within two days, i made two harvests. in total, i harvested 3/4 of a handful of sugar snap peas (the last bunch from the plants i planted during the summer), 3/4 of a handful of sweet 100 tomatoes, 14 zucchini, 7 cucumbers, and 15 jalapenos. Most of this produce will be/have been given away since my husband and i can't get to it all. just one cucumber lasts us for a whole week!

while cutting down the sugar snap pea plants, i also went ahead and trimmed the zucchini forest as well. too much leaves means not enough air circulation around the plants, which can lead to plant diseases and mildew problems.

oh, do you remember that i started planting some cold-weather crop plants? (only because i read that they can also take some heat). well i have seen some sprouts! all of them are actually sprouting! i will have to take some pictures of them this weekend.

here is the first harvest, on thursday.


here is the second harvest today.

zucchini - observations

when planting, leave about 3 - 4 feet between plants within a row. they become very hugh and wide. about 3 plants is enough to give you a lot of fruit.

the fruits are very sensitive and can easily be scratched, even by the small spikes on its own leaves. be very careful when removing.

growth is dramatic when the weather is very sunny.

the fruit normally shows whether it has been pollinated or not just after the blossom dies. once blossom curls and the fruit was pollinated, you can probably pick it off the plant.

August 2008:


these plants really do produce a LOT and grow HUGE. big mistake was trying to plant four of these zucchinis in a very small area. i should've only planted one row of squash (instead of 2) back there. it is growing SO close to each other that some are growing ON TOP of the other. this is causing some mildew problems due to bad air circulation and high humidity.

i have been pruning back the leaves/stems that show this mildew every weekend, but this weekend i may actually kill some of these plants. all four have produced over 100 zucchini for me this year and i think its passing its peak health period. although the mildew is not much of a problem (it is more of an aesthetic problem really - the veggies are not hurt) it does eventually kill the plant. so before it spreads to the new veggie plants i planted near it, i think i will just kill it.

it was a great plant though!

my harvest on saturday morning...we had a summer bbq party yesterday (saturday) so i didn't touch the zucchini plants since this past wednesday..(we wanted to use some zucchini for some veggie side dishes) and this is what i found -- 7 zucchinis (some of which are enormous)! i also included the 2 onions that i previously harvested this week.


for the party, i also put together some small "bouquets" of the flowers growing in the garden.

the harvest today: 3 zucchinis and 7 sugar snap peas. since i had the zucchini i harvested yesterday, i ate half of that one, most of the sugar snap peas and i picked 2 strawberries and some nasturtium leaves and made myself a salad. today was SOOOOO hot - 100 degrees - so the only thing i could get myself to eat was a salad.


the next few pictures are just "artsy" images i took of the vegetables...im just proud of growing my own vegetables. :-)

on wednesday, i had a rather big lunch, so i put together this salad for my dinner. the only thing NOT from my garden is the shredded cabbage. There's raw zucchini sticks, sliced strawberries, nasturtium flower petals and minced nasturtium leaves. next time i will use bigger pieces of the nasturtium leaves (since i hardly tasted them) and less salad dressing.


i harvested this yesterday when i got home. another light green zucchini and my first 2 sugar snap peas! unfortunately, i didn't get to try them...the honor was given to two of my foster birds - bentley and parry. it must've been good because after giving parry the pea, i rushed for the camera, came back, and she just finished eating it (well, she actually only ate the peas in the pod). bentley did take some time eating his so i got to document that (its in his blog). he actually ate the whole thing - peas and the pod.

today i harvested the first light green zucchini! its between 5 - 6 inches in length and about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. i am told that if i leave these zucchini on the plant, they can grow rather HUGH, but i would like to eat them (in what kind of recipe, i don't know yet) so i pick them around 6 inches in length. the last zucchini i picked (the dark green one, and it was yesterday), i battered it with egg/teriyaki sauce mixture and a flour/seasoning mixture (garlic, paprika, chili powder, italian seasonings). it was rather good! i served it on a plate of shredded cabbage. not sure yet how im going to cook this one up.


i took a picture of these because i have NO idea what kind of plant they are, and its growing like a weed. i didn't plant it, but the foliage it quite interesting...im talking about the leaves that are "scalloped" (is that the right terminology?), or its cut into fingerlike protrusions at the edges. there is also that unknown plant i photographed this weekend with the small orange flowers that has a low, spreading tendancy. (i still dont know what that is). so if anyone knows what either one is, i would love to know!