hopefully it serves the purpose. I didn't manage to get all of the butternut squash or one of the zucchini plants covered and they didn't looked munched on this morning (although pretty hard to tell after the previous devouring) so either the deer didn't come by or were too intimidated by my screening to even try.

Counter Measures Are Needed

Turns out deer do eat zucchini. Well, mostly the flowers and leaves I think. I didn't have an exact zucchini count from yesterday to know if any were missing, but there was one slightly gnawed up one on the ground that appeared to have been rejected. Yes, I was raided again last night. He/she/they took out the better part of another two butternut squash plants and chewed up at least two zucchini plants. I was too distraught to do an in-depth casualty analysis and was busy lamenting with a neighbor who walking by with her dogs when I discovered the carnage. The cage has done its job and the beans and tomatoes remain unscathed (although both still bear the scars of their past attacks), but the zucchini and butternut plants have no protection and I'm afraid may be whittled down to nothing in the next few days if these night-time raids keep up. Clearly counter measures are needed, but I don't have the time to put into a strategy. Ack!

Raided Again

The first thing I noticed when I walked outside this morning was that one of my zucchini plant pots was knocked over on its side. The second was that my butternut squash plant had been munched on again. I need a night sentry. But in better news, the zucchinis had male and female blossoms on them this morning, so if the rain didn't wash away all the pollen, maybe I'll get some zucchini soon.

More Beans

The bean bushes are flowering in force again despite having been nibbled on by the deer. Still flowers but no new tomatoes on the one tomato bush the deer got to and only two tomatoes on the other. I cut three butternut squash off this morning that I don't think got pollinated and haven't shown any signs of growth. Unlike the zucchini plants which are laden with female blossoms, the butternut squash plants appear to have pretty much only male blossoms growing at the moment. Disappointing.

Attack of the Caterpillars

I've been pulling little white furry caterpillars off of plants for the past couple days. The first one I spotted was chomping down on a rose bush stem and a few minutes ago I nabbed one devouring a basil leaf. They're on the flowers too, although I haven't spotted any on the zucchini, beans, or tomato plants. It's also entirely possible I haven't looked closely enough. With the tomato plants and the beans all in the cage it's super crowded and I really don't have good access to watch or even water the plants. As for the non-caged zucchini, I've pulled out a couple sad looking plants that were in containers with another plant and that seems to have made the remaining plants happier. All week I had up to a half dozen female zucchini blossoms open a day and not a single guy. I finally got a male open this morning but by the time I got out there the bees had cleaned it of pollen, so here's hoping they pollinated the girls while they were at it. Meanwhile the butternut squash plants continue to alternate between male and female flowers and as of yet has only had them open at the same time once. That resulting butternut isn't exactly butternut shaped and I haven't noticed much growth, but it's hanging there so we'll see. How frustrating all around.

Yum

Somebody has been munching on my butternut squash plants. I'm guessing perhaps the deer again. This is just how the tomato plants looked with bitten off stems.

It's not apparent from the picture since there's no means of size comparison, but that butternut squash in the background hasn't really grown. Out of the three or four I have, only one had a female blossom open at the same time as a male blossom. I've left them all alone though just to see what does happen with them.

For the second day in a row I had female zucchini blossoms open but no males. I don't understand the malfunction with these plants. If they want to survive they have to pollinate.

Unhappy Zucchini

In addition to the little bitty zucchinis that abort before the female flowers even open, turning yellow and eventually shrivelling up and dropping off, I'm also having problems with some of the larger ones. They look fine toward the stem, but at the flower end they're yellow. I cut one open and it was brown inside like a bruised apple. Another I cut open and didn't see any seeds, so I perhaps it's a pollination problem?

In addition to the tomatoes from earlier, I'm pretty sure a deer has been snacking on my bean plants. I hope she's been enjoying it. I guess I'm feeding more of the neighbors than I originally expected. :)

Shades of Red

The tomatoes on the one plant that didn't raided are doing good. None are as big as the first one I got, but there are several in various stages of ripening and turning red. Meanwhile, the other two plants that were stripped of tomatoes last week are growing some new flowers, so maybe they'll give it a second try. The consensus is that it was a deer. I've seen a doe in the neighborhood twice recently. In fact, Eric and I saw her in a yard in the back of the neighborhood last night while we were out for a walk. She didn't seem particularly shy and I had a little talk with her from across the street requesting that she not eat my plants.

Tomato Theft!

So much for the little tomatoes that were looking promising on the two plants I've been having problems with. Both plants have been stripped of the tomatoes. I don't know if it was someone or something. They're just gone. All the little tomatoes from the ones at the very top of the plants to the ones at the bottom look like they were broken (or cut) clean off. I can't imagine what a person would do with a bunch of little green tomatoes so I have to believe it was an animal of some sort, but I don't know what kind would have had the reach to get them all and the dexterity to do it neatly. And oddly enough the only two tomatoes left were the one that's turning red and the only other larger one with rot on the bottom. All the smaller ones of varying sizes are gone. Crazy. I guess I just have to hope some more grow back. I took some of the bean plants out of the cage that look like they may have grown their last bean and moved in the two tomato plants (the one tomato plant that has been doing well was already in the cage and is fine). Speaking of the bean plants, I don't know if they'll flower again or if they're just done for. I can't complain, they were easy maintenance and the beans were good, but that seemed quick. Next time maybe I'll try pole beans instead of bush beans.

Delicious

The first tomato was quite tasty. I cut up part of it for a salad for supper tonight. There's another one on one of the plants that isn't doing well that is yellowing so I suspect it'll turn red before long as well. Cutting off all the yellow/brown leaves on those two tomato plants really seems to have helped. There are new little green leaves growing back around the bottom where I cut off the old leaves. I've found some tomatoes still with rot on the bottom, but there are more little ones growing to replace the bad ones I've taken off that so far seem good.

I Promise, I'm Only Watering!

The bees have officially taken over the pollinating and having taken to buzzing my head in the morning when I go out to water the plants. I'm glad to leave the job to them, but until they learn to carry a water jug we're going to have to work together. I did have a male and female butternut flower open at the same time over the weekend, so finally an officially pollinated butternut. The squashes that started before any of the male flowers had opened still seem to be growing though. Some of the zucchini plants are looking a little sad. Temperatures have been in the 90s here, so I think they're hot (along with the rest of us!).

Tomato Celebration

Picked the first ripe tomato today and decided to throw a cook out in its honor. Although we all oohed and ahhed at the tomato we didn't end up eating it, so I can't speak to taste yet. It's very exciting though. On the advice of a neighbor, I also cut off all the yellowing leaves on the other two tomato plants that aren't doing well, so maybe that will help with all the tomato rotting.

Seeing Red

Finally- a tomato that's turning red!! This is on my one good tomato plant. The tomatoes on the other two plants continue to rot. A number of new tomatoes have appeared as I've pulled off the ones with the bruised-looking bottoms, but those too then succumb to the same ailment. I can't think of anything I've done differently between the three pots.

Two more male butternut flowers this morning as well too. Of course now no sign of the females.

Bzzzzzz

Found a bee busy at work this morning when I went to check on the plants.

I finally had a male butternut squash flower open today, but of course all the ladies are closed up now. Hopefully they'll get on the same time table sometime soon.

And in quite exciting news the largest tomato I have is finally looking... less green. No sign of red, but a paler green. I hope that's good news anyway.

Not Giving Up

The two tomato plants that were down to a tomato apiece once I pulled off the ones with rot now have more little baby tomatoes on them. There are some flowers on them too, although I didn't notice the flowers before the little tomatoes appeared. Apparently the plants haven't given up entirely though... at least on growing the tomatoes. Still nothing on any of them turning red. My mom though discovered one of her tomatoes last night that is getting reddish.

I pulled off my second black beauty zucchini this morning. Eight inches long but only 4.5-5 around. Quite long and skinny. I also cut a few 6-inch of the grey zucchini. There were male and female flowers open this morning, but the rain had filled up a lot of the blossoms and even the ones with some leaf cover were damp. Not a good morning for pollination.

Yesterday I had my biggest harvest of beans so far. I tried steaming them, which I'm not sure I've ever done with green beans before, and a lot of them split open and the seeds popped out. Still tasty. Maybe I let the seeds get too big before picking.

Another neighbor from around the corner I don't know stopped as he was driving by the other day and said he tried a garden but the deer ate everything. His house backs up to the creek though and I'm further inside the neighborhood so I'm sure he gets a lot more deer where he is. (Now I just need one of these friendly neighbors to drive by while I'm harvesting zucchini so I can offload some on them.) I haven't had any animal problems yet, although it does look like a bird might have pecked one of the little butternut squashes that didn't get pollinated.

Nonconformist

I decided to go ahead and pick that bulbous zucchini. It's 10 inches around at the bottom and 6 at the top. It's about 6 inches long. And it's about to become zucchini bread.

Bringing Neighbors Together

I thought the neighbors might be less than thrilled with my collection of pots and screens in the front yard, but I've had nothing but pleasant conversations with neighbors checking in to see what I'm growing and how things are doing. I just had a woman I didn't recognize at all pull over and say she looks at my plants every time she drives by and is impressed at how well they're doing. She said she was just telling her friend how great they looked and asked what I fertilized with. People have had advice and their own gardening stories. It's been great.

Meanwhile, my butternut squash continue to let me down. I believe these buds are some of the fellas that are showing no inclination to open. The female blossoms that opened earlier still have fruits on them. I guess they haven't realized yet they can't be pollinated by zucchini. My mom apparently has gotten three female blossoms and corresponding male flowers at the same time, so I'm glad her butternuts are cooperating right from the start since she had trouble with the zucchini getting both types of flowers. My zucchini seem to be doing their thing. I've only gotten one zucchini at a time on each plant. I don't know if that's just all the plant can support. A lot of female blossoms are shrivelling before they even open.

Bulbous Zucchini

Not much new in the garden today. Picked some green beans for lunch. There are a couple zucchini growing. Here's one that's particularly bulbous. Also, as you can see in the corner, there are a number of shriveled little squashes. I don't think flowers actually opened on all of them, I think the plant may have aborted early.

Bummer

I'm sad to read online that zucchini male flowers can't pollinate butternut squash female flowers because they are from a different species. Another female butternut blossom opened this morning and there are at least several more on the way. I don't see anything that resembles a guy on any of the butternut plants though. Disappointing.

Two of the three tomato plants are down to a singular non-rotted tomato and both of the plants look like they're dying from the bottom up. I moved the one plant that doesn't seem to be failing completely into the cage and haven't taken a good look at it since last week, but the tomatoes are making no visual progress on turning from green to red.

The honeysuckle is also on death's doorstep, although Eric is feeling positive about a couple new shoots on one. On the other hand, the passion flower, which the tag said is supposed to like sun to part sun, seems to be doing fine in pretty much total shade. So far. I thought the honeysuckle would be ok in the shade so I'm wondering if the bad drainage caused the roots to get too wet.

At least the zucchini and the beans aren't letting me down.

Butternut Blossoms

I had two butternut squash blossoms this morning. No fellas so I hand pollinated with a little pollen from the male flowers on the zucchini squash. We'll see if that works.

I had a couple other grey zucchini squash female blossoms open this morning as well. And then I spotted this one (see picture) that I don't know what happened to it. It's like someone took scissors and cut off the top of the blossom. The ants are all over it, but I don't think they could have done it. Weird. I'm looking forward to the next zucchini I can pick and make zucchini bread. My neighbor made some with the ones I gave her a couple days ago and it was delicious.

Finally, things aren't looking good with most of the tomatoes. They appear to be rotting on the vine. I found a nice webpage with information on tomato issues here. Some kind of wilt or rot for sure.

So Cool!

There is just nothing cooler than thinking "I'd like to make a stir-fry" and then going outside and picking fresh veggies for it. I grabbed a sizeable handful of green beans and chopped up the zucchini I picked this morning and have it all on the stove now. However, lunch was slightly delayed by my cursing out the squirrels for the billionth time. They dug through the potted caladium and geranium on the front porch, kicking dirt everywhere. I'm really quite shocked they haven't gotten into the vegetables. I spotted one hanging by his front paws on one of the tomato containers a couple weeks ago (leading me to go running into the yard waving my hands and shouting like a crazy person), but I think maybe they haven't discovered yet that there's stuff in the pots they can mess with. Obviously the containers are off the ground a bit, but it's nothing these squirrels couldn't overcome. They sure do dig through everything else. They've dug up and made off with darn near every bulb I've ever planted, in the ground and in pots. They dug up a potted amaryllis multiple times a day until I finally brought it inside. And then there's my poor garden gnome who has lost his elbow and the top of his hat from being toppled off his stump perch on numerous occasions by the furry little thugs. One of our neighbors (don't ask me why- she's lost a garden gnome to them too) installed a corn cob ferris wheel looking thing in one of the trees in her backyard for the squirrels to eat off of. Yesterday Eric found one of the metal spokes, mostly eaten corn cob still attached, across the street in our driveway. They're little terrorists.

Squash and More Squash

My first Black Beauty zucchini was seven inches this morning so I went ahead and cut it off. I had hand-pollinated using a guy flower from the other variety of zucchini plant, so I'm glad that seems to have worked just fine.

Last night I made fried zucchini with one of the zucs I picked Sunday night. Yum! I gave the other two to a neighbor who is going to make some zucchini bread. There are some more beans that look ready for picking so I think I might do a stir fry today.

And in other exciting zucchini-related news, my mom had her first girl flower open this morning! I gave her both types of plants, so I'm not sure which one, but she was starting to lose faith, so I'm glad they're coming through for her. She's had great luck with her eggplant plant, so I'm adding that to my list to grow next year. We're both growing everything in pots. Her tomatoes are also doing much better than mine. Of my three tomato plants, one I think has a single tomato on it at this point (I found one undamaged on the ground this morning), one has tomatoes on it that look like they may be rotting, and one has tomatoes that look fine but are still all bright green.

In other squash-related news, not to be left too far behind the zucchini, the butternut squash have developed buds as well. I'm sure these are the gals with the little squash behind them, but I didn't notice any fellas. I'll have to give a closer look tomorrow. I can't decide how they feel about growing horizontal across the screen. The little tendrils are twirling around desperately seeking something to grab on to with no luck, but the plant otherwise seems reasonably content to just lay there.

Black Beauty

Here's what the Black Beauty zucchini that bloomed Friday looks like this morning (see the picture I posted Friday of the bloom). These things really grow fast! Unfortunately judging by that growth rate I'm pretty sure the bees let me down on other four that bloomed while I was gone this weekend because although they have zucchini on them, they're comparatively small still.

After the male blooms close up they're all dropping off, which from what I read online is normal. However, I'm not sure now if I should be cutting off those stalks or just leaving them. I've been cutting off the brown and yellow leaves close to the base of the plants.

Wow, those grew quick!

Just got home after being gone all weekend and went to check on my plants first thing. Since it was dark and raining, it was hard to tell too much, but I spotted three big zucchini that looked like they might need to be picked. With the thunder and lightening overhead I cut them off quickly and snapped a not very good photo on the kitchen counter. Guess what's for supper tomorrow.

Zucchini, Zucchini, Zucchini!

Four more open female blossoms this morning. One is my first of the second variety of zucchini I planted (picture below). Again, it was a girl that opened first with none of the boy flowers ready. The variety is Black Beauty (from a NK Lawn & Garden seed packet). The first variety I planted was Grey Zucchini from a Ferry~Morse seed packet.

First Harvest!

Mmmmm.... Green Beans! Picked, cooked and eaten within 15 minutes- now that's good stuff!

Doh!

Upon actually, you know, looking at the plants it's pretty apparent which one is not like the others... aka, which is the butternut squash. They were squished in the back of the cage and I hadn't looked past the giant leaves that look like the zucs. They're much more vine-like though. Since they clearly want to head somewhere, I've pulled them out and set them under an old screen door. I'm hoping they'll head horizontally across that.

I put all the beans where they had been in the cage. That displaced the other zuc that was still in the cage (the one I thought was the butternut squash). Its my best looking one in terms of the beautiful green leaves. I don't know if that was because it's spent its whole life up till this point in the cage, protecting it from whatever has caused the white on the rest of the leaves. I'll have to see what happens now that it is out with the others. I did toss up the rest of the screens we had laying around to form a little (not so stable) fenced in area that will keep out probably nothing. I've got a roll of screen in the garage I could use to make an enclosure of some sort, but I don't have time for that kind of project at the moment. The zucchini are growing so hopefully no wildlife gets to them before I do.