First Spring 2011 Harvest Dinner

It’s a small harvest but it was enough to make a great dinner out of. The yellow squash was really good and very sweet.  I had to stop myself from snacking on the slices so there would be enough to make dinner out of.  I really hope that I can figure out how to grow more.

The green beans were surprisingly a little more tough and took more cooking then I expected so I steamed them before adding a little butter, oregano and Italian parsley from the garden along with the yellow squash.  I wish I had more veggies for tomorrow night!

The squash plants themselves are still struggling and the new fruit keep developing blossom rot.  I’m leaning heavily toward pulling out the worst of the plants and planting more seeds.  

It took about 45-50 days for the fruit to start growing which would be July. Since I have the seeds I think it’s worth a try.

Trellising Tomatoes

This weekend I finally finished the trellis for my tomato plants. 

It was very simple and only took two supplies, garden string and roll of garden twist ties. 

Boyfriend had already hung the cucumber trellis so it only took a few minutes for me to make it longer and create a grid for the tomatoes.  After creating the grid I used the twist ties to attach the grape tomato plant to the string grid. 

The Better Bush, regular sized tomato plant, is full of new fruit. I didn’t want to disturb it too much so I didn’t add the vertical string through it.

After finishing my task I was rewarded with a great summer lunch - the tomato I picked last weekend to ripen inside the house.  I picked some of my basil, sliced fresh mozzarella and enjoyed my first tomato of the season.

I only wish the squirrels didn’t beat me to the second tomato.  Or my green pepper.

I’m looking forward to the grape tomatoes ripening this week.

Squash continued

The squash seedlings that I transplanted from the vegetable box to the old plant bed at the end of March have their first baby squash.

Interestingly, neither the zucchini plants in the box or in the old plant bed have produce any zucchini. They both had blossoms so I'm not sure if there was something wrong with the seeds, a pollination issue or a beginner gardner issue.  The yellow squash plants in the box are hanging in there, however, they are still mildly infected with mildew and aphids so I keep cutting the worst looking leaves off the plants and keep spraying regularly for both issues.

The tomato plant has a bunch of new tomatoes and its first tomato has started to ripen.

I spent a good amount of time after work tonight cutting all of the dead and dying leaves off of all of the vegetable plants.  I'd been avoiding doing that the last two weekends.  I've also been avoiding finishing the supports for the tomatoes and peppers but I'm determined to get those done in the next few days.

Squash

I'm still in a major squash learning curve but I'm excited to finally have grown a full grown squash from seed!

The aphids, mildew and blossom rot are still challenging me but it looks like a few more of the smaller fruit may have made it past those stages.

My pepper plant, against the squirrel odds, is still hanging in there.

And the green beans are starting grow again.

The cucumber plants have some new growth but are struggling like the squash.  And the aphids found them again.

The fruit that is growing is oddly shaped.  

I must have had beginners luck last year because I had tons of great cucumbers all spring and into summer.

The grape tomato plant is teasing me with all of its green tomatoes.  I can't wait for them to ripen!

And the better bush has another new small tomato.  I noticed one of the larger tomatoes was starting to crack.

So I picked it and am going to see if it will ripen inside the house.

I'm hopeful that if I keep up with the Dawn solution on the aphids and keep spraying and trimming away the mildewed leaves eventually the plants will get strong enough to produce more produce.

May 1

Today marks four months - 16 weeks -  of writing this blog.  And in that time my garden has given me rewarding experiences and lots of new challenges.

The collard greens have surprised me and have kept growing even with the hot spring weather we have been having.

I trimmed them back, tossed them in the pot and made them for dinner.  This is why I always wanted a garden.  I love being able to make dinner out of what’s in the back yard. 

The peppers are also still growing.  The the early red, the acorn looking regular red and the jalapeños. 

A few new grape tomatoes are showing up everyday and the Better Bush has a new baby tomato.

On the other hand my squash and cucumber experience continues to be difficult. The cucumbers don’t seem to be getting pollinated and in addition to the aphids in the squash that I’m still battling using the  Dawn solution

the squash have developed mildew.

My cucumber plants developed it last year but much later in the humid hot summer. There are two types of cucumber/squash mildews, downy and powdery.  I don’t know which I have but both cause the same outcome and it is not good.  I recently I bought a fungicide called SERENADE Garden. Before spraying I trimmed off the overly infected leaves, which turned out to be most of the zucchini leaves. Those plants are now looking "puny" as boyfriend would say.

I do have a couple small yellow squash that are hanging in there under the mildly infected yellow squash leaves. 

I’m hopefully that by the end of this week they will be large enough to be picked and eaten.  Even if there is only enough for just me.