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.

Mystery Squash

I planted zucchini and butternut squash, but didn't bother marking which was which. As the containers have shuffled around I've lost all track. I think this may be one of the butternut squashes that is getting ready to flower, but I'm not sure. Whatever it is, it seems quite happy to have its own container as its gotten quite large. None of the other plants I think might be butternut squash have blossoms yet, and one of the girls on this one looks like its going to beat the boys, so if it's going to pollinate it'll have to be from one of the zucchini plants. Of course it might actually be a zucchini plant itself anyway... Next year I'll remember to mark them!

As for my first zucchini that seemed to be growing under an immaculate conception theory, sex ed appears to have caught up to it. It looks like its shrinking.

Surveying My Plant Kingdom

The zucchini plants have fanned out over the yard for no particular reason. I moved a bunch of the pots in and out of the screen cage a couple days ago and this is where everything landed. The zuc in the front is not very happy because he was one of the ones that got evicted from the cage. I think the leaves had been leaning against the screen and are missing the lack of support now. Most of the pots have two zuc plants each in them because I was too kind hearted when they were babies to pick one to sacrifice. On the left inside the chicken wire with the small window screen on top are some of the beans. They're pressing the top of the screen though so I think they'd prefer something taller. Inside the cage are more beans, two butternut squash plants, a zucchini or two that hasn't flowered yet, and a small mint plant that I tried to keep inside but wasn't getting enough light through the window. In the back are the three tomato plants.

I hand-pollinated another girl zucchini flower this morning just in case much to the chagrin of the ants who had already moved in.


My beans are in various stages of development. The little pods are just so adorable. Some of the others are getting pretty big, so I'm going to need to figure out when the best time to pick them is.

Black Inside Tomato

Some of my tomatoes have some black marks on them. It's inside but you can see it through the skin. I'm not sure what the problem is...

Ants

The ants absolutely love the zucchini flowers. They crawl all around inside them. These guys aren't budging even though the flower is closing up.

This is one of the two girl flowers I hand pollinated with a q-tip this morning. I got buzzed by a bee while I was doing it, but I figure it couldn't hurt just in case he didn't have it covered.

I've got another girl flower that looks like it will open tomorrow.

Who Needs a Man

The first girl zucchini flower that opened and closed before any of the guys doesn't seem bothered by the apparent lack of pollination. The zucchini has continued to grow. I don't know if it got pollinated by a bee that had visited someone else's garden or if it just doesn't know any better.