Zucchini Madness

Back in March/April, I planted two zucchini seeds right next to each other, just in case.  Well, both plants have grown huge. The leaves are about a foot and half wide.  I actually cut back the leaves because I was afraid that the sun would not get to the fruit for it to ripen.  I don't know if that helped, but the fruit is flourishing.

I have so many zucchini that I have been searching for good recipes. I made three zucchini breads with slightly different recipes.  I tried using Splenda instead of sugar, but when I finally made one with fine grain baking sugar, oh the difference was amazing.  I added orange zest and chocolate chunks in one experiment and it was good but not enough nutmeg.  I just made one with lemon zest, white chocolate and macadamia nuts.  It is very good, but still could use more nutmeg.  

I also made a really nice, low-fat, low calorie zucchini soup.  I took my monster zucchini -- one that grew to the size of a small child -- and cut it up and simmered it with onions, garlic and low fat chicken broth.  Then  I pureed it with two tablespoons of lite sour cream - delicious.

Now, I only have half a dozen more that are ripe and in the frig.  Hmmmmm.

Corn Success At Last

After the disappointment at my desire to overdo the garden, I am proud to say that I harvested three delicious ears of corn today.  I picked the corn, threw it on the stove to cook and we ate it with our grilled burgers for dinner.  It was smaller than the market corn, only about 6 to 8 inches in length.  Two of the ears were pretty thin and one was thicker.  The taste was sweet, but the kernels were a bit chewy, so I am not sure if they were over-ripe or over-cooked.  I expected sweeter than ever taste, but they tasted "just like the supermarket ones, Mom".  Oh well, after four years of unsuccessful attempts to harvest corn, I am thrilled with my little ears.

The zucchini are making up for the small corn size.  I have been checking the plants daily to prevent the fruit from growing to large, but with the current heat spell they have gone crazy.  The tomatoes are ripening like crazy too.  I used my first ever Fresno Pepper in an avocado and crab salad soup.  I had to get out the ice pack because I must have wiped my nose after I cut the peppers and my face was on fire!  Next time, I will use gloves and glasses before I handle the pepper.  Who knew?  This is the adventure I had hoped it would be!!

Still waiting for the cucumbers and melons, but they look like next month's harvest at the earliest.  I do have one artichoke growing, which I am very surprised by since I thought the plant would not fruit until next year.  It is growing right out of the center of the plant.  Not sure what it is supposed to do, so I will just keep an eye on it.

Excess Breeds Disappointment

I have read many books on successful organic gardening in small spaces.  When I started, I followed the rules religiously.  I planted only four lettuce plants in one square foot, and left a quarter of the garden for one zucchini plant.  However, as I became more experienced, I decided that I was leaving too much space unused and could definitely plant more things.

This year, I doubled my garden size and could have really spread things out and still had a hearty bounty.  But, as often happens, I wanted more and I wanted the garden to look plentiful.  So, in search of "bigger" and "more" crops, I dispensed with the planting rules and went with the more traditional "row" planting.  Rather than carefully measure out a few lettuce seeds for the allotted space, I sprinkled the seeds throughout the rows.  And what a great harvest I expected to have.

At first everything was progressing better than I could have imagined.  The lettuce filled the garden so that no dirt could be seen between the rows.  The carrot tops were like a sea of green feathers covering the entire area.  I had achieved my desired goal, a gorgeous lush garden that would provide months of fresh harvest . . . or had I?

As I started to harvest the lettuce, I realized that the leaves were very leggy and the plant bases were soaked and rotting.  When I pulled out the plants, hundreds of larvae and centipedes were swarming in the soil.  I noticed cocoons on some of the lettuce leaves, and disgusting slugs slithering through the dirt.  Yuck!  How could this externally gorgeous garden have yielded such disappointing results?

I went back to the books to find out what I was dealing with and why.  Apparently, if you plant lettuce too close together they become leggy and fail to grow strong, broad leaves.  Also, by planting so close that the soil was not exposed to the air and sun, it created the perfect breeding ground for disgusting pests.  The only way to get rid of the pests is to spray poison -- not an option in my organic garden -- or to remove all the plants and seal the soil with plastic to try to suffocate the pests.

So today I removed about a third of the lettuce.  I had to discard more that half.  I was able to save enough lettuce to make a nice salad for two people.  Not the bounty I had planned to boast about this season.  The carrots were unfazed by the pests and I have lovely, sweet carrots.  However, since I did not thin the carrots, they had tortuous growth paths and strange shapes as a result.  I also had created the pest breeding ground by again, not allowing any space for air and sun to reach the soil.  I harvested an entire row of carrots and am hopeful that the last remaining row will now have enough surrounding space to diminish the pests.

As a last ditch effort to destroy the pests, I poured boiling water over the now barren soil.   I don't know if that will be effective, but it was worth a try.  I hope to be able to plant some other -- well spaced -- vegetables in the open space if the pests can be defeated.

I weeded the entire garden, removed a volunteer tomato that was overtaking my peppers, cucumbers and herbs, and laid down compost/mulch.  The garden looks orderly, more properly spaced and healthy.  I won't know, however, if it is healthy until I return to the dirt next weekend.

My pride and boastfulness lead me to ignore all I had learned so that I could grow a garden that exceeded all of my prior harvests and proved how great a gardener I had become.  Alas, mother nature brought me back down to earth and reminded me that excess does not bring the anticipated joy, happiness and recognition.  Rather, excess leads to disappointment (and breeds nasty pests!).

I will remember this lesson and try to always strive for quality, strength and appreciation for these attributes and avoid the tendency for pride and ego to lead me astray.  It is back to the books and rules for me.

All is not lost, however, I still have a bumper crop of tomatoes, lots of peppers, corn, squash and other veggies.