A couple of things have happened since I last wrote about the garden. I got a few more pictures of the shed cats and I also took a picture of freshly harvested zucchini that became my lunch. I also finally cut the fence around the plum stick in half and put half around the grafted plum in back. But today, today I harvested some zucchini:
The gigantic one in the middle was under the stalk, about as hidden as it could be. Only its enormous girth gave it away enough for me to find it and, with hubby-Eric's vital help, cut it loose and pull it out. Yikes! In any case, I still have one and a half loaves of zucchini bread from my first bread effort to eat, so these will be grated, drained, and frozen.
Right, back to normal reporting... The plum stick in the front yard now seems much more free without the fencing going up all the way around it.
There is still enough fence that people hopefully won't stumble over it accidentally. Since the neighbor kids left, I'm much less worried about them trampling it in my yard. So I'm fairly happy that I was able to cut the fencing and put it around the other plum tree.
The second plum tree looks a little better, to me, with the fence around it. I like having it partially protected, and hopefully completely protected against the threat that was damaging it.
As you should be able to see in the next picture, the tree was all ripped up from the cats using it as a scratching post. I think it wouldn't be a bad thing to find them something else to use as a scratching post, but for now the tree itself is protected, and that's what's really important.
The cutting and such itself was a new thing for me, and didn't turn out to be as difficult as I was afraid it would be. I found wire cutters in our toolbox that hubby-Eric and his dad used when they put up the fence, then I counted out to halfway and started snipping. It took me a few minutes, and it was hot in the sun, but once I got the hang of it the cutting itself wasn't hard at all. I bent the wires down after snipping them, and left the sharp ends on the top side so I could pound them into the ground. That meant I managed to stab myself while putting the fence up around the grafted plum, but it wasn't too bad. Only a little blood.
The Tiny Tim Tomatoes are spreading out in their area. I really should find another piece of fencing and try to convince them to grow up it, but I don't really know how. Maybe I'll have something planned out in advance next year. The plants are really low to the ground with solid stems, but they have hidden treasures.
They hide the tomatoes inside, under the protective layer of leaves. I'm very pleased with the amounts I've been getting, even though I've been having to prune away not ripe tomatoes (which I then leave in a bowl on my counter to see if they'll get ripe) just to make room for more tomatoes.
Both the pepper plants are now producing lots of little tiny peppers, and I really need to figure out when to harvest these suckers, because I'm certain I'll need to do it sooner rather than later.
The Moneymaker tomatoes are finally showing fruit. If the poor plant wasn't in imminent danger of being taken over by the zucchini, I'd be very pleased with it indeed.
And here's the zucchini. It grows every day. While harvesting gourds today, hubby-Eric and I actually removed a few stalks. It didn't seem to make a difference.
So, can you guess how many zucchini are in the above picture? I don't know the answer, because I'm sure I didn't find them all.
The pumpkins are spreading out nicely, and the only concern I have is preventing them from growing up under the siding of the house. The more ground they cover, the happier I'm going to be. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I finally caught a pumpkin blossom before it bloomed. It's quite a pretty little sight, like a mini-pumpkin waiting to be born. I'm very happy with the pumpkins. I think I'll have to grow some next year.
And here's the last of the harvest. These are the Tiny Tim Tomatoes that I pruned away, with the hopes that some of them will become ripe. While I'm very pleased with the Tiny Tims, I wish I'd had a better idea what to do with them before I let them grow outward. Ah well, hopefully I'll have next summer to perfect my gardening skills... if only we can stay out here!
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