Two years in the making, but well worth the effort…
In the summer of 2006 I put up a retaining wall to keep the ivy from taking over a corner of my yard. I then tried to kill it w/ regular Roundup but the ivy won that battle. The following spring I mixed a batch of extra strong Roundup. It took 3 or 4 applications but the ivy lost this time! Fast forward to 2008… It was an exceptionally rainy and cool spring in St. Louis so the planting of my garden was delayed by a few weeks. I had a brief window of opportunity in mid-May to get my plants in the ground, and I do mean brief! As I was getting the trenches finished for the asparagus it started raining again, but I pushed on and was able to finish. The weather remained cool and wet until early June. As a result, my plants didn’t prosper very well. The tomato plants were dropping their flowers, the squash plants remained small, the bell pepper plants were wimpy and the asparagus struggled to pop out of the dirt! I thought I was doing something wrong, but as the weather became drier and warmer things started happening – the broccoli ripened, the tomatoes started appearing, the asparagus ferned out, the squash has gone crazy (so much I’ve had to cut back the leaves so they wouldn’t block out the sun for the other plants!), and my wimpy bell pepper plants are starting to get bigger and flower. The zucchini is flowering like crazy but is not producing much fruit yet. As you can see in the photos, two of the zucchinis rotted before ripening. I don’t know why, so if any of you veteran gardeners have any answers please share them w/ me.
Below is a photographic chronology:
June 2006
June 8th, 2008
June 22, 2008
July 4, 2008
Broccoli; Lemon Boy tomato; zucchini
Hot banana peppers; butternut squash flower; herbs
Things are looking good, and the broccoli and first banana peppers were delicious!! I will keep you posted as the summer progresses.
Ciao for now…
Bruno, well done! There’s nothing such a pleasant feeling than picking your own fruitful labour and cooking fresh ingredients from your own garden. A job very well done, my friend!
Your garden is looking great. I can tell you’ve done a lot of work on it. It’s actually very common for the first few zucchini to kind of wither up and die, although I have no idea why it happens. Every year I just remind myself to expect it, and as soon as they start to wither up a little, I cut them off so the plant’s energy can go to produce healthier ones.
Arfi – Thank you! Yes it is fantastic to be able to walk out to my yard and pick fresh vegetables to cook up that day in my kitchen!!
Kalyn – Thanks! I’m glad to hear that it’s normal for the first zucchini to not mature. I’m looking forward to saute’ing or grilling those that will come in soon!!
Well if it isn’t another Bruno blog! Your garden looks lovely. And the slightly odd part? I had two potted plants stolen from my back yard today.
Thanks Adrienne! Sounds like you have some thieving neighbors… you may want to install some security cameras to catch them in the act!!