Tag Archives: spaghetti squash

Near riots in the CG

Posted on July 31, 2011 | Leave a comment

Now that real summer has kicked in this week….YES!….
Lettuce is really starting to bolt; this is the longest we’ve had it last in good condition into summers. Impending harvest this next week, so the giant squash can can room to roam.  A first perfect zucchini is waiting for an owner, with more little ones behind.  (How fast will it become a bat?)  One spaghetti squash plant is decommissioned, as it was crawling over the lavender, nasturtiums, and into the street. Squash, cukes, and melons starting to crawl everywhere.

July 31 jungle in progress

Once again it looks like we will have bush beans maturing at the same time, even if strategically sowed 3 weeks apart.  At least they are a variety of greens, yellow, and purple.  The pole beans growing on the corn stalks looked like they were going to bind any emerging ears, so they got pulled.  We haven’t got this bean and corn cohabitation figured out yet; last year the beans grew too poorly in the shade of the corn, while this year they outgrew the corn.

Color riot in progress!

Passersby by want know how come we can grow tomatoes that are nearly 6 feet tall AND have tomatoes forming?  I smile, shrug my shoulders….”We don’t try; it just magically happens!”  (It’s the energy flowing in the CG vortex!)  That said, it will be interesting to see how well fruit ripens “in the jungle.”  Yet, we have our ways..

July bounty:

  • Beet roots: 11.25 pounds
  • Basil: 2.5
  • Lettuce blends: 13
  • Spinach: 7
  • Blueberries: 4.5

Month’s total: 39.25 pounds
Thanks to all Beings who assisted this bounty!

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Fall Glory

Posted on November 10, 2010 | Leave a comment

It is amazing how one can stay so busy caring for a garden that is essentially moving towards a long nap.  Maybe it is my sense of  “clean management” that spurs me on to remove the decaying matter, though not so much in the house yard.  Actually for the CG it comes down to removing the dying, so that a blanket of leaves can be put down, to be turned over in spring, and to help insulate the remaining veggies.  Slugs will probably love it, as there are quite a few lurking in the lovely lettuce, but that’s just something we’ll have to deal with as necessary.

A lovely spurt of unseasonably warm weather delighted us gardeners a week ago, also prompting all the weeds to put forth new energy, and teasing a couple of strawberry plants into producing a few berries.  Of course, the bees were very happy with it, too.  Pineapple sages and Japanese anemones are still actively blooming, much delighting the hummingbirds.

Fall splendor; a little sun, a little fog....

This week heralds the onset of a few colder nights, between rainstorms, but no frost.  It won’t be as easy to see our pollinator friends and hummingbirds now, with shorter days, colder mornings, and barely light by the time I get home from work.

Still trying to ripen picked green tomatoes, but after last month’s rain, it’s not so easy, as many want to rot before turning any tint of orange.  Drying them down if they show any color is turning out to be a better option.

Our October bounty was exceptional, now that the tomatoes and squash were all pulled in:

  • Basil: 0.75
  • Cucumbers: 8.5
  • Kale: 1
  • Lettuce: 3
  • Melons (combined): 8.5
  • Acorn squash: 22.5
  • Delicata squash: 8.75
  • Spaghetti squash: 119
  • Swiss chard: 2.5
  • Summer squash: 10
  • Tomatoes: 44.5

Month’s total: 229 pounds (rounded)
Season total: 629 pounds

And this season’s total bests last year’s total at this same time by about 61 pounds, and it surpasses our final 2009 tally by 37 pounds!  Hooray for all the superb contributions from the plants, devas, pollinators, and human caretakers!

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Posted in Community garden, Fall, Harvest tally, Uncategorized

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Last Tomato Standing

Posted on October 24, 2010 | Leave a comment

….for the moment.
It has been a time for progressive clean-up, given the cool, but vibrant fall weather of the last two weeks.  After hard rains on Oct. 10, it was time to remove the thrashed summer squash, cucumbers and melons, and harvest the nearly 150 pounds of winter squash.

Our beautiful mild fall weather since has helped ripen more tomatoes, wrapped in their red jackets, while a few more cucumbers have eeked out their full figures.  Basil is now typically spotted and un-pretty, especially after a mild frost.  The mixed lettuces are very happy, being the perfect size for gourmet greens as they are thinned.  Kale seedlings are poking along.  Hoses are finally put away for the season….alas.

A favorite for kitties: over and under the deer netting!

With impending heavy rains, all the tomatoes were removed, save the “yellow pear”, which still has a few fruit, and more blossoms.  It’s always good to have a sentinel for awhile.

Prepared for fall rains beginning in earnest

 

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Posted in Community garden, Fall, Furred and feathered friends, Uncategorized, Weather related

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They really exist!

Posted on October 5, 2010 | Leave a comment

Thanks to one of our natural pest controllers, who decided to quit being so shy, we had beautiful bounty, even if the tomatoes are still slow, and the summer squash are slowing down!

An elusive friend mantis making a brief appearance

September bounty:

  • Basil: 6.5
  • Bush beans: 2.75
  • Cucumbers: 6
  • Grapes: 2
  • Charantai melons: 16
  • Margarita melons: 8.75
  • Delicata squash: 8.5
  • Spaghetti squash: 6.5
  • Spinach: 2
  • Swiss chard: 2.25
  • Summer squash: 26.75
  • Tomatoes: 41.25

Month’s total: 125 pounds (rounded)
Season total: 400 pounds

Spaghetti squash near harvest

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Posted in Community garden, Fall, Harvest tally, Pest Controllers & Pollinators, Uncategorized

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Transitions

Posted on September 6, 2010 | Leave a comment

Labor Day already?!  Wait a minute, we’ve only picked 3 red tomatoes (this last week)!  I check last year’s entry, and like I thought, I was drying them, there were so many.  C’est la vie.  Three weeks of a cycle in which each week contains 2 days of above-average temps, followed by 15-degree drops to below-average and drizzle, plus mid-40’s at night, just doesn’t cut it for ripening tomatoes.  Still, the plants look great.

Mildew on the squash; always a good seasonal transition symptom.  The acorn, spaghetti, and delicata squash are doing very well.  The zucchini, yellow, and patty pan summer squash are also yielding well, but not overabundant, since they prefer more consistent heat.  The charentais melon has proven very prolific, and we await ripening fruit, now that their skins are roughening.  The margarita melon is not as prolific, but the plant has a few healthy specimens ripening.  Cucumbers are finally cranking out.

Little charentais melons roughening up their skins

More breathing room for squash & tomatoes

A magnificent corn harvest again this year (see tally below); the stalks were pulled to get more light into the tomatoes and squash, and to make easier picking.

Ears of corn sized for big people & little people!

Chard and kale plants are marvelously large,  just starting to get bitter.  Seeds for a fall crop went in last week, as well as a mix of lettuces and salad greens.

Attempts at growing potatoes in the breathable grow-bags proved more productive than last year, but still not what I’d hoped.  The plants looked good, and putting more fertilizer in initially helped, but I’m suspecting there’s an issue with not enough moisture during hot weather, even though they were watered daily much of the summer.  I’m of the mind to only plant Cherry Red and All-Blue varieties next year, since they’re not typically available anywhere else.  The Yukon Gold, Yellow Finn, and Banana Fingerlings are usually available for less money than I put into growing them.  At least they’re proving to be deletable morsels, and it’ll be easy to make some potato salad without having to chop much.  Now, if I was to make raclette or fondue, these are the perfect size!

(left) Yukon Gold & All Blue potatoes; (right) Cherry Red & Banana Fingerling

We could not have planned it any better for plant arranging, as the dying nasturtiums in the front/lower tier were replaced by squash vines migrating down around the them and the lavender.

Thanks be to all gardeners, pollinators, and devas, visible and invisible, for a bountiful harvest!

August bounty:

  • Basil: 5.25
  • Bush beans: 18.5
  • Corn: 46.5 (40 ears)
  • Cucumbers: 9.5
  • Kale: 3
  • Lettuce blends: 4.25
  • Parsley: 0.75
  • Scallions: 4
  • Spinach: 2
  • Swiss chard: 4.25
  • Summer squash: 57
  • Tomatoes: 1.5
  • Blueberries  4
  • Potatoes: 14

Month’s total: 174.5 pounds!

A sea of melon leaves! Where's Juniper?

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Posted in Community garden, Harvest tally, Summer, Uncategorized, Weather related

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A lush “green tomato year” in the making

Posted on August 8, 2010 | Leave a comment

Awoke to some drizzle, and had a an opportunity to reset the energy button to a slower pace; to actually sit in the garden (as the skies cleared), rather than tend to it.  Listening to the breeze, the little birds, the newly-hatched grasshopper, the bees.  Watching the cabbage white loopers darting around, and the juba skippers snapping and courting in their little aerial spirals.  Smelling the lavender, sages, bee balm, corn, nasturtiums, squash; summer in general.  Feeling like a sleeping cat.

I noticed a feeling of early fall precisely on Aug. 1.  The days started feeling noticeably shorter at the same time; there is a tinge of color on sporadic trees.  All this seems a couple of weeks earlier than “normal”.  We’re most definitely on the downside of summer, with very few tomatoes set.  I’ve never had this many tomato plants grow over 5-feet tall before setting fruit!  But, we’re not alone in this predicament.  Our day and night temps are so variable, slow to warm and very quick to cool in late afternoon.  More heat needed!

Fortunately, the squash have kicked in, though more sporadic than last year, especially for their mammoth sizes.  The spaghetti squash is out of hand, while little acorn and delicata fruit are just getting started.  The cucumbers are developing nicely, as are the margarita and charantai melons.  Corn ears are nicely elongated, waiting to fill out the kernels.

Tasseling corn

'Early prolific

Lavender and nasturtiums cushion a spaghetti squah

It was time for the lettuce to be harvested completely, or be overrun by squash and melons, besides being a little bit bitter.  Kale and chard are still vigorous, and the bush beans are still producing well.  Harvested over 5 pounds this last week on the oldest row.  Basil has been sheared back for a second round of bushy growth.  Lots of pesto being made!

July bounty:

  • Beet tops and roots: 11.75 pounds
  • Basil: 6.25
  • Kale: 3.5
  • Lettuce blends: 16.5
  • Scallions: 0.75
  • Spinach: 2
  • Swiss chard: 4.75
  • Sugar Snap peas: 0.25
  • Summer squash: 8.75

Month’s total: 53 pounds

Thank you all participants and garden devas!

Lushness galore! August 8

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Basil, Beets, Bees, and Beans: Repeat 4 times

Posted on July 25, 2010 | Leave a comment

Not really a tongue twister in that order…;-)

The CG is LUSH.  Our present heat wave is what we need to get the tomatoes to set! They and some of the squash have become vegetative monsters with our lovely warm days, but cool nights.

Actually, the bees have been busy in the squash, and there are some ‘Yellow Prolific’ and zucchinis near ready to pick.  The gargantuan spaghetti squash plant has set small fruits along its rambling vines, which are now trying to overrun the bush ‘Delicata’ squash and ‘Margarita’ melon.  I may be doing some severe pruning soon!

A big change 2 weeks after the last photo! Where's Aspen?

Tomatoes look to be trying to grow as tall as the corn!

Beets were all gathered and shared amongst ourselves this week, as the tops were looking tired and ready to flower.  Amazingly, we’re still able to pick lettuce from the mesclun mix, though the bitterness factor is creeping in more.

Beets galore!

And, such a basil harvest from simple thinning and pruning.  4 pounds!  So tasty when sauteed with diced garlic, dried tomatoes and salt, in olive oil, tossed with pasta.  Directly seeded in the soil in late May, this is a much earlier harvest this year, compared to last, which was transplanted from seedlings.

Beautiful fragrant basil....

Purple bush beans are just reaching maturity, and last, but not least, the corn is tasseling!

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Posted in Community garden, Summer, Uncategorized

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Happy 1st birthday CG!

Posted on June 2, 2010 | Leave a comment

Why is it that the best weather of a 3-day weekend arrives after 4:30 pm on the final day?  Nevertheless it was an excellent weekend to move ahead with garden tasks, dodging drizzles and rain.  Although we don’t have the exceptionally fine weather that blessed our initial project one year ago, we celebrated by seeding the first phase of summer veggies.  As various CG members filtered into town from their various journeys, different tasks were done, depending on who showed up and when.

With the air and soil temperatures being nearly equal at 70°F we seeded various squash, melon, and cucumber cultivars, corn, and basil.  (Check out our 2010 planting list here.) One minute it was threatening rain, the next a few light rays of sun peaking through the clouds to make one want to don shorts; but wait 5 minutes, and the sun is gone.  Do I need another shirt again? Yes.  Wait, now I’m too warm.  It came down to rolling up the jeans and a t-shirt.

Taking a stroll through the house yard to check on tomato seedlings keeping warm in their little greenhouse, my mouth dropped as I spied a group of deer pellets on some grass.  Never in my residency here has one come this far into the yard!  We decided to grab netting and place it over the cool weather crops immediately.  He hadn’t managed to sample anything yet.  (I think it’s the same young male who visited solo last year.)  While tying out cloth strips soaked in Irish Spring soap solution on various young fruit trees and roses, I did notice some rose tips “nipped in the bud”.

Here is an update to the final harvest tally of our 2009 plantings, contributed to by our overwintering kale and leeks, which were removed in May for more garden prep:

  • Kale: 10 (pounds)
  • Leeks: 3.25

Bringing our 2009 grand total to……592 pounds!

As we celebrate our first birthday we have a new 2010 tally, from harvesting the thinnings of early spring plantings during April and May:

  • Beet greens: 1.5 pounds
  • Kale: 2.5
  • Lettuce blends: 7.5
  • Spinach: 2

Total: 12.75 pounds            Off to a great start!

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Posted in Community garden, Developing & Planting, Harvest tally, Oh..oh...., Pests of any size & species, Spring

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Bye-bye basil…..hello lettuce

Posted on October 19, 2009 | 2 comments

While goldfinches feast upon sunflowers and nuthatches nip away at the suet, we have picked our way through all the squash, tomatoes and peppers, laying most to rest and ripen in garages and windows.

Final samplings of squash, tomatoes, and peppers. Clockwise from yellow summer squash resting on top of darker buttercup squash: "yellow" pepper, spaghetti squash, delicata squash, patty-pan squash, with ripening tomatoes nestled among squash.

Final samplings of squash, tomatoes, and peppers. Clockwise from yellow summer squash resting on top of darker buttercup squash: "yellow" pepper, spaghetti squash, delicata squash, patty-pan squash, with ripening tomatoes nestled among squash.

My lone cricket still eeks out his chirps most evenings, letting me know that all the frost warnings are not quite for real…..just yet.  The predicted heavy rainstorms never materialized in our area, only a couple of short-lived squalls one day.  But, it’s so much easier to do cleanup when it’s a lovely, dry autumn afternoon.

The kale, lettuce, chard, and leeks are very happy with the current phase of mild part sun, part cloudy days, alternating with rain, and the nasturtiums that refused to grow all summer have never looked so lush…….

Mid-October transitions in the garden. Where's Juniper?

Mid-October transitions in the garden. Where's Juniper?

But, it’s not over yet!  It’s not THE final harvest……we’re just getting growing on the fall crops….check back in!

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Posted in Community garden, Fall, Furred and feathered friends, Uncategorized

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Equinox equilibrium

Posted on September 22, 2009 | 2 comments

We are entering one of my favorite times of the year, even if it means many plants are no longer in their prime.  It is the seasonal shift and natural waning of energy.  It is the fulcrum and midpoint between the longest and shortest days of the year; the day of the year when every place on earth experiences the same amount of day and night.  Indeed, we’ve noticed the darker mornings and shorter evenings over the last two to three weeks.  One can feel the garden’s slowing pulse, as many plants continue to ripen their fruits, almost as if in suspended animation.  Of course, there are other plants who rejoice at growing in cooler weather again, but it is not the logarithmic pace of spring and early summer.

Yet it is quite the paradox when the local temperature is trying to challenge a record high, more typical of summer, while the silver maples have branches of vivid red leaves!  Still, if one is attuned to energetics, 92° in late September is much more mellow heat than 92° in late July.  A very loud cricket has been keeping me company as I write, quite content that it is a warm evening.

My concerns that the supposed spaghetti squash might be imposters were assuaged after cutting one open and baking it.  The classic string texture was apparent upon scraping, and it was delicious, tossed with a bit of olive oil, garlic powder, salt, cherry tomatoes, and grated parmesan.  As a nice alternative to pasta, it is also tasty when mixed with pesto, though it takes a back seat to the pungent basil and garlic flavors.

Spaghetti squash galore!

Spaghetti squash galore!

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Posted in Community garden, Fall, Uncategorized, Weather related

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