Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Square Foot Gardening Update: Patience is a Virtue

Aside from my purple green beans, some herbs and a few grape tomatoes, I haven't harvested much yet. To say that I am being impatient is an understatement.

Every evening when I go out to the garden to water, I am teased by the fruit and vegetables that are exploding at this time of year. But unfortunately everything is still in the growth stage and I have a few more weeks to go.

I can taste the homemade salsa or BLT sandwiches right now.

I planted cantaloupe for the first time last year and it was the sweetest and most delicious melon I have ever tasted. I can't wait for these lovely melons to ripen up a bit.

I pulled a few carrots, just to see how big they were...too soon.


This zucchini plant has skipped over a 2 foot pathway and entered into another boxed garden. The funny thing is that it was a volunteer from my compost pile. I have never grown zucchini, so it must be from the CSA. I compost all of our vegetable and fruit scraps and this plant appeared coming out of the compost barrel early in the season. I replanted it in a new bed that we built this year and it is taking over my entire garden.


The problem is that there are a ton of flowers, but not a single zucchini yet. I don't know if this is normal.


And to make matters worse, I found some flowers on the ground. I'm not sure if this is the work of critters that feast in my yard or if these flowers fell off naturally.



How is your garden growing? Are you practicing a lot of patience right now too?

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Posted by Family Balance Sheet at 6:00 AM
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19 comments:

  1. Good morning! I can TOTALLY relate! I have only harvested one green pepper, peppermint, and oregano! I keep reading other bloggers' posts about the plethora of vegetables they are already using in nummy recipes....heavy sigh....then I remember, they live in the south, and alas, I am in MN. To top it off, I planted late...and then got a lot of rain that washed some of my seeds away!!! Slowly, but surely, it is growing though! I have no choice but to be patient too! Hang in there! :)
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  2. I have more cucumbers than I know what to do with right now! But I like your point, everything comes in stages, sometimes its torture and sometimes I'm grateful.
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  3. I think it is great that you got the plant out of the compost pile!LOL
    The flowers will all be a plant so the more flowers you have the better.. and you know you can eat the flowers.. you dip them in breading and fry them..
    Sue in NJ
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  4. The green tomatoes are way further along than mine--I have one small greenie on one of my 'Costoluto Genovese' tomato plants--long, cold spring and early summer has made things late in maturing here. The melons look beautiful, too. I am doing a lot of waiting right now, but I do have salad greens to harvest as well as raspberries right now, and a smattering of blueberries, marionberries and strawberries. I had a good sugar snap pea harvest this year, but the plants are about done, so I'll replant that with lettuce in a couple of weeks or so.
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  5. How great! I can't wait to own our own home so we can grow big. We have all our veggies in containers (and have done so for 3 years now). Our cucumbers and okra are slowly producing but no go on the tomatoes and only 1 pepper.

    You could make some fried green tomatoes! Yummy.
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  6. I also find patience difficult. :)
    And have the same thing with lots of zucchini flowers but can't seem to see a zucchini. Though I thought the same thing with the cucumbers and all of a sudden one day saw 3 3-4 inch long little starts. Waiting to see if that happens with the zucchini.
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  7. Your garden is doing better than mine. :) Those tomatoes look fantastic! I FINALLY harvested my first zucchini this morning! So exciting, I didn't think anything was going to produce this year. Don't worry about the flowers falling off, I think that's pretty normal. I'm glad to hear that others are impatient too!
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  8. Don't worry about the zuke flowers dropping they only last a day or two. It takes a while for the female flowers to come along. You'll see a little zuke with a flower on the end of it, that's the female, the long stems with a flower are the male. When the two pollinate (usually by bees) you get mature zukes! We all can't wait for them, then it's "oh boy, what am I going to do with all these squash!!!". Have fun!
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  9. My zucchini's bloomed like crazy and finally started to produce. Now I am baking choc. Chip zucchini cake and freezing some as well. Stop by for a Latte' and check out the recipe if you like.
    a Latte with Ott, A
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  10. I finally got my zucchini to grow after a lot of trouble with beatles, and they aren't producing much at all either. The plant is HUGE, and my yellow squash plant looked like it was doing well but so far has only produced one squash! Your garden is looking good though :)
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  11. Looks like you got your answer to the zucchini question- yes the long stems with the flowers are male and they need to pollinate (with the help of bees)the female flowers. You should get some eventually!

    Thanks for sharing at the Tuesday Garden Party!

    PS- love the clean new look of your blog!
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  12. We did the same thing with our carrots, they are just too tempting! And they are so cute! Visiting from TGP :)
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  13. I know just how you feel - I'm impatient to get anythign besides herbs and the stray strawberry out of our garden! Soon I think!
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  14. I'm happy to read the comments here because I've been waiting for my zucchini for, like, ever! And I've been picking off the male flowers without knowing that they are important.Whoops! Good to read your post and I, too, am waiting like crazy!
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  15. your garden looks great, I got a late start, mostly to say I can do it LOL hopefully something will come of it by Sept LOL
    Helen
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  16. Yes, I am learning patience as well. After our incredibly slow summer start in Oregon I have 3 tomatoes that are beginning to turn color~ yeah!

    I see about 3 or 4 baby zucchini's on my plant... I keep thinking one of these days I'll go out and they'll all be 8 inches long... you know zucchini. Oh well, good things come to those who wait:)

    visiting from tgp
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  17. Thanks for all of the comments! I've been stopping by your sites and everyone's gardens look great.
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  18. Sorry about the zuke problem! I had the same problem last year...2 options...plant a pollinator flower to attract bees, or help them with the pollination! (Sounds gross, but it works.)

    Take a Qtip and touch the male flower and then add the pollen to the female flower. Then the zukes can grow. :)
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  19. $5 Dinner Mom - thanks for the tip. I'm going to try it tonight when it cools down...hopefully I am not too late.
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