Zucchini, Butternut, and Buttercup squash

Here is the first zucchini from the new plant that is replacing the one I had to destroy earlier in the summer.  I like to pick them small, around 4-6 inches.  I only use them for frying.  

 The zucchini plant is about half the size the first one was but it has just begun producing so it should be able to grow much larger, weather permitting.

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Yesterday I cut some butternut and buttercup squash from the vines.  The two butternuts  were on a dead vine and are not quite ripe but I think they will be ok to eat in a few months.  There are 3 or 4 more butternuts still ripening, maybe more, I have forgotten how many are out there now.  The vines keep growing despite my best efforts to prevent it lol.  I have stopped trying and they are overrunning everything around them :)  This is ok though, they aren't hurting anything, only making it a bit tricky to pick tomatoes and beans near them.

Two of the buttercups have been on the vine a lot longer than the rest of them and they feel much lighter than they should be, are they sun dried?  lol, we will see :)

second crop and intercropping

8/3/2011

The last couple of days I have spent ripping out the spent bush bean plants to make way for a late crop of spinach, beets, and hopefully collards, the time left for them to grow is short but if heavy frost holds off long enough there will be time for me to enjoy fresh greens, yummmmm

The bean and potato plants were mowed and caught in the bag then placed in the composter :)

I have also harvested about 2/3 of my potato crop for early ones.  I got about 8 pounds of them, many still very small, bite size.

As you can see in the foreground of the above image, the yard and part of the garden has been overrun with crab grass.  The real grass isn't growing, it has been too hot and dry so it's dormant.  The last couple of days we have had a little bit of rain but not enough.

Pole beans are about finished

Have not had any ripe cherry tomatoes and I have picked only a few partially ripe rutgers to ripen on the kitchen counter.  There are loads of nice green ones of all types out there though.  I planted 5 different types of tomatoes.

The foreign beans are doing very well, they have full pods and I have been picking and shelling the most mature/dry pods.  The image shows Bantu beans from Uganda.  They are in several colors, pink which turns purple when they dry, gray, and tan.  Next year I will be able to sample these beans, but for this year's crop, I am saving them for seed.  I started out with 15 seeds this spring.   This year's crop should plant 20-30 feet next year.  That's still not a lot for soup beans but it should give me a few small pots of beans :)

The Italian Fagiolina beans are very small.  They won't make much when they are all shelled.  I'm not sure I want to bother with them next year, my space is limited and they don't produce enough for what space they use.   But I will wait till next year to make that decision.  If I can, I would like to keep them as part of the garden.