Nom Nom Nom

Female Flower

A Q-tip pollenator to help the pumpkins along

Pumpkin Flower: Galeux d'Eysines

Gourdy Gourdy!

I have such fond memories of the year we made a food garden when I was still living at home.  We put it on a drip system, encircled the entire thing with bird netting, and neglected it for months.  Finally we went to harvest, and the zucchinis were a foot and a half long, and 4 inches wide!  Yes, they were woody and flavorless, but they were great for scooping out and filling with a zucchini-meatloaf combination.  And most of all, those monster zucchini were fantastic for playing with.

Zucchini are also my favorite "daily" vegetable... grilled, baked, stir-fried, in casseroles, in soup, in omelets, even cooked in french fry shapes for eating with hamburgers.  It's hard for me to imagine getting sick of them.  I've been told that 2 zucchini plants will have you sick of them because they're so productive, so I planted 4 originally.  Now there is just one left that has survived the battle with the slugs and earwigs, but it is getting pretty large.  There are a ton of flower buds on it, so I'm hoping for some zucchini soon!  I have planted more in hopes that it's not too late in the season... but thus far nothing else is coming up.

There's definitely room for at least 2 more!

Pumpkins were my husband's garden request, and so I planted 2 or 3 Galeux d'Eysines in a mound in the only real spot left in the garden.  I also made it on the opposite side of the garden in hopes that I wouldn't end up with zucchini-pumpkin hybrids (although that would still be cool... and maybe edible) since our backyard is just brimming with hyperactive pollenators.

 Before:  waiting for pumpkin seedlings.

Once they started having flowers, I read that the first few flowers are male and the rest female, and that they will not make pumpkins unless correctly pollenated.  I panicked... there were only 2 surviving plants, and they were both on the same schedule so they wouldn't be able to pollenate each other!  I planted several more, and ended up with 5 plants that appear to be all about the same age.  Hopefully there is enough variation that pollenation will occur so that we can have lots o' pumpkins this halloween!  They are making some really gorgeous vines which seem to wilt slightly around noon but come back completely to crisp fullness.

After:  Explosion of vines, and lots of possibilities.  *crosses fingers*

Do you have any gourds in your garden, or any gourd-growing tips?

Pumkins Sprouting

A few weeks ago had I asked my husband "if you could have anything planted in the garden, what would you pick?" and pumpkins were in his top 3, and they were the only thing I hadn't planned on growing because they take so much space.  Knowing that he likes odd things as much as I do, I ordered some huge and extremely warty pumpkins.  They're a salmon-skinned french heirloom called Galeux d'Eysines, and have a sweet velvety flesh.  There was ONE more empty spot in the backyard, so this will be the last thing added to the garden.  Well, I'll say that now, but we all know I'll manage to fit more in somewhere later!

The pumpkins sprouted this weekend!  
They look so small and innocent now, but just you wait...

I've heard winter squash like to be planted 2-3 (thinned from 5-6) on mounds so they can sprawl, so I fashioned a pile from much of the leftover compost and soil from the raised beds, and used some of my husband's stones to keep the mound propped away from the porch.  The mounds are supposed to be 3 feet in diameter, but, er, this is only about 2.5 feet long and 1.5 feet wide.  We'll see how it goes!  I'm going to cover them with mason jars at night for now to protect them from the inevitable wave of ravenous slugs.  I'd love to get a few wicked-looking warty pumpkins to carve and cook with in October.  <3