Our first "real" garden has been a lot of fun. Aaron especially enjoys hunting down squash and cucumbers for me. Catherine loves joining me in the evenings when I go pick (I can't pick during the day because the cucumbers are constantly swarming with bees). I really enjoy my one-on-one Catherine time, even if she is just trying to stall before bedtime.
Aaron's squash
Guess they weren't kidding about squash...
I expected lots of squash and zucchini. I'd heard they were quite prolific and was looking forward to filling my freezer. But no one told me about cucumbers! Jon went out one day and picked over 30 pounds of cucumbers. I only planted two mounds, but apparently this has been an excellent year for cucumbers. We can't give them away fast enough! As of August we're estimating we've picked over 100 lbs of cucumbers so far.
Another day, another haul:
The garden as it really started to take off:
The garden a month later:
Things I've learned so far:
-two cucumber mounds, two pumpkin mounds, one butternut squash mound and four squash plants don't fit in one smallish garden.
-Fungicide needs to be sprayed early and often here in Maryland. We lost several tomato plants, plus the cucumbers, squash and pumpkins all got powdery mildew and won't survive much longer.
-Bermuda grass is Satan's grass.
-Zucchini can grow from "a little too small" to "giant baseball bat" overnight.
-The deer will eat anything that grows outside the fence. Thankfully they haven't tried to jump inside. We've also successfully kept all rabbits out with our awesome fencing skills.
-Gardens can survive with fairly minimal care (except for fungicide). I was really dedicated about weeding and feeding at the beginning, but once the plants got big enough I just gave up. And they're all fine!
I'm excited to try again next year with my newfound knowledge.
3 comments:
Totally second the observation about zucchini! How do hey grow so much overnight?
So jealous of your garden! I didn't really get one this year because of moving. :-( I know exactly what you mean about zucchini!! I wish I'd grown cucumbers this year. Last year I had so many that I learned how to pickle them when we got tired of eating them. I tried a bunch of different recipes til I found one that I liked, and then we ate pickles until we were tired of them. I'm so glad that your garden went so well for you.
Grandpa donates his excess cucumbers to the local food bank - an idea?
Your gardening skills amaze me! You certainly didn't get much practice after we moved to Arizona :D
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