Category: outdoors

Saturday garden digest 8/13

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Developments

First silver slicer cucumbers
Zucchini going strong
Butternut squash about ready
Popcorn

Harvest

2+ lb zucchini
Lemon zucchini bread
Zucchini tots
A heap of cherry tomatoes
Onions have cured!
Honeynut squash from the vine that died. Didn’t ripen enough but cute nonetheless.

Retirements

None that I can think of.

Did my garden miss me?

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I went out of town for two weeks, which is a long time in the life of a garden in the middle of summer! I returned to a few surprises.

Yard garden

I left my yard garden un-tended as many plants were going to seed or seemed to be struggling. I left the few plants I believed in within range of my automatic sprinklers (controlled by the building), and said a prayer. I returned to find some things ready (ish) to harvest despite my absence!

In general the yard is really greening up. I’m letting it go wild a bit this year to discover what it naturally wants to do before I make any modifications.

Harvest? Zuchini appears rotten at the end but the slugs enjoyed it.
Cucumber is thriving and didn’t miss me at all
Behold giant cucumber
Zuchini is thriving but has become a favorite haunt for my newest garden guest- slugs
Slugs like zucchini too
Nasturtium pot tipped over and it’s like “no problem I’ll just grow here. “
Yard is generally at peak green lush overgrown with creeping Jenny and grass
A volunteer sunflower or relative appeared, possibly from dropped birdseed
A whole new level of rotten zucchini leaf

Garden plots

A small village of people looked after my plots’ watering needs while I was gone, and I was pleasantly surprised to find all of my flowers doing better than when I left, squash development, healthy Swiss chard, and some baby peppers!

2 weeks worth of garden harvest
Happy zinnias
Bebe bihquino pepper
Monster zucchini
Happy plot
Wall of tomatoes
One of two nearly ripe(?) butternuts
One of many nearly ripe(?) and not ripe honeynuts
Baby romanesco squash
Baby silver slicer cucumber
Epic cosmos plant with zero flowers so far

In short- no, my garden did not miss me.

Friday garden digest 7/15

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This week in the garden

Harvest: about 10 onions, 2 zucchini, and a wacky cucumber

Developments: zucchini, cherry tomatoes, Honeynut squash, butternut squash, calendula flowers and sunflowers

Retirements: RIP the yard Honeynut squash plant with one sad lonely fruit, countless Japanese beetles drowning in soapy water, and snow peas officially removed and seeds saved for next year.