New Stuff, Lotsa Stuff

My new strategy with my garden is to cram it full of plants. I think I started a little too conservatively, so I've now planted seeds in every free bit of space. This includes corn, pumpkins, other kinds of squash, new tomato plants, purple pole beans- you name it!

I have another theory in play as well, and I guess it will all depend on how this latest bunch of seedlings thrives. The theory I'm nursing is that I may need to double the depth of the soil in my raised beds. A friend of mine who has an amazing garden pointed out that I'll never get broccoli to grow unless it has a foot of soil beneath it. Huh. But then another resource said that tomato plants will grow as far down into the soil as they grow up.... and with 6 foot tall tomato plants I'm sure that can't be the case! Anyway, once it gets too cold here (come December or January) I'll add another layer of Mel's mix (that's the perfect potting soil mix) and we'll see how next year's garden fares.

Looks weird, tastes great!

How to know when it's time to get new lettuce.

Cucumber Nugget

I decided to go ahead and harvest one of the weird curly cucumbers. The cucumber was half engorged and half completely underdeveloped and spiny. I cut off the spiny part leaving a "nugget" about the size of an egg. I peeled it and ate it. Inside the seeds all looked squished together, unlike in a regular cucumber where they're spread evenly throughout the fruit. It tasted good though- just like a cucumber!

There are a couple other quasi-cucumbers available for harvest, but in the meantime I've planted a different variety of cuke. We'll see how these fare. They've already sprouted so I'm hoping for a quick growth to harvest time.

Recently I've given up on labeling all the plants in the garden. After all, even if I forget what they are while they're growing, I'll know what they turn out to be at the end. I've planted more butternut squash in a less sunny part of the garden. A different variety of watermelon. More pole beans (I should be giving them away by the bucket this time of summer, but since I'm not I've planted a bunch more). More zucchini. New yellow squash. More onions. Garlic. More everything! I want my garden to be busting open at the seams! I'll let you know if that happens.