While my tomatoes aren't performing yet my squash have impressed me. I had to share a picture of my 1st squash harvest. I hope they continue performing.
Also...I tried a recipe called "Zucchini Crusted Pizza" tonight -- I got it from the recipe forum. It was really, really good. If you're going to have a lot of zucchini check out this recipe.
those look so pretty! like they are in a magazine!
Those look awesome! I saw your pizza pic on the recipe thread - will definitely be making that. I found a zucchini today that I missed. It's at least a foot long - lol...
Very envious. Beautiful squash and photo.
I'm only growing zukes and yellow neck this year.
So here's a riddle maybe someone can help me with:
No dreaded SVB, no powdery mildew, fairly good soil, and on the zuke that's a monster I've had several female flowers that have gotten over two inches long, but the flower never opens and they don't get polinated so they start to rot from the flower end...
Too much nitrogen? Does the plant - becase it's so huge- give its own flowers too much shade?
Third year in a row trying to grow and in the past I had an okay harvest until the powdery mildew (previous two years were at a different location and I didn't move any plants or seeds from there), but this is crazy. The seed was planted back at the end of February It's like 9 cubic feet now, and the female flowers have yet to open.
I've noticed a lack of bees, but if they would even open I'd hand polinate them.
Oh yeah.... we've gotten a good bit of rain, almost every day, for the last ten days now.
Help!
Well, you could always force the issue, hand open the females and then hand pollinate them. What have you got to lose? The flowers tend to be open in the morning and closed by afternoon, so unless you are checking them in the mornings, they may just have closed up by the time you get to them.
Wonderful
Just posted a request and picture on Facebook for recipes using patty pan squash. Almost hate to eat, so pretty.
MLCHgarden
Augusta GA
7b/8
Those are wonderful! The yellow and green patty pans are so pretty! My poor little squash plants don't look like they're planning on doing much at all.
New Orleans Dude, I'm with you on the weather misery. Too much rain, too much humidity and too hot too early. Ugh.
We harvested 2 zukes and one yellow squash today. Not our first harvest, as we have been munching on the new veggies fresh out of the garden, but these actually made it to the house....
Wow. I love the variety of shapes and colors that you have there. I started mine really late this year so I'm still waiting....
Thank you for sharing.
i got a few
heres the others
WOW! Now may I ask you something RSY? When was that row on the far right planted? It's hard to judge with pictures but they look to be a little bigger than say, a good sized dinner plate? This is my first squash so I don't have any experience to tell me how well or how badly things are progressing.
LizaMouse,
see if you can left click on the photo it will make it big, it show up a bit better. the one on the right is actualy about 2 Ft around and about a month in the ground it was planted fron a seedling we allways plant from LG seedling to ensure better growth they get a good MG ( micaral grow) food and compost soil until they are ready to plant with the stagering of plants you get two stages of crops .
your photo did not show up try again please. : )
My camera's broken so I don't have a photo. But if they're two feet in a month, they are twice as big as mine. This is my experimental year with a veggie garden. I didn't get to do soil prep so I figured I'd just see how it went this year and then prepare the soil for next year. There are some issues with the site, too wet in areas and soil here is very acidic. I added lime. We'll see how it goes. It's mostly for fun this year.
LizaMouse,
give them a lil Merical Grow
I think I'm going to be out of my league with most of you, based on your comments and your pictures, but I'm learning a lot.
This is my third year of having a vegetable garden. I live in the Greater Cincinnati Area. My husband managed to carve out an 8' x 8' patch the first year, and then doubled it to 8' x 16' last year. About half the garden has varieties of tomatoes and the other half has peppers, zucchini, yellow summer squash, cucumbers, a watermelon plant and a cantelope plant.
I've started keeping a garden journal this year to help me keep track of what works and what doesn't. I included a picture of the layout of the garden, with approximate placement of the various plants.
I've already decided that next year I will only have 1 zucchini plant and 1 yellow summer squash plant. I have 2 of each this year and they are already trying to take over!
Any helpful hints would be greatly appreciated.
Hi WilderWoman. It says Ky. but you say Cincinnati. My daughter lives at Enon. Sounds like to me you are doing ok. Gardening is an ever learning experience, you never learn it all. Sometimes what you think you know will bite you the next year. Just keep on trying and experimenting.
Suggestion for your squash, put a cage around them. I do raised bed gardening and cage everything. I make my cages out of concret reinforcement wire. Squash will climb right up them.
I usually say Cincinnati because it gives people a better idea of where I live than if I say Fort Thomas, Kentucky. It's really just south of Cincinnati, just across the Ohio River.
I'll try your cage suggestion. I guess I hadn't really thought about it. I tried it by accident last year with a rogue cucumber plant that found its way to the trellis I had put in the garden for my peas. Unfortunately, I hadn't put out the peas early enough and they succumbed to the heat. The cucumber plant, on the other hand, took to the trellis quite well, and I ended up with a couple of fairly long cukes! I worried about them hanging there like that, but they actually seemed to thrive there.
Anyway, I guess I didn't think about squash being a climber.
I cage squash, both yellow and zuccini, tomatoes and cucumbers. My beans I plant on the out side edge of my beds and set a couple of posts and run a strand of concret wire down the edge. I'll see if I can find a picture to post.
This is picture of one of my beds. I have beets and chard down the outside edge then squash in cages and if you can make it out green beans down the other edge.
Wow, that's impressive. I'm glad you sent the picture. When you said you built your cages out of concrete reinforcement, I wasn't sure if you meant the fence-like wire or the rebar, although I guess the rebar would be a bit excessive.
Anyway, I'll have to see if I can get Jim to help me build some cages for those darn squash. That's definitely a good idea.
Thanks.
(It's late here. I'd better get to bed or I won't want to get up and go to work in the morning.)
Thanks again and have a nice night.
Good night. Have a great gardening day tomorrow.
Liza - I'm curious, you have really not just slightly acidic soil? And is that just your yard or the whole area?
Jim - You're the type gardener I'm sure you know the ph of each bed and the natural soil for your lawn. Is yours acidic as well?
I've lived a couple of different places in this city now where I did a garden, rather than just container plants when I lived in apartments, and I've soil tested a couple of friends dirt. All four times, I found slightly to moderatly alkaline soil here. I guess it could be from stuff the Mississippi has washed down over tens of thousands of years.
And I'd bet our bugs are bigger, more prolific, and nastier than any Texas folks bugs are....lol...hear that Texans?
bienvenue en lousisiane, eh?
To be honest, I've never tested my beds. When I farmed for a living we took soil samples every year or so. My beds are filled with pure composed gin trash and are doing well. I replenish them every spring with more compost. As long as they do good I leave them alone.
Welcome WilderWoman - we were all "new" once, and there is so much here to learn. DG is the first place I come with any question or concern or fun stuff to share...
Like yesterday, I found my first stink bugs (2) - one on a zuke and one on a pumpkin - grrrrrrrrrrrr!!! It was in the heat of the day and they were not so fast - I cut them in half with the garden shears - lol... Phew! Do those things really stink! First time I ever smelled one and eeeeewwwwwwwwww. Also found some neat little rows of copperish red eggs on some squash stems. Are those their eggs or something more sinister? I took a decent pic but it's on my home 'puter so will have to post it when I get home from work tonight...
Hey Jim....what's 'gin trash' ?
Also, I like your cages for the squash. So you just buy 'concrete reinforcement wire' and bend it into a square..??.. Are the pole/stakes to anchor them..??..
Stink bugs lay the dreaded SVB eggs. Smoosh those things!
Gin trash is the waste that comes out of the gin when they are ginning cotton. It is composed of fine lint, leaves and such. Not much trash from a bale but when you gin 30,000 bales it gets to be a problem. They will give it to you to get rid of it, even load it for you. Where I get mine they spray a mist of water through it as it blows out the end of the pipe to keep dust down, so the composting process is already started. I am fortunate to have a friend who hauls off their excess with his dump trucks, and he'll haul me a load whenever I need it.
I bought a whole roll years ago and just used the last this year. I make circular cages. The tomato and cucumber cages are about 12 to 14 inchs in diameter and squash are about 18 to 20 inchs in diameter.
Here are the eggs I found on my squash and pumpkins... They are a coppery red color - tell me what they are. I know they belong to a bad guy, but which one - lol?!
I would show your pictures of our squash, but funny thing again this year, they are NOT making it back to the house. Every day when we go to the garden, Billy will say either I would like a yellow or green and then I cut whatever he wants, and he munches away. He likes the smaller ones, and so we dont get big ones. Do have a winter squash that is looking promising, he wont get to eat that one...
