The magic of zucchini: one day you can play billiards with the little round ones, the next you switch to lawn bowling.
Having shifted into a real stretch of summer for the last 5 days, the garden has responded in kind. The thunderstorms of my last post soaked the gardens perfectly; no watering was needed for five days, despite 85-95° heat. Summer squash and salad cucumbers showed their typical exponential growth in 2 days.
Plants are greening nicely in their new shoot growth, after more feeding; Swiss chard and bean plants are recovering from their deer-damage. The first handful of green beans were picked today; there will be many more reaching full size in a couple of days.
The pickling cukes are just setting while the lemon cukes are in massive flower-stage; had to pull out 1 spaghetti squash plant because there are so many forming on the remaining vine, and the delicata squash was getting overrun (it has the slows). There are some tiny buttercup squash setting as well.
Two or three corn plants are showing tassels already, which isn’t my preference. This somewhat predetermines their height, and these are nowhere near their projected height. We shall see!
In support of another sustainable urban garden movement, I’ve joined the project in their challenge to accumulate 1 million pounds of home-grown food; participants report their tally on any basis, be it daily, weekly, monthly. It’s not a race, and there are no deadlines; just a way to see how long it takes to cooperatively accumulate the million pounds among the participants.
Since we’d been picking kale, chard, and strawberries (house yard) for a few weeks before discovering this challenge, we’re guesstimating that yield. So far, the cumulative harvest stands at:
• Summer squash (combined varieties): 5.25 pounds
• Cucumbers: 1.75 pounds
• Kale: 5 pounds
• Beans: 0.5 pounds
• Swiss chard: 3 pounds
• Strawberries: 12 pounds
• Blueberries: 1 pound
• Artichoke: 0.5 pound
Oh yes, the sunflowers are winning….finally.
High Vibe Bounty 