More garden pictures

The garden is still going strong in mid October.

The corn is all done though and most has been cleared out. The zucchini are still producing like crazy and the tomato hedge is still going well and putting on a lot of tomatoes.

One watermelon vine is still hanging on and has a few melons on it that are still getting bigger. The variety is Stars and Moons and I am pretty sure it is not a good variety for such heat as that stunted the growth of the vines. Now that it is cooler the vine seems to be doing better but not putting on any growth other than the melons.

There are a TON of tomatoes in the hedge and the images do a poor job of showing them. But there are a ton hidden around inside the hedge. Most are still green but some are turning.

The pumpkin plants are doing well and starting to flower so that should be good for some pumpkins around Thanksgiving time.

The Ancho Gigantica peppers are doing very very well being partially shaded by the tomato hedge. I think giving them full sun in (failed) years past is what led to crispy pepper plants.

First Harvest!

Mexican zucchini
Originally uploaded by Beaver w/ a Toothbrush

We picked our first two calabacitas from the garden! We didn't realize they were growing so fast so we picked them a little late. I think it should be half this size or less. I had to scoop out the seeds when I cooked it because they were getting a little large and stringy but it still tasted good. =)

I don't know if I'm imagining it but I feel super energized and healthy when I eat things fresh out of the garden. These hadn't been picked an hour when they were on the table as a sauteed side dish to some quesadillas and beans.

In other garden news, the pumpkins sprouts are planted. After a day of being babied with little newspaper shade tents they seem to be holding up to the full sun with only minor wilting. Only a couple didn't survive the first day. That leaves like 27 pumpkin plants: Big Max, Jack-o-Latern, and Casper!


We still have to plant the other sprouts but they weren't busting out of their little pots quite as quickly so we'll probably do that this weekend.


Aww, aren't they cute?

Garden Progress

Calabacitas
Originally uploaded by Beaver w/ a Toothbrush

We've had some ups and downs at the hovel lately. After Big Mike died, two more of our chickens died the next day while we were at work before we realized that the coop was getting much hotter than we thought. This will be our first summer with the new coop. I was pretty torn up about Lyla and Little Mike dying so soon after Big Mike and I made some immediate changes to the coop so hopefully we won't have any more problems. I'm monitoring it now and it seems to be staying a reasonable temperature.

Then some javelinas discovered that the fences around our gardens weren't all that sturdy and they ate almost everything in our two largest plots. We no longer have ground cherries, peppers, okra, eggplant, pole beans, melon banana, saucer squash, and a few varieties of tomatoes. We still have calabicatas which are doing really nicely, tomatillos, corn, and a few tomato plants. I was excited to see a couple of the stranger things we planted; maybe next year.

The tomatillos were the only things left in the largest plot. They seem pretty happy. I've also started pumpkins, sweet and hot peppers, luffas, and corn seedlings. We bought staples for the bottom of the fence. We're hoping that (and some pepper flakes sprinkled around liberally) will be enough to keep the javelinas out in the future. Although I should mention that the javelinas did us a big favor. They also ate all the weeds.