Happy July garden lovers! We just got back from an awesome weekend away, so it was fun to get back to the garden to see how things were looking in our absence. It's amazing how much things can change in just a few days. Especially now that summer has well and truly hit here, with the heat, humidity and daily storms keeping things growing like a jungle!
Mother Nature seems to be taking care of things on her own these days, though I'm not above taking some credit. ;)
We'll give this guy (@dksart) some credit, too. Though the Candy Roasters seem to be doing just fine on their own. Before leaving town, I picked 17 pounds, including two monsters weighing in at 5.5 pounds each. A lot of people recommend leaving the squash on the vine until it dies off, but I like to pull them off early so that the plant has more nutrients for more squash to grow further down the vine.
I'll let these guys mature for a few weeks, and they'll develop a slightly darker orange tone and dry out a bit so they can last for months (if they last that long). When we got back I was excited to find one more beast grew and was even bigger--almost 8 pounds! Looking forward to having plenty to share and enjoy.
Continuing on the squash front, we're still getting more of our early producers--the patty pan and golden zucchini squash. Neither have been ridiculously prolific, but they keep giving a nice little harvest.
We're also finally getting some of the Zucchini Rampicante off the vine! I shared the first one with a client since we didn't have a chance to cook it before heading out of town, but I have one for us this week. These are too fun not to utilize in some garden selfies.
The cucumbers are also coming along nicely. I came home to find our first Lemon Cukes were ready to come off the vine. These are always fun to grow, and tend to be very prolific.
The plant is spreading out like crazy with plenty more cukes on the way. All this rain is definitely helping keep them happy.
The other cucumbers are also looking good. They're climbing along the trellis we had used for the snow peas. I'm seeing some blossoms, so hoping for some pickling cucumbers soon, too!
I'll finish out with a little tomato update. We found six of those pesky hornworms right before leaving, so I was afraid we'd come back to decimation. Luckily it seems like we must have gotten them all because I haven't been able to find any others since coming back. I'm sure there will be more lurking around, but it was nice to still see plenty of fruit waiting to ripen without any nibbles.
Lots of varieties between the cherry tomatoes and bigger ones. Still curious to see what all we have since so many came from volunteers!
Always fun to see how things continue to progress as the season passes day by day. I'm sure there will be some more bumps in the road by way of pests or climate, but hopefully plenty more to enjoy. Thanks as always to @riverflows and the @gardenhive crew for keeping the fun going. Looks like @owasco has the fun and also challenging job of pulling together all the great posts this month! Can't wait to see what everyone else has growing right now!
Banners by @riverflows, @woman-onthe-wing and @dksart