We’ve had a reasonable year with the garden so far. The tomatoes seem to be eeking by. Every so often, one of them will just go bad. There seem to be enough that are good to bother keeping them. We keep spraying and hoping for the best. But the zucchini is outrageous.
I guess maybe you’re not supposed to let them grow this big? These things are easily at least the size of my calf. I suppose we could have picked them earlier, but then what would we do with it? It’s a paradox. You pick them small, then you get them too frequently to do anything with them. You leave them on the plant and pick them when you’re ready, you end up with giant zucchinis that you can’t do anything practical with.
The spaghetti squash turned out pretty good. There are a few more on the vine ripening up. We’re also excited about our cantaloupe. There are two large ones growing on the ground outside the raised bed, and about 5 of them hanging from various places in the lattice. We’ll have to figure out how to support their weight before they get too big.
There are two watermelons, too, but I’m not sure how well they’re going to survive. It seems like they haven’t gotten any bigger in weeks, and the plant leaves don’t look too good. I think it started out as a lack of sun due to covering from the zucchini and cucumber plants, and then didn’t get any better with the radical shifts from dry to wet days.
The cucumbers are holding up pretty well. It looked like we were going to lose them, but they’re hanging in there. The basket has a few that are ready to eat. Berta wants to pickle some, which might be fun.
The carrots are sadly a wash. I pulled one up that looked like it had promise. The crown of the carrot was between a nickel and a quarter in diameter, but at about an inch down, the carrot shrunk incredibly and wasn’t fit for eating. We think this is due leaving them in the planter for too long. We’re considering pulling them all and re-planting, since there’s still quite a bit of summer left to grow more.
The green peppers are coming along nicely. We’ve got about 4 peppers to harvest when we’re ready for them. And the red peppers have finally started to show. I suspect this has something to do with Berta cutting back the tomato plants so that the peppers can get a bit more sun.
And finally, the pole beans are making their escape. There are no beans near the ground, but if you follow the stems up to the lattice, you can see them climbing around the top where there are a couple of beans hanging. It’s a shame that the kids don’t like those beans. I think they’re pretty tasty, especially raw. They’re nice and crisp and firm - one of our better garden products.
Don’t forget that August 8 is national zucchini day. Feel free to litter your neighbors’ porches with your unwanted zucchini.
