Dear greeneyes and gardening FRiends,
First of all, congrats on your harvest, greeneyes! And thanks for the thread! I have some fun things (at least to me!) to report and several QUESTIONS!
Greeneyes, I have also had a harvest, of sorts! LOL! I am happy to report we have harvested so far 3 TOMATOES with a few more reddening up. Today I harvested my one yellow straight neck SQUASH and a handful of BLACKBERRIES that the Garden Fairies saved for me. At someone’s suggestion here, I’ve been letting my few BEAN/PEA pods dry on the vine for seeds. Over the past few days we’ve gotten about 3 OKRA pods. Darlin is teasing me about the gold plated high dollar harvest, much like one of our FRiends who recently told me about obtaining an egg from a new flock, which is now priced at $180!
I guess, at least in my case our investment is not a bad tuition price for the lessons I’ve been learning. Certainly the harvest we have been obtaining is NOT cheaper than the grocery store!
The BELL PEPPER plants (one green, one red) are showing a few peppers.
The CUCUMBER plants from Lowes are blooming like crazy and the bees are actually buzzing around it. I have located one possible cucumber forming. The cucumber plant I grew from seed is beautiful! It started putting out vine curlies, so I provided it with a tomato cage to climb on. It also showed its first bloom today.
The 5 ASPARAGUS sprouts are surviving, which I was happy to see. The roses, echinacia, tame purslane, marigolds, geraniums, and day lilies are gorgeous.
The SWEET POTATO is probably the happiest plant we have at this moment. It is just gorgeous.
The SCALLOP SQUASH looks happy, but no more blooms, and the blooms it did have never developed. QUESTIONS: Is it compost now, or do I need to just let it grow and see if it decides to do more later? Am I too late to try to start another one?
I’ve never seen OKRA plants up close before and mine are just bowling me over. I can’t believe how beautiful the okra flowers are! The developing pods are so cute. And the flavor is amazing!
The SUNFLOWERS are still happy, although there have been a few bug attacks on them, and one decapitation, which I’ve reported earlier! We have several at different stages of development. I was despairing of having some this year at one point. I’m sorry yours have had such a hard time this year, greeneyes.
Marcella, I was at the health food store the other day. They have a seed packet display, and I found and bought a packet of the short huge sunflowers (SUNSPOT?- that’s what these are-)you were telling us about recently. QUESTION: Do you happen to know if I still have time to grow some this season, or should I save them for next?
Darlin and I have a huge stack of rocks in the back yard left over years ago from another project and have just been sitting there. Recently I started outlining my little garden plot which contains the okra, roses, and sunflowers. There are a few bulb flowers in that plot as well. Today I hauled some more rock from the stack and continued my circle around the bed.
I have a couple of QUESTIONS about ZUCCHINI. I did not try to raise any this year. However, I have a friend who has been providing us with it for several years. This past week, she gave us one that is fully two feet long and about 4-6 inches around. The peel is a thick rind. I had some trouble getting at it! Finally was able to separate the meat from the rind and stirred it together with onions and garlic. Only cooked up about 1/2, with the other 1/2 remaining in the fridge. (1)In the future, if/when I grow zucchini myself, would picking it earlier give me a thinner more edible peel, or is this a different variety? (2)Wondering what to do with it! Just one zuke is taking up about 16 square inches of refrigerator space! I like greeneyes’ suggestion to dry. I need to learn that process. We have a food drier, and should probably learn how to operate it.
QUESTION: The health food store also had a packet of STEVIA SEEDS which I also obtained. QUESTION: Does anyone out there have any pointers on raising it? Am I too late to start it this year? I would like to put it in a 10-12 inch pot. I was told by someone at a seed company (Fedco) that growing Stevia from seed is a challenge. Well, I like those, but would be most grateful for any pointers anyone might have!
SQUASH BUGS - I am busy cooking up a homemade recipe for warding off the squash bugs I saw this morning. This is the first sighting I’ve had of them since I treated with neem a few weeks ago. Not many in evidence, but did see one stink bug kind and a couple of the ones I call fake lady bugs. They are yellow with the black dots, not nearly as cute, but about the same size. Because I’ve been seeing bees, I do not want to spray until the evening. So far I’ve boiled up some eucalyptus leaves and plan to strain it and mix the tea into my squirt bottle with a little dish soap and neem. This is a total experiment, so I’ll report back on it later.
Finally, the EXPERIMENTS with ROOT HORMONE are continuing. The romaine which I planted and placed outside is gorgeous! The new romaine stump has started growing leaves from the center, but there are no rootlets showing yet, just as in the previous experiment. The celery stump remains green, and the rootlets are growing, but no center growth activity is in evidence yet. We have a geranium which Darlin rescued several years ago which is now fading, so I picked one of its last leaves several days ago and put it into the root hormone. Today I noticed some teeny tiny rootlets forming from it. QUESTION: Does anyone here know how they obtain this hormone from scratch?
QUESTION(S): In addition to the SUNSPOT and STEVIA seeds, I also bought a packet of ACORN SQUASH seeds. It is “Sweet Reba” variety. It emerges in 5-10 days per the packet, but does not say how long to harvest. Would I be ok to plant some now, or do I need to wait for next season? Isn’t planting now appropriate because it’s considered a winter crop?
I wish all of you and your gardens well this week! And thanks for any and all answers to the questions buzzing around between my ears!
(1)In the future, if/when I grow zucchini myself, would picking it earlier give me a thinner more edible peel, or is this a different variety? (2)Wondering what to do with it! That is a fair to middlin sized zuke. In So_cal, we used to find some buried under the leaves that were 30+ inches long.
In Michigan, they get even bigger; left on the vine until first frost, they then saw them off the vine, cut them lengthwise at the local zucchini mill, scoop them clean and shellac inside and out. By spring, they have a new 2-man canoe. ;-')
Any zuke, if left to grow will get huge, and develope a tough rind; best time to pick for young & tender is when the flower bud shrivels and is falling off the end.
The big ones can be stuffed (We like to chop what is scooped out,, and mix it with Italian sausage, onion, garlic, etc; then top with tomato sauce & cheese) like a winter squash; best to par-cook the stuffing, so the the squash doesn't overcook before the stuffing is cooked through. Or you can pick them when they're an in between size, before the skin gets too tough, and slice it in half it lengthwise, like a loaf of French bread; brush with olive oil, then either start topping it like a pizza; or just put cheese(s), garlic, basil, and tomato slices & put it in the oven until done.
Zucchini bruschetta
Zucchini pizza boats
Stuffed zucchini
