Death of Zucchini

It is with great sadness that I report that my zucchini plant is dying. We have three plants in total; one is about to die and two are hanging on but no female flowers.

Growing zucchini has not been so great for us this year. I don't know why. Maybe it's the lack of correct nutrients in the soil, lack of rain, lack of space... but we only were able to harvest TWO zucchinis this year. Only TWO from an entire season!

Next year, I don't think I will grow the zucchini in the Square Foot Garden. I just don't think the square foot is big enough to accommodate its growth. They really do grow very large, and their stems and leaves are huge.

Below: The poor plant hanging over the SFG box

As you can see, the leaves are still green, but closer to the stem, it's all brown and dried up. It looks pretty dead to me. The plant is no longer fruiting--there are no more female flowers that give me any hope of future zucchinis.

Below: The dried stem of the zucchini

It's a bit strange that the stem is all dried but the leaves and branches of the zucchini plant are green and look healthy. But the entire plant is just too big for the square that it is planted in. I guess I didn't realize how large the zucchini plant actually grows. I tried to use a bamboo stick and try to make the plant grow vertical, but it didn't work.

Below: The beautiful green branches and leaves of the zucchini plant

And sadly, all the new flowers on the plant are male ones. I haven't seen any female flowers in such a long time. There were a few female flowers a few weeks ago, but they wilted away.

Below: Male flowers only...

Next year, I will plant these zucchinis in a vegetable raised bed. I hope they will do better next year. I'll need to research on what makes growing zucchinis an easier process.

Back from Vacation!

Hi Everyone!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I've arrived safely back in Nashville. My vacation was amazing... The beach was gorgeous, and the boardwalk was so fun. We went to the beach every day, walked everywhere and had tons of seafood! So yum! I'll post pictures as soon as I have time.

The flight home was hectic. I was supposed to arrive home last night, but my flight was canceled because of the weather. So we didn't get a flight until this morning. Then the luggage was lost because Atlanta's airport closed down, and over 500 bags were in limbo. Crazy!

On top of this, my laptop broke yesterday. My sister dropped it, and it broke my screen. It'll be too expensive to fix, so I bought a new one. *sighs* Quite an eventful trip.

The garden is booming! I will share new pictures later this week. Before I left, I noticed that our eggplants had formed! It was exciting! The eggplant is a lovely purple, and it's rather large now. The plant is rather low on the ground, and so I wonder what will happen if the vegetable grows too long for the height?

Below: The eggplant (circa last week)

I'm a little concerned about the zucchini. One of our zucchinis died. And the plant leaves have some strange coloring on them. I wonder what it could be. Anyone have any ideas?

Below: The dead zucchini

Below: The leaves have odd coloring...

Well one good thing about the zucchini plant: there are replacement zucchinis on their way. Hopefully these will grow to full size and make a delicious side dish!

Below: The new female flowers

Zucchini Surprise and A Solution to the Drought

Well I had a surprise waiting for me when I arrived at Cam's house today. I've been so preoccupied with the garden at my parents' house, and the past week has been especially busy for me, full of birthday parties and a big project I've been working on. I neglected to check on my SFG... To my shock, I found a nice size zucchini had grown out from one of the flowers!

It's not a full size one, but it's a good start. This zucchini had grown from a flower that seemed to never bloom. Each time I checked on it, the flower was closed up. It never opened. I was distraught and thought it was a male flower. But tada.... I was wrong!

Below: First zucchini of the year!

This zucchini plant is the largest in the garden. It was the first one to be planted and has been growing much better than the others. It's located in SFG Box #1 near the tomatoes and carrots. Unlike the other zucchinis, this one never succumbed to horrible disease (the splitting of the stems). I'm so excited... Just think, in a few weeks, I'll be able to harvest this squash and taste it!

Below: Let's not forget Luka, who enjoys hiding in the foliage near the zucchini! She's getting so big. *sighs* Soon she'll no longer be a kitten.

From the looks of the carrots (next to the zucchini), they should be ready to be picked in a month or so. They are just filling up that square. They are growing so slowly though. This might be due to a watering problem--or lack of water--that I've encountered.

Although Cam and I will most likely get married next year, I'm still living in Nashville. So I don't get to come over to visit my SFG as much as I would like. Cam is the one responsible for watering my plants each morning and afternoon. (He is also the financer of my garden project.) Unfortunately, his work has been taking him away and my poor plants have not been getting the amount of water they need to thrive.

But we have solved the watering problem. Becuase the weather isn't cooperating. There was a little bit of rain last night, but light showers. It's been incredibly hot in middle Tennessee... lots of sun and very little rain.

Cam and I have set up a sprinker to water our plants in the mornings and afternoons. It's small, but it does water back and forth and all of the SFG boxes are getting covered with water. I think this will help with the drought problem that my plants are experiencing. Now, they will get their 1 inch of rain a week. Hopefully more.

Below: The new sprinker

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. :-)

My SFG Garden Beginnings (Back Yard)

In April of this year, my boyfriend, Cam, and I decided to start a square foot garden together. I had just gotten laid off from my publishing job (The economy, structural changes, etc.), and I was about to start freelancing writing and editing full-time. I was coming over to Cam's house more often, and it seemed to be the perfect time.

We had talked about starting a square foot garden in the winter. We're both into eating more organic foods and enjoying what God has blessed us with. (We're Christians, by the way). A SFG seemed to be a perfect fit for us. Cam lives in a subdivision, so we don't have acres of land to work with. A SFG was the most convenient in terms of space.

So in the middle of April, Cam went to Lowe's and purchased untreated wood boards to build the square foot garden boxes. He built three in total. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photographs while he was building it, but here's a photo of me standing in front of one of them. (This was at the beginning stages of our garden. Only one SFG box was in use at this time.)


After Cam finished building the boxes, he and I went to Lowe's and Home Depot to buy small plants and seeds. We wanted a vegetable garden, and it was definitely a challenge to find a variety of vegetables. It seemed that all the lawn and garden stores had rows and rows of tomatoes, but not much else. But eventually we were able to get the variety we wanted.



We started with concord gapes and a few tomato plants. Then we moved onto lettuce, carrots, onions, bell peppers, oregano, zucchini, watermelon, lettuce.