Veggie Garden Progress

Just over a week ago I did a post about my veggie garden that I started rather late in the season. Well, what a difference a week makes!

The tomatoes have grown a foot and the beans have grown a couple of feet. The beets, as pictured, are larger and thicker... despite having harvested a basket full of greens! And the zucchini have not only started blooming...

but have also started putting on fruits, both dark green...

and light green. (No yellow zukes yet.)

They're moving along a trifle more slowly, but the scalloped squash are also getting started.

(If you look carefully, right in the center of the photo, you can just make out a green embryonic scalloped squash with a blossom bud on top.)

Oh, yeah. That's how you can tell the male blossoms from the female blossoms. The males are perched on the ends of long, thin stalks. The females are on the ovary on short stalks. I can't guarantee that the two zucchinis pictured above will actually turn into edible zukes. The male blossoms weren't yet open when those zukes' female blossoms were open, so it's not very likely that they got fertilized. In the case that they didn't fertilize, the fruit will suddenly decide that it isn't happening and will start yellowing and shriveling from the blossom end. :-(

So, while getting a jump on planting one's veggie garden by planting as early as possible after frost is the usual mode, planting in mid-summer only delays harvest by a short bit. Because the ground has had a chance to warm, because the days are longer, and because the days and nights are warmer, the veggies veritable LEAP from the ground in a much bigger hurry to start producing.

In the meanwhile, the cucumber vines that are growing on the trellis out front continue to produce a few cucumbers every two or three days. However... Remember how I mentioned in that previous post that I had to move the tomatoes out back to get them enough sun and warmth? Well, the lack of blazing sun and warmth is also taking its toll on the cucumbers. The fruits are frequently slightly deformed (much narrower at the blossom end) and the leaves are already starting to mildew (a sign of insufficient heat, too much moisture on the leaves, not enough air movement, or old age). Given that they are watered by soaker hose, it shouldn't be damp leaves. Given that the breeze comes up every afternoon and blows through there, and that the trellis is held a couple of inches out from the wall and sags even farther from the wall from the weight of the vines, there should be plenty of air circulation. The vines really aren't all that old and they are continuing to grow rather vigorously at their growing ends. So, that leaves insufficient sun. *sigh*

Well, I'll go give the cukes a dusting of ground sulfur for the mildew now.