…in a manner of speaking.
By this I just mean that I’m, once again, going to sing the praises of “Mel’s Mix.” Remember I blogged, a couple of weeks back, about how rainy it’s been here? Well, some folk (like my mother) have been having trouble growing things like spinach and beans. Not here. Because the boxes are raised, and because Mel’s Mix will only absorb water until it’s saturated, our boxes never got soggy. We’ve had so much spinach it was all we (really, I) could do to keep up.
That said, we’ve already decided that, next year, we’ll plant half the lettuce and twice the spinach. Or, at least, that’s what I’ve decided! The lettuce is nearly impossible to keep up with, and while we’ve strong-armed our children into consuming all manner of odd veggies (garlic scapes yesterday) they remain rather resistant to the ongoing ingestion of “leaves” (as our younger son has dubbed all lettuce). And really, can YOU eat salad every.single.day? Joan: you’re not to answer this one!
In any case, the largest triumph of the past two weeks has been (drum roll, please) that we’ve harvested TWO zucchini, and there are plenty more on the way!
Victory over the nasty buggies!!!
I’d been freaking out over the number of holes the dreaded cucumber beetles were chewing in the zucchini leaves, and diligently squishing them when my dear, sweet, husband decided that the zucchini plant’s leaves were “taking up too much space,” so he went out and hacked off several stems nearly at the root.
The Damage: seriously? Can you believe it survived?
Crazy, right? But somehow the zucchini plants have soldiered on. Will the wonders never cease?
A Beautiful Zucchini Flower. Gorgeous in spite of adversity.
He also took up the remaining spinach (past its prime) and harvested some entire lettuce plants (really, they were done, too). And this:
The Happy Hacker: also harvested some dill to dry. In my front closet.
Indeed, the surviving cucumber plant (one, sadly, succumbed to the ravening beetles) has some miniature cucumbers beginning to appear. Does it strike anyone else as odd that the Cucumber Beetle has destroyed only one cucumber plant, while swarming (and destroying) a squash plant, crippling a melon plant, nearly destroying the zucchini plants, and chewing holes in oodles of spinach and bean leaves? Can they not stick to the plant for which they were named? Sheesh. Potato Beetles make more sense to me.
On one last encouraging note: I noticed several wee pea pods today! I’m filled with glee at the though of imminent pea feasts. YUM!
