The Squash Is Coming! The Squash Is Coming!

While I don’t know yet if my spaghetti squash plants will actually produce spaghetti squash this year, they sure are growing!  I had quite a few problems with spaghetti squash last year and the beginning of this year, but things seem to be turning around!  They are beginning to flower, and I’m going to keep a close eye on them, hand pollinating, if necessary.  Take a look!

 

Those are two different spaghetti squash plants planted near my orange tree. Ideally, they would have been planted in a dedicated bed, but I live in southern California which means TINY yards. I do what I can…

 

 

My summer squash plant is quite prolific, with several “fruits” on the vines.  Some are getting quite large and will be ready to harvest in a couple day’s time.

 

See the little yellow squashes? I read that they can grow up to an inch a day. If that’s the case, I’ll have some ready to pick by week’s end!

 

I am really looking forward to these peppers ripening!

 

Yes, it’s planted next to my electric meter, but what can I say? I have a small yard. I use what space I have in any way I can.

 

I picked one today along with one yellow cherry tomato and a few radishes.

 

Not a huge harvest, but it is a delicious one!

 

 

Speaking of radishes, I should have a few more ready later this week.

 

And, yes, those are around my water shut off valve. Again, small yards.  There’s also a garlic plant tucked in there.

 

Can’t wait until the harvest is in full swing!

I Sense A Recurring Theme: My Garden Is Under Attack!

Who would attack my lowly garden?  Bunnies.  Hungry bunnies.  Sneaky bunnies.  Highly intelligent bunnies that tested one of my tomatoes a couple of days ago and left it on the vine.  Bunnies who ripped off my two beautifully ripe tomatoes (which I almost picked yesterday, but I wanted to let them ripen a tad bit more), ate half of them, and left them in the corners of my yard.  See?

 

What irks me the most is that they didn’t even eat all of it!! The least they could have done was eat more than half. Don’t you agree?

 

At least the bunnies ate about half of this one and left the rest to share with the slugs in my garden.

 

Is that all I discovered this morning?  Unfortunately not.  I’ve mentioned my strawberries before, and just Monday, I was thinking, “Wow, I might actually get strawberries after all!”  Famous last words.  See…

 

Why does this look like dirt in this picture? Because the bunnies ate all the new growth on my strawberry plants. It was several weeks’ worth. Grr…

 

I’ll keep chugging along, fighting the bunnies, trying to harvest my own produce (instead of letting the bunnies do it).  Please don’t think that everything is bad here in socal.  Things are actually quite good, and I do have some garden successes to share.

 

My spaghetti squash plants are growing! These are my two biggest plants, and they’re just beginning to flower!

 

My summer squash plants are doing fabulously well! I have several yellow squash growing!

 

My eggplant plant has recovered somewhat since the bunnies nearly ate it to the ground, but it’s not thriving. I am making a couple of adjustments in hopes it will improve.

 

And, finally, my robust pepper plants from last year. All of them have fruit on them, and I am SO excited! This one has several, and one is almost ready to harvest!

 

Yes, I’m having some trouble keeping the bunnies out of some parts of my garden, but I’m having more successes than failures.

 

Life is good.  Tell me about some of the good things in your life.

 

Laurel Laurie Staten Nguyen Newhall, CA

Let The Harvest Begin!

Yes, it’s early to start harvesting my vegetables, but with the crazy weather this year, my onions think they’ve gone through two growing seasons and they are ready to come out of the ground.  How do I know this?  Google.  Actually, a more correct answer would be this:  I Googled, “Why are my onions flowering?” and that is what the search results told me.

 

See the flowers? One is near the top left hand corner of the picture, with the other two on the right hand side. I have about 5-6 flowering onion plants, and I hope the rest are smart enough to know that they’ve only been in the ground a couple of months, not two years.

 

A flowering onion means I need to harvest the onions early, although they will be small.  So I picked (or is the word harvested?) one, and I plan to pick the rest over the next few days.  Thankfully, I have a ton of onions left, so I should have at least a few that grow to full size onions.  I also picked a couple of radishes, because they looked like they were peeking out of the ground.

 

So I have one lonely red onion and three lonely radishes. What should I do with them? Salad, anyone?

 

Honestly, what did novice gardeners do before the Internet?  How did they know what to do when something crazy happened, like onions flowering?

 

Now, I’m sure you’re dying to know how the rest of my garden is doing, so I’m going to post a few pictures updating you on my plants’ progress.

 

My three spaghetti squash plants are continuing to grow, and this one is the farthest along. It has little flowers forming, which I hope will attract bees to pollinate once the female flowers emerge.

 

My cherry tomato plant is doing wonderfully! I have several dozen little tomatoes growing, and two are almost ready to pick!

 

My zucchini (or crookneck squash, I can’t remember which one I planted) plant is doing well with little baby squash growing. I can’t wait until I can pick those. Squash is one of my most favorite vegetables, and, if what everyone says is true, I’ll have a boatload!

 

This is my Anaheim pepper plant. It’s the only pepper plant I actually planted this year as my other three plants survived the winter. It’s coming along beautifully, and it looks like I’ll have some peppers pretty soon.

 

It’s heating up all over the USA, and I know a lot of you are getting your gardens into the ground.  I’d love to hear an update on your garden!

 

Also, in honor of the age-old tradition of sharing gardening information, please share your best gardening tip, to help all the novice gardeners like me!