Death of the Cucumbers

All things must come to an end, and it is now that time for my cucumber plants. This is a sad realization, but it is time to pull up all the plants. I've harvested the last of the cucumbers. They were small tiny things, barely larger than the palm of my hand. Although when I cut them up, they were not bitter and their seeds were regular size. They still tasted just as delicious as their larger brothers and sisters. Can you believe it? I was surprised. So I am still munching on the last of my crop.

Two months of cucumber production is pretty good, I think. And boy, did those plants produce. It seemed I was harvesting one or two large sized cucumbers each day. My family really ate them very quickly. I had dreams of pickling, but nope--we ate them like they were big cherries. Just ate them raw and also in salads.

Below: The end of the line...

As you can see in the pictures, there was one plant, one vine that was trying to survive and produce more. It was green, and there was a beautiful female flower with hope for new fruit. I was excited, but I decided that it probably wouldn't produce a decent size cucumber.

Below: New growth, new excitement
So I'm about to pull up all the cucumber plants. I want to plant more seeds for the fall and even winter, but I am wondering what to get. I think I'll have to order the seeds online because they no longer carry them at the Lowe's or Home Depot near my house.

I have some fall crops started, but what are some good winter crops that will survive? I'll be planting garlic bulbs this October, but what other options do I have?

Random Vegetation

Very strange and random things are growing in my garden. Plants that I had lost hope for are coming back to life and fruiting, and I'm getting all sorts of strange shapes in the garden.

First, let's start with the jalapeno plant. I had bought a six-pack of jalapeno plants, but sadly, I let them sit in their carton for about two weeks unattended because I was too busy with tending to other matters in the garden. Then, after five of the six plants died, I decided to toss the carton. But I saw that there was one plant was still hanging on and it didn't look completely dead. So I planted it in one of the empty squares in the SFG Box # 1. Yesterday, to my surprise, look what I found!

A brand new jalapeno growing!


The plant is still small, and I believe this lone jalapeno has no other brothers and sisters. We had bought the jalapeno in hopes of making salsa. Obviously one jalapeno is not enough, but it is still quite a nice surprise! I wonder if it will grow any larger! Or even change color.

In another SFG box, I found that my pickling cucumber variety has spawn the fattest, strangest looking cucumber I have ever seen!

Below: A picklin' cucumber

It might be fat on the outside, but inside, it tastes just as fresh and cucumbery as the regular variety of cucumber that I've been harvesting from the garden. The picklin' variety isn't growing as quickly as the other kind, but it's still fun to eat. I think next year, I'll give this variety more space to grow and see how it does. I've noticed that my vegetables that have more space to grow tend to do better.

And finally, the last surprise: concord grapes! I had lost hope for the grape vine because it just wasn't producing. In the beginning of the season, there were two bunches of grapes. Then suddenly, one died and only one was left. I lost hope for the surviving bunch, so I stopped looking to see if it actually formed into grapes.

TADA... the surviving bunch of grapes ended up growing and edible. I'll admit, they aren't the most delicious tasting grapes, and they have seeds in them. But they are still cool.

Below: Surviving Grapes

Maybe next year's concord grapes will be better.

Rainy and Cloudy Days

Finally!

After all those funny dances in my backyard.... And the neighbors looking at me like I'm a crazy woman... (No, not really. But isn't that a funny image?)

The clouds have been angry, the sky cried, and the thunder rumbled. The earth was blessed by the wet rain drops, and my plants drank it all up.

IT RAINED!

(And of course, I have to take a zillion photos! Hehe!)





I have not been so excited for rain in such a long time. I did rain once last week (and I think it rained when I was on vacation), but for two days in a row, the rain has come and I've noticed! This means, no watering on my part. No need to get out and facing the nasty bugs that love to bite on my legs and crawl all over my arms and take my sweet blood. (Mosquitoes are getting quite a problem in my neck of the woods...)

My plants don't have a problem with all the rain. They are loving it up! Especially the melons. I'm still waiting for the day when I can pick those sweet watermelons and Freddie....

And by the way, Freddie has a new sister. More on her, next week. I shall call her Betty. I hope she survives her childhood diseases and grows up big and strong!

Now to show you what one of the cucumbers looks like, once you cut it open:

The seeds are a little larger, but not any larger than the ones I tend to buy at the grocery store. And you can taste the freshness of it. So yummy and delicious. And remember those five, long cucumbers I had last week? ALL GONE! I never had a chance to pickle it. My family eats those like they are candy.

My father says that the plants are not producing enough for us, and we have about eight cucumber plants, and all are producing pretty regularly. Isn't that crazy? Maybe next year, we'll plant two beds full of cucumber plants... So you think 14 will be enough to satisfy the cucumber-crazed family?

The cucumber... My first plentiful harvest!

Last week, I had only faint signs of potential cucumbers. The female flowers had begun to make their appearance, and I was excited about the possibilities. Happily for me, when I came back from vacation, I found not one or two, but at least five large cucumbers growing in the garden. They were all a good size, and because I can't eat them all at once, I picked two of the largest cucumbers.

Below: This week's cucumber harvest

The cucumbers are a nice size, very long in length. I think the size is comparable to what you would find in the stores. But the taste is fresh and very strong. It has that cucumber taste from my childhood.

The cucumbers from the supermarkets taste watered down to me. Have any of you tasted the difference in fresh produce now (2008) compared to 10 years ago? I think I've tasted a big difference. Over time, I haven't noticed. It was only this summer, when I tasted my own vegetables, have a noticed the huge difference in flavor! Craziness, I tell ya!

Below: The many, many cucumbers that are growing at a rapid pace in my garden!







Below: The only stubbly cucumber I have... A different variety and growing rather slow. It's the only one of its kind, so far!

To accommodate the growth of these 'cukes, I've been eating cucumbers with every meal. I've been adding them to salads and just eating cucumber slices by the slice. And on top of that, I've been eating them with white rice and stir-fry. They feel so fresh and delicious! Anyone want one? :-)

First cucumbers!

After a very slow month, my garden is really starting to come to life! First the watermelon started to fruit and now the cucumbers have decided to grace my garden. I'm going to have so many cucumbers to harvest... I don't know what to do with it all. I guess I'll have to learn how to make pickles! Or eat LOTS OF SALAD! Or make a cucumber and tomato sandwich. Yum!

Below: My cucumbers at my parents' raised bed garden

Because cucumbers have a tendency to spread, we decided to use bamboo sticks to help them grow vertically. The bamboo sticks (above) come from my parents' very own bamboo bush. My mom and I ventured into the bamboo "forest" in the backyard and cut down the larger, stronger bamboo stalks to use on the cucumber plants.

Below: The bamboo "forest" in the backyard

Bamboo also has a tendency to spread like crazy. You have to work very hard to maintain it. Each spring, we go into the backyard and dig up the shoots that form outside of the designated area. It's hard work to keep the bamboo forest in its correct location, but the bamboo is very beautiful and very useful in gardening.

Below: The cucumbers that have started to form

These cucumbers are best suited for salads because they will end up having smoother skin. The flowers are beautiful, and the cucumber itself is lovely to see. For several weeks, the cucumber plants have been growing with only male flowers. It's refreshing to see the female flowers and the cucumbers.

Since my plants have started to give birth to vegetables and fruit, I've been able to determine which flowers are male and female. In the beginning of my garden adventures, I was completely clueless. And now I can spot the different types. A very cool feeling to know a little something about gardening!

Below: The cucumbers in the square foot garden

At Cam's house, I also used bamboo sticks to allow the plants to grow vertically. These cucumber plants were replacements that we bought after our first batch failed due to illness. So far, no disease (the roots are not split in two), and these plants have also started to have female flowers.

The variety of cucumber is the picklin' type. They have rougher skin and I believe they are called pickling cucumbers. Anyway, there are so many cucumbers growing in this square. I'm excited about the possibilities!

Vegetable and Fruit Flowers

ANNOUNCEMENT! I am finishing up a big project, so I won't be able to blog as much as I have been. Plus, next week, I'm off on vacation with my sister to Ocean City, New Jersey. I will blog as much as I can because I enjoy doing this so much. But if I lag behind, you know the reason why! :-) But do come and visit often! I love knowing that people actually read what I have to say. LoL!

On to gardening business....

I must say that I am girlie-girl and I absolutely love flowers. Of all kinds, especially pink and other bright colors. Just walking around in my garden, I've noticed that my fruits and vegetables have the most delightful flowers. Not only are these flowers pretty to look at, they give me hope of delicious harvests! Most of them are yellow in color, and occasionally I will find a white flower.

Enjoy the beauty of my flowers. I love these because they are best of both worlds. Lovely to enjoy, and they are the sign of hope to come!

Below: The beautiful eggplant flower that has bloomed and now is giving birth to a tiny, purple veggie


The watermelon flowers are numerous, and though the plant has wrecked havoc in terms of space, its flower reminds me of how simple life can be.



And finally, the male flowers on my cucumber plants....

Kitten Update & Zucchini and Cucumber Flowers

For regular readers of my blog, I wanted to give an update on the kitten that Cam saved last week. (Check out the initial post about her). You’ll be happy to know that I have adopted the kitten. Her full name is Foxy Luka Nguyen-Cornelius, but we call her Luka. She’s an American short hair and only about 2 months old, possibly younger than that. No one knows her history, but she is the sweetest little thing ever. The vet thinks that she was weaned from her mother too soon, so this has caused her to be extra clingy to Cam and me.

Currently, she’s living in the very spacious sun room and she just loves being around us. She is incredibly vocal, meowing constantly, and she’s very playful. She hates it when we leave the room, and she meows until we come back. It’s hard to resist her because she is so lovable and cute!

The vet said that she will become less clingy as she gets older, but I really don’t want her to grow up and be a regular old cat. To me, she’s almost a dog trapped in a cat’s body. She follows me everywhere, likes to sit in my lap and nap. Once she gets big enough to fit into a harness, I’m going to try to leash train her. We’ll see. For now, I’m really enjoying her kitty-hood.

Now onto gardening fun! I have to correct myself. I’ve been incorrectly telling you that I have squash plants. I actually have zucchini plants. And the one in SFG box # 1 has started to flower (below).

The flowers haven’t opened up yet, and I don’t know if they are male or female, but they look promising! Little zucchinis are about to be born! I love the yellow color in the flowers. That’s the beauty of vegetable gardening—you get the flavorful fruit as well as the pretty flowers.

Below: A close look at the big, pretty soon-to-be flower

It's hard to believe that that zucchini plant used to be a seed that we planted inside. When we first transplanted it, it flopped over and didn't stand up straight for weeks! And now look at it! Getting nice and big!

I pulled out the diseased zucchini from the soil because I didn't have the patience to wait and see what it would do. But the ones that were left are doing better now. They are slowly getting larger, and their stems are intact.

Below: The other zucchini plants

The cucumbers that I planted last week are still blooming. This time, they have new flowers! I’m not sure about the sex of the flower, but there are two sets. One yellow, and one white. Either way, I have both sexes. It looks like fuzzy cucumbers are growing behind a few of the flowers. I don't particularly care for the look of these flowers, but at least they produce vegetables.

Below: The cucumber flowers

One of my favorite summer sandwiches is a cucumber and tomato sandwich with mayo and dill. Maybe in July, I can harvest the ripe vegetables for my sandwich. That'll be so exciting!

P.S. For Tina: I'll end up posting more about what square foot gardening is, but I'm going to wait until Cam and I decide to build more boxes to describe our process. We don't follow everything the founder of SFG, Mel Bartholomew, recommends. We probably should, but we don't. I love experiments, as you've probably noticed. :-)

Replaced Cucumbers, Growing Bell Peppers, and Updated SFG Boxes Photos

Thank you to everyone who commented and gave me advice about the cucumber and squash dilemma. Eleutheros mentioned I should wait a week or so to see if the plants continue to grow. I was planning to listen to his advice… until this afternoon.

Cam and I had business lunch near Mt. Juliet, and Cam suggested we visit some of the nurseries afterwards. So we did, and we ended up doing more than just “looking.”

Above photo: We ended up buying way too much, but we couldn't help ourselves! It's so addicting!

We had never been to any of the fabulous nurseries in Mt. Juliet (a suburb of Nashville), and boy was I shocked at the awesome merchandise and healthy plants we found. I’ll go into more detail about all we bought in a post later this week. But for now, I’m going to focus on the cucumbers that we bought.

We found a package of small cucumber plants that were flowering. They looked so much healthier than the cucumbers we had planted, and I highly doubt our old cucumbers would have ever flowered like the new plants.

Below: The new cucumber plants



I am positive that we will have new cucumbers in the coming weeks (or at least healthy plants that don’t look diseased). I followed my father’s advice and planted the roots deeper than I did last time. After watering, the cucumber plants looked perky and happy. Not like last time when they just flopped over… and stayed flopped over until I decided to pull them all out.


Above: A close-up of the new cucumber plants

I'm pleased to announce that the bell peppers in the SFG boxes are still doing well. I was concerned this weekend because it didn't seem like they were perky, but now that the sunshine is back, they look better than ever! I don't think they're a fan of the cloudy and windy weather. They looked just awful yesterday... The flowers were so droopy; the plant looked sad.

But today, the sun was out and the bell peppers were back in the swing of new growth!

Below: the yellow bell pepper is in the beginning stages of fruiting. Look at the teenie baby bell pepper that's forming!


Below: The green and red bell peppers in the back are also in the midst of flowering and giving birth to tiny peppers. It's really pretty to look at the flower blooms.



Over the weekend, I was getting a little concerned about the purple bell pepper. It was starting to change color on me. Notice the dark spots on the green pepper below.


I had never heard of purple bell pepper before, but I know that with the red bell pepper, it becomes a large green bell pepper before it ever ripens and turns red. I was concerned with this purple bell because it's still somewhat small in size. It's not tiny, but not as large as some of the bell peppers you see at the store. But I guess the purple bell grows differently. It still looks healthy, so I'm not going to be too worried yet. I can't wait to see how it looks as it continues to grow in size.


The front bell pepper is still growing strong. I'm disappointed that it's an only child because the plant isn't flowering and has no hope of flowering.

Below: Front bell pepper (variety: red bell)

The pepper is getting so large that it's making the plant tip over, so I straightened it with a little stick. Hopefully that will keep the plant from falling over into the soil. It also makes the plant look more aesthetically pleasing.


On a final note, I thought I'd post individual photos of each square foot garden box in the back. Each box is growing very nicely and filling out. Cam and I are in talks to build 3 more. I know it's getting late in the summer to continue buying and planting new plants, but it's our first time, and we're experimenting!