Compost Squash

The mystery volunteer squash that sprouted out of our compost bin is growing really well, better than any of the other squash plants growing properly in our raised bed.  I'm a bit skeptical of how this will turn out, because I thought that our compost had too much green stuff and not enough brown stuff.  It's hard to get brown stuff when we hardly have any trees around to supply us with dry leaves.  We also have not been turning the compost much for aeration.  Doesn't that mean everything inside, including the roots of this squash, will just rot and get yucky?  But so far, this plant doesn't seem very aware of its perilous environment.

In fact, I even spotted a few female flowers last weekend, including this little baby.  I'm thinking that this might be a spaghetti squash?  This is our first year growing any type of winter squash, so it's all new to me!

8/16/10 Harvest - California Garden

This week's harvest is from my "other" garden at my mom's house in California, where I spent this past weekend and thoroughly enjoyed some civilized weather (highs in the 70s, lows in the 60s) after enduring months of brutal heat in Middle America.  Anyway, I sowed the seeds for carrots, sugar snap peas, and zucchini about three months ago during my last visit, along with some onions sets.  That plus asking my mom on the phone how "my vegetables" are doing once a week is about the extent of my involvement with these vegetables.

The onions didn't size up much.  The sugar snap pea vines are about 3/4 dead (brown and brittle), but the remaining 1/4 of the vines are still putting on new growth, blossoms, and peas - they just keep going like the energizer bunny!  The zucchini plant has gotten very big and is just about covered with powdery mildew, but they are still growing new fruits.  The carrots just amazed me with their size.

Look at these carrots!  I discussed the Girthy Carrot on Saturday.  After pulling the largest carrot, I stopped at five, because I didn't know what my mom would do with so many big carrots all at once.  There are still another dozen or so of these in the ground.  Ugh, why can't I grow carrots like this in my garden in Indiana, instead of the puny little matchstick ones? 

I didn't sow these seeds, but this salad mix is also from my mom's garden.  All kinds of lettuce seem to grow really well here, pretty much all year long.  It's kind of bizarre, really.  I would love to give credit to my mom for having a green thumb, but I honestly don't think that she does - she still waters everything from the top with a garden hose!

Visit Daphne's Harvest Monday for more harvest stories.

7/12/10 Harvest Monday

Welcome to another episode of  Daphne's Harvest Monday!

I finally have over ONE pound of harvest in a week.  And I will freely admit that the squash blossoms pushed me over that 1 lb mark.

Zucchini:
It's my first home-grown zucchini!  I know most people have "problems" with their zucchini plants being too prolific, but I was excited to get my first full-sized zucchini this week.  I actually hand-pollinated this one with a small brush last weekend, because I wanted to make extra certain that this female flower got pollinated, after seeing another female flower, along with its embryo zucchini, just wither away and die two weekends ago.  I'm guessing that's what happens to female squash flowers that don't get pollinated.

Squash Blossoms:
I've been reading about fried squash blossoms.  Edible, cookable flowers?  Heck yeah, I had to test this out for myself.  Unfortunately, I only saw two blossoms that seemed fit for harvesting on Sunday, so I ended up with just two.  I prepared a beer batter according to one of the recipes I found online, and fried up the two blossoms.  The verdict? Well, let's just say that there's room for improvement.  There was nothing really wrong with them, but I just wasn't overly impressed as I had hoped.  Maybe my expectations were too high.  Or maybe my frying technique needs more practice, as I hardly ever fry anything. I will try this again before I give up completely.  Does anyone here have a good recipe for squash blossoms that they would recommend?  I also sliced up my one zucchini into coins and sticks and fried them up using the same beer batter.  But I discovered that the batter was just too thick/heavy for the zucchini.  I really need to work on my frying skills and recipes.

Green Beans: 
There was another handful of green beans this week. We are loving growing (and eating) our own green beans.  We made a note to plant many more beans next year.  We may even try multiple varieties.  The one we planted this year is Burpee's Blue Lake 274.  Do you have any favorites that you would suggest we try next year?  These beans got sauteed in a little bit of olive oil with some garlic for Sunday dinner.

Oh, I also harvested another female flower/baby zucchini after watching it closely for a few days and not seeing it grow any bigger compared to my hand-pollinated zucchini (above) that grew about 1-2 inches every day.  There wasn't much to eat on this baby zucchini (it was about a finger length), but I suspected that it didn't get pollinated, so if I had left it on the plant, it would have just met the same shriveling death as its sister did two weeks ago. I just sliced it and ate it raw in two bites, while Keith watched and wrinkled his nose in anti-zucchini disgust.  It tasted just like a regular zucchini.

In other garden news, I'm slowly getting over my squeamishness over all things buggy, and have been bravely picking off any creepy crawlies of pest persuasion from my vegetable plants.  Just this weekend alone, I removed a yellowstriped armyworm and an unidentified bright green caterpillar from my bean plants, and four Japanese beetles from my basil.  All of them were quickly smooshed dead by the bottom of my unforgiving shoes. 

Yellowstriped Armyworm eating its last meal

Is This Powdery Mildew?

As the growing season progresses, I'm starting to discover more pests and plant diseases that I've only been reading about until now.  Can someone tell me if this is powdery mildew on my squash leaves, or something else? There are numerous white spots spread all over the leaves.  Also, the whole plant has been getting more yellow-green the last week or two.

(click on all pictures to enlarge and see the spots better)

And what about these white spots on my cucumber leaves?  They look very different from the white spots on the squash leaves. Does anyone know what this is?

And lastly, there are holes on my bean leaves.  I thought the culprit was japanese beetles, but I found a different pest today.  Yellow striped armyworm, I think?

My Garden Crops

My garden started out as a full house. A house full of seeds, that is. Couple of months ago, I went seed shopping and picked out a bunch of seed packets that promised to grow into yummy looking veggies. I came home with two handfuls of seeds, and went all out planting them. All of them. Without regard for proper planting times.

Oops.

The good news is that some of them are now growing. Fairly well, I might even add.
Look, zucchini is flowering! One of the female flowers got pollinated (I hope) and it looks like I might get a zucchini out of it (see picture). The other one (not shown) seems to have died a quiet, shriveling death. The rest of them are all male flowers. I need some girl flowers, quick!



The green beans are flowering as well, and growing teeny bean pods. Before I started my vegetable garden, I would have never thought that a few one-inch green beans could make me so happy. But they do! Very much so. I've been staring at them for longer than I'm willing to admit. Multiples times already this morning (I secretly believe that lots of visual attention aid their development.).



Cucumber is flowering, too, but no sign of any baby cucumbers yet. Maybe I'm not staring at it long enough?

Sadly, it's not all good news in the garden family, and some didn't quite make it. Sugar snap peas fought against the rising temperature, but did not survive multiple attacks from the local clan of wild rabbits. Same story for lettuce, spinach, and arugula.

The rest of the crops seem to be in some sort of a trial period where they are still deciding whether they want to stay put and grow, or give up and die. Carrots, peppers, onions, and chives are in this camp. Ugh.

I'm also growing some herbs that are growing and flowering out of control. I gave up on trying to corral them. I'm not sure what happens to them once they flower. Questions for the experts out there: what do I do with the perennial herbs (oregano and thyme) after they bolt? Can I leave them alone and they will just keep on growing after the flowers turn to seed? With the annuals (cilantro and basil), I assume that once they bolt, their harvesting season is over and they will just die. And what about parsley? Here is a picture of my flowering herbs:

cilantro - white flowers; parsley - yellow flowers; oregano - purple flowers

Whatever their future holds, at least the bees seem to love them right now. Next time, I think I will grow all my herbs in containers, which will hopefully control their growth better. I'm already doing that with my basil, and they are doing pretty well, except for some mystery holes.