Grow Your Own – Some Return on the Effort
by John Weckerle
We return to our gardening, however briefly, having completed the trip to Florida, played tour guide to visiting family members late last week, and spent time at the Wildlife West music festival over the weekend. This week, we provide a picture of last Thursday’s harvest instead of photos of the beds – primarily because it is both dark and raining at the moment. Suffice it to say that the garden is more jungle-like than ever, but the plants seem to be enjoying themselves immensely.
Our harvest included broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, yellow summer squash, lettuce, and the first of the white eggplants. There was more than enough zucchini to make zucchini parmigiana for all seven of us (four visiting family members included), with a generous serving left over for later consumption – and, of course, there was plenty of salad. The rest of the squash will be cooked up this evening, and the broccoli and cauliflower will not be far behind.
More white eggplants are on the way, and it appears possible that there may be a meal’s worth of string beans in the next couple of days. Tomatoes are still not ready, but we can wait. The first plant we harvested broccoli from is beginning to put out small, “second harvest” heads. The cucumber has gone berserk, and requires periodic trimming to keep it from overwhelming the other plants. Potted peppers also continue to thrive, and it looks as if we’ll have a few Anaheim chiles very soon. The lone spaghetti squash also continues to grow, albeit more slowly, and we’re certainly looking forward to harvesting it.
Having learned a few things this year, next year we’ll be rearranging things a bit and also probably come up with new enclosures. These are getting crowded, and it may be better to allow some room for things to hang over the edge of the box. Cucumbers will definitely be grown in a box with a trellis to help keep them from overwhelming the other plants.