Hi, friends! As per usual I’m trying not to think about work this week, so instead I’m going to ramble about my garden.
While we’ve had so much rain my sump pump has created a water feature in the back yard, it’s going really well. My tomatoes split a little from a massive downpour when I was out of town and depending on my parents for watering, but they aren’t inedible.
I’ve gotten 8 tomatoes so far, and there are a fuckton of them coming in. Turns out that being in 9 hours of sunlight a day vs 6 really does make a huge impact. There are a ridiculous amount of cherry tomatoes coming in and the slicers are coming in heavy, too. I didn’t plant any beefsteak varieties because I don’t have that kind of patience.
In other exciting news! I rigged up a trellis with some posts and chicken wire and zipties (because I’m fucking classy like that) and I have a 15 gal fabric planter plopped next to it with cucumbers and spaghetti squash vines. A neighbor had extra squash starters they were giving away, so I grabbed one. I didn’t think it was going to make it, but it’s a scrapper and starting to do well. The cucumber is doing great, I have 2 lil cucumbers coming in! I was getting disappointed at first because I was seeing tons of flowers but no fruiting, but then I remembered how zucchini throw off male flowers at first to attract pollinators before eventually having female flowers. Anybody know how long cucumbers take to be ready to pick? The lil cukes are about the length of my pinky finger and the width of a pencil today.
So anyways, I’ve never grown cucumbers or spaghetti squash before because I didn’t have the space. This is very exciting for me!
In non-edible news, the rain garden area is really doing it’s job thanks to this weather. The Queen of the Prairie and Blazing Stars have started blooming, and there are tons of buds on the coneflowers.
How’s your weekend winding down? Trying to not think about work this week or just resigned to it?
As far as when the cucs are ready to harvest, it really depends on the variety. Some are ready to harvest when they’re a couple inches long. Others are ready when they’re 8 or 10 inches long, and everywhere in between. If you happen to know the name of your particular cuc variety, I would recommend doing a search and getting the scoop. If you don’t know the name, then I would let one of them grow to about 4 or 5 inches and then harvest it and take a bite to see how it tastes. If it is a seeded variety, you still want the seeds to be soft enough to bite through easily. If it is a seedless variety, then you want to make sure you don’t see any seeds (seedless doesn’t mean what you think it means).
We had a great day today. Went to visit my youngest step-daughter and her husband at their new place (renting, but it’s a very nice duplex with a river in the back and lots of running room for the dog). Had a great lunch and good conversation. She was always the problem child growing up (not necessarily getting into trouble–just being a massive pain in the ass and blaming everyone else for her problems), and within the past couple of years it seems she has finally acquired some peace of mind. It’s great to see. Certainly the relationship that we both have with her has improved quite a lot over that period, for which we are both very thankful.
That’s awesome! I’m so glad your day went so well.
I dunno the variety of cucumber. It’s a slicing cucumber and I think a burpless variety. But it’s also thunderstorming so I’m not willing to scurry outside to read the tag in the planter.
Almost 6pm & 95 outside, tomorrow supposed to be 102. Some of my hot peppers grew a few inches in 2 days of record heat so glad something is enjoying this awful heat! Restaurants & stores are closing because of heat. Crazy that’s all it takes for things to go to hell around here.
That and snow.
Those hot peppers are going to be tasty too. Grew some jalapeños where I did a batch early summer then another batch late summer, and the taste difference is real.