Harvesting Update (Updated w/ Pics)

Hello everyone out there. Just thought I would give you guys a quick update on what we have harvested from the garden.

So far we have gotten 5 zucchinis from the garden, we will probably get one more tonight Which we did!) and then another on Sunday or Monday. I have three more that are in process and will probably be ready by the end of next week.

Another crop is coming on. Jocelyn has given me plenty of grief about the tomatoes. Well we have 6 small tomatoes that are forming off the Better Boy Tomato plants. I will have to see how fast these come off. We have plenty of blossoms and I finally witnessed several Bumble Bees doing the pollinating, so hopefully no hand pollinating the tomatoes.

We also have two Cayenne Peppers that are growing. I will have to check on their progress as well.

I also included 1 picture of the Zinnia flowers. They are really starting to attract a "buzz."

Joe

Hand Pollinating Zucchini

Hello Everyone out there. I have talked about it and now here it is. Your how-to on hand pollinating zucchini.

I am having to do this because we are not having much in the way of bee activity in the garden, which kinda of makes me sad because there are plenty of things to pollinate. Well a note to self, next year plant plenty of flowers to get the bees coming.

First thing when your zucchini begins to flower is being able to tell the difference between male and female flowers. Zucchini produces both, usually the male first.

The male zucchini flower has a large bloom and a small stem.

Male Zucchini Flower - Stem

The female zucchini flower has an ovary, or fruit, behind the bloom.

Female Flower - Small Zucchini

Remove the male flower from the plant.

Male Flower Removed

Pull off the petals. In some Asian cuisine the blossoms are delicacy that can be served as tempura. I have not tried this yet.

Once you have pulled off the petals it should look like this.

Using the male blossom stem as a paint brush, paint the inside of the female flower, thoroughly. Make sure every part of it is covered.

Using paint brush strokes, cover the entire inside

Once pollinated, the blossom will close on its own within a few hours. Then the process of making a zucchini begins. Within a few days, you will have a zucchini much like this one.

Hand Pollinated Zucchini

This is the Black Beauty Zucchini I harvested on Sunday.

Hope that was informative.

Joe

Update - June 5, 2011

Hello everyone out there. Today was not much for the garden. Here is a quick update.

Harvested my first Black Beauty Zucchini today. It was a good sized one. Should have about 4 more this week. So far I have lost 2 due to lack of pollination. I did take pictures today to show the how-to to hand pollinate a zucchini. I hand pollinated one this morning.

Added some grass clippings to the Cherry Tomato. It was looking a little yellow.

An update on the experiment: We had a pretty good wind storm today from some thunderstorms that were happening south of us. It blew off the 5 Styrofoam cups I had. However, in cleaning up the mess, I noticed the beans in the dirt had sprouted. So, it works. I put some more beans in a small container of water today and I will try to replant tomorrow.

The Better Boy Tomatoes are still flowering like crazy, but I did not notice any action on them except a small corn bee going around.

Well, did not get the herb bed built because Isaac was sick today. Maybe I will get to do it tomorrow.

Joe

The Great Experiment - and an update

Well not much to update on tonight with the garden. Picked up the last of the dirt (hopefully) for the last bed, which will be an herb garden. Plan on putting basil, cilantro, dill and chives in it to start, along with some other some other seeds I have but can't remember while I am sitting at my computer. Isaac picked out some more tomatoes he wanted. (I will have to post that on our other blog) and I am going to have to find a spot for them.

Thinned the okra out to one plant from the small bunches that were growing.

Removed the Packman Broccoli from the small 4' x 4' bed. It had finished its course. We will, Lord willing, have some more at the end of July for a fall harvest.

I started an experiment tonight. In coming up with a list of all the vegetables we typically use in our household, I wanted to be able to say that I attempted to grow all of them in our small patch in the backyard. If you look at the "What We Are Growing" page you will see that there is quite a bit. There were a few beans that I could not find the seeds for: Black, Pinto, Great Northern, and Kidney. We like a lot of Chili in our house and we go through quite a bit of these. I looked for these seeds and looked. I read on a handful of websites that you could purchase off the shelf of a grocery store the dry beans that come in 1 lb bags or larger and use these for seeds if you soak them. Tonight, I planted 10 black bean seeds, 2 to a Styrofoam cup. I will have to keep you guys posted on how this goes.

Joe

1st Harvest!

Hello everyone out there. We have exciting news from the garden. We have had our first harvest from the garden. Tuesday night we had fresh zucchini cut straight from the garden and sauteed by Jocelyn.

This is the one I hand pollinated

This the one I showed you a picture of earlier

It was pretty exciting to get something from the garden. These two zukes were of the Fordhook variety. We also have some Black Beauty Zucchini's that are coming along and should be ready by Monday.

We only ate one. We are going to save the other for later

I am especially proud of one of these because it was one that I hand pollinated. I have hand pollinated all the others so far as well. Unfortunately, we have not had much bee activity in the garden to help out in the essentials of nature. I will probably post a how to on this when I finally get some pictures. I am hoping some pollinating insects will visit the tomato soon as they are blooming profusely.

Well hope everyone enjoyed this little achievement from the garden.

Memorial Day Weekend Plans

Hello Everyone out there.

Here is an update on the garden and what to expect this weekend. I am going to finish out the last of the beds this weekend so everything should be set. The plan is that we will build three more 4x4 beds to house peppers, squash, another type of tomato, and Isaac's pumpkins. I also will be building a small bed for an herb plot which I will be filling with basil, cilantro, dill, and some chives. Should be a pretty filled weekend.

Hopefully, there will not be any storms.

Everything continues to grow. I just wish the okra would grow a bit faster. I have re-seeded several plants and hope to squeeze them in before fall gets here.

Well hope to add some pictures tomorrow of our progress.

Joe Delk

Long Time - No Update

Hello everyone out there. Here is the latest update from the garden. Pictures will follow tonight.

We have had another tragedy in the garden and it is no one's fault but mine. I left to go on vacation and we had a heat wave here in Ringgold while I was gone. The casualties were severe in the garden. A list of them is below:

8 Poinsett Cucumbers
1 Cherry Tomato Plant
6 Silver Queen Corn Plants - Not dead but look terrible
1 Sumter Cucumber Plant
All of the Midnight in Moscow seedlings
Isaac's Pumpkins
The Squash that was still in cups
The Better Boy Tomatoes that were still in cups

It was hard to see this but I blame myself. Luckily, thanks to Bonnie Plants, we have replaced most of the damage and have added a few more. I must say if I have learned one thing from all of this, planting from seeds is cheaper but a lot harder.

The Better Boy Tomatoes are still doing good. One of them now has a stake to hold it up. I will probably replace the stake with a string trellis this weekend. I have already had to prune back the blooms on all the plants twice already and one them three times. I think this will be the last though because I want them to get some height before they start to fruit.

The Fordhook Zucchinis are doing well with the exception of one plant (it is still small). I did find last night that there were three female flowers on it now and that is a good thing because that means three zucchinis will be ready for harvest next week.

Zucchinis Growing !

Clemson Okra is still growing but it is painfully slow. I planted three Bonnie Plant ones a few nights ago to help fill in the gap.

Bonnie is in the center of the ones I started

The beans plants are going well, however, half of the seeds failed to germinate. I will also have to build a trellis for them as well. The Silver Queen Corn is still alive but will probably have to be replaced. I will try and sow some more of those tonight or tomorrow.

Beans and Corn!

I planted 6 Straight Eight cucumber plants yesterday to replace the 8 Poinsetts that were lost and hopefully they will do well.

The Straight 8's with the wilted Poinsetts

A side note, my first attempt at growing roses has been well. We have already had 2 beautiful rose blooms and are working on the third and fourth ones. I will have to get pictures of those. The two marigold plants are doing wonderful but are started to get crowded out by the zucchinis. The Zinnia plants are also doing well.

Sunbright Rose Bloom

Marigold Growing

Jocelyn's 1st Zucchini - It's a baby