A Zucchini Disaster, & Et Cetera

Hello again!  Well, it was another good gardening weather week.  Not everything was exactly perfect, however.  Some weeks ago, a squirrel got into the garden and munched on the yellow zucchini blossoms. Normally, this doesn't present a great problem.  Usually, if left alone, the flowers shrivel, rot, get icky and fall off the fruit. And, usually, when the squirrels get in there, they munch the bloom off and do not harm the fruit....so it's not a really big issue. This time, however, the little critter picked on the  heirloom plant. The flowers are a little smaller and the fruits are a little slower to develop than on the hybrids.

So, the squirrel gets to the blossoms but chews right on through and eats the tiny fruit. This set up a an unforeseen situation while the young stem was still very close to the center of the plant. It continued to grow, but with no gravitational pull from developing squash, the plant grew upright. I had been watching the situation thinking the next set of flowers/fruit would slowly pull the stem to earth. I stuffed wads of bird netting near the center of the plant to discourage the squirrel.

And then Mother Nature entered the scene. On Friday (July 8) we had a late afternoon thunderstorm...lots of rain, wind, and lightning. After the storm, I ventured out to look for any damage. The rain and wind had brought the plant very abruptly to earth. The zucchini had snapped in half near the base.  There was nothing to do but remove it and start another one. I'm now hoping for bright yellow zucchinis in September! I had already removed some of the damaged plant before I took this picture.

Below is a shot of another type of gourd in our county park plot. We're not sure if it's a Chinese Bottle gourd, or a Birdhouse gourd. It's been fun and surprising to see the gourds grow since it's our first experience with them.

The pumpkin is beginning to ripen as you can see below. A foot or so along the stem is another one that is about half that size. I'm guessing this one is in the 6 or 7 pound range.

Last week, I posted a picture of squash bug eggs which didn't show the color properly. This picture gives you a better idea what to look for on the underside of the squash plant leaves.

Below is our first picking of the pole beans. This batch is about two and a half pounds. This is our first experience with pole beans. We've picked more since then. The plants seem to be much more prolific than bush beans. We've pretty much decided that we will plant even more pole beans next year and forgo the bush variety. There are three types of beans shown - green, rattlesnake and purple. All turn green in a pot of hot water!

For those of you who don't see me on Facebook, the picture below is just another reminder to plant colorful flowers in and around your garden. The tiger swallowtail and bumble bee are just two of the many helper insects that pollinate your vegetable plants and increase your harvest.

I'll see you again soon. Thanks for stopping by. And best wishes for a bountiful July harvest!

Our County Park Plot

Hello again! This past week or 10 days the weather has been great for gardening here in Lancaster. All of our "home garden" plants are thriving....but sometimes it's hard to tell where the cucumber starts and the zucchini ends.  We don't have to pay as much attention to the Lancaster County Park garden plot due to the limited type of veggies we put in there. We do visit at least three to four times a week to water as needed, weed the areas that aren't covered with the weed mat and check for insect problems.  There have been a few surprises, though!

Hmmmm...We thought, from last year's experience, that the butternut squash plants would overrun the plot. Well, surprise!  The butternut has nothing on this ornamental gourd plant! The butternut doesn't even come close! The picture above was taken before July had even started....hmmmm. A picture of one of the fruits on this plant is shown below.

The "home grown" compost that we screened was quickly put to work last week. All of the plants in both home and county park gardens received a generous helping of our "backyard black gold". I have no doubt that all of the plants will respond well and respond quickly to this addition.

And then there were some squash bugs to deal with. They are appearing only on one plant - the acorn squash - in the county park plot. These critters look a lot like the stink bugs that we all seem to be encountering. I sprayed about a half dozen this week with homemade insect soap. That kills them. The other issue with squash bugs is the eggs they hide on the underside of the squash plant leaves. The insect soap works on them, too, especially with a little squashing with index finger and thumb. The ones shown below, were, inexplicably on the top of a leaf. Their true color is orange or bronze. If you have squash, be on the lookout for them. If the adult adult population hits critical mass, they can destroy a plant in a day or two. The eggs are above the piece of newspaper.

The delicata squash (below) is producing a good number of fruits. We've never had these before, so it's a bit of an adventure learning how they grow and what they need.

The acorn squash are growing to table size very quickly....more quickly than I thought they would.

The butternut is coming along nicely as you can see below. But I am seeing some yellowing leaves.  Too much water?  That's hard for me to believe, so I'll have to watch the plant more carefully.

One of the gourd plants is producing very large numbers of fruits. I brought this one home despite the fact that it's not "ripe" yet.  How much bigger would it get? We have plenty more of them that will instruct us on the answer to that question.

The pumpkin has reached nearly full size very quickly. There are a few other small ones developing now.

That's it for this installment! I'll hope to see you again in a few weeks as summer continues to progress and the gardens come to full maturity.