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Category: Vegetable Gardening | Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 2:14 pm

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This season is miserable for my warm weather veggies. The only plants that are giving me anything to harvest right now are my cucumbers and my zucchini, and, boy, is my zucchini producing! My first was normal, and tasty. When I picked my second, a couple of weeks later, I found one more HUGE one. It was 4 lbs.! I've gotten a couple more regular sized ones since then, and then last night, I found another huge one along with another regular sized one. I don't know why that one plant is doing so well and my others are pathetic (I've gotten one yellow squash so far and only one more funny shaped one growing now), but I won't complain about it.
I also picked 4 more purple beans off of my one little plant and 4 cucumbers yesterday.
I have a box of my uncle's pickling spices. I am not sure how old it is. How long do those spices keep? I'd like to give it a try on those cukes if the spices will still be safe to use. My uncle made the best pickles.

I also picked my one ripe cherry tomato and shared it with my better half. It was the first of the season to ripen. Yum.
I also took a very wise bit of advice I received and put it into action, picking off the rest of the blossoms from the tomato plants so the plants can focus their energy on ripening the little green marbles that are already there. I have so many green tomatoes.

It looks like I will only get one Softball-sized watermelon this year. My experiment failed. I have one other watermelon on the vine that is about a baseball-sized and a couple of marbles.
Oh well.
Say it with me folks, "There's always next season!"

I'll try that same spot again for the watermelon, but NOT use that awful "alfalfa" feed CRABGRASS!!!!! Can you tell I'm irritated? I'll try harder to hide it.

**Edit: added picture below and also added pictures to previous blog entries. Take a look!


( photo / image / picture from Beeker's Garden )






Last edited: Fri Aug 22, 2014 12:31 am

This blog entry has been viewed 324 times

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Sjoerd wrote on Fri Aug 22, 2014 8:35 am:

That's a nice-looking harvest of cues and courgettes. I eat a lot of courgettes (almost every day when they are in season).

You have a mixed bag of successes this year. Of course there is next year...but c'mon meid--this season is not yet over.

Congrats on your first red cherry tom. That first one always tastes so good doesn't it.

I am really curious to see your melons. When you are ready to take them, would you show pics?

I am trying to grow melons this year in my greenhouse. The results are not world-stopping, but I shall harvest one soon. They are all different sizes.

What will you do with those enormous courgettes? A soup? Filled?

Sorry about the crabgrass in your alfalfa. That was bad...VERY bad.

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Beeker wrote on Fri Aug 22, 2014 1:08 pm:

Thank you, Sjoerd.

Yes, the tomato was dreamy.
I'll take pictures of the watermelons, but they don't look anywhere near as good as they did last year. I'm hoping that they'll taste better, though.

The big guys, I'm not sure. They are so big, I have enough to do a few things with them. Do you have any recipes?

Grrrr...... The "alfalfa"..... Out of all of the crabgrass I pulled, there was not one alfalfa plant! Not one. What is that other weed covering my garden bed in the previous blog? It stays close to the ground and has tiny white flowers. I think that may have come from the crabgrass feed too. I'm not sure if it was that or the crabgrass, but something was attracting hornets to my garden. Is that good or bad?

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Sjoerd wrote on Fri Aug 22, 2014 2:16 pm:

I shall have to take a look in the recipe folder.
I have a book called 1001 recipes for courgettes somewhere.

I wanted to look in the previous blog...but I do not see any of your foto's in it...not that I could recognize north american flowers well.

Hornets. I do not know much about them as we do not have them here. Do you mean "yellow jackets" by any chance? We DO have them here and call them wasps. This time of year wasps are out looking for protein. If they cannot find it they will nibble on fruit and veg...especially if it is fermenting.

At the moment, they are everywhere here. I worry a bit about my bees, because they will attack weakish hives and steal larvae. Not a good thing because the bees are trying to establish the winter bee numbers now.

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Beeker wrote on Fri Aug 22, 2014 3:09 pm:

Thank you, Sjoerd. I like your idea for filling it. A stuffed Zucchini sounds good. Perhaps a soup, too. Hm. I'd love to see what you find.

The picture doesn't zoom in enough to see the weed. I'll take a close up of it and post it.

I always wondered what the difference was between a hornet and a wasp. It looks like a hornet is a type of wasp.
Thankfully, it was not a yellow jacket. I'm not sure what it was, but it didn't bother me. It was hanging around the crabgrass where my watermelon was. When I pulled the crabgrass, it didn't come back. I kind of felt bad, but not that bad.
I certainly do not like yellow jackets, though. They are mean little things.
I'm glad I don't see them around my garden. They are often at my mother's house. She has a terraced yard with wooden walls, and also dogs; the two things that attract yellow jackets: wood and animal waste.

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mart wrote on Sat Aug 23, 2014 1:32 am:

Chances are you will not see hornets. But there are many wasp types. They will eat many of the garden pests so I leave them alone. Most are not aggressive unless you get close to the nest. Just don`t swat at them and they will leave you alone. They are everywhere here. Only time I have been stung was when I grabbed an ear of corn and the wasp was on the other side of it. If you get stung, get meat tenderizer with papain (papaya) just make a little paste with that and a drop of water and put it on the sting. The papain neutralizes the venom from any sting.

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Beeker wrote on Sat Aug 23, 2014 2:03 am:

Wow, thank you!
That is good to know.
Will that remedy work on all stings, or just wasps?

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