I'll admit this latest garden setback has me wondering just how green my thumb really is. As we enter August, I have yet to see a zucchini from my plants.
I heard talk of what big producers zucchini can be, so I searched and stocked up on a variety of delicious sounding zucchini using recipes. And still I wait. I see them in the stores, overflowing off the shelves. So I check my plants and see the flowers but no zucchinis yet. I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (a most wonderful book by the way) and she writes about people in her small town locking their doors so others don't fill their kitchens with zucchini, or about coming back to her car after shopping and finding a bag of zucchini hanging from the mirror. And I think how lucky she is.I did find this today.
A tiny, little cucumber. I have big plans for this cucumber (which would be my first of the year).
A tiny, little cucumber. I have big plans for this cucumber (which would be my first of the year).You may notice in the first picture that a strawberry plant in growing into the alloted zucchini space. They seem to think the garden belongs to them, and I wonder if this is part of the problem for the zucchini. I had thought they were a tougher breed of plant then this, and would never let themselves be pushed out of the garden by measly strawberry plants. So next year, I will have to decide - remove some strawberry plants or find another spot for my zucchini. Next year I will need more zucchini recipes for the abundant crop I shall have. Next year...
6 comments:
I look forward to an update on the zucchini, say about September 7. I think it will be a different story, "Zucchini free to good home".
Momma
I don't think the strawberries are the problem. I grow squash in my strawberry bed all the time and it works really well because the strawberries are done when the squash take off. I wonder if your problem is pollination?
Hmm, that could be it Andrea. The zucchini is at the back of the garden so maybe the insects are sticking to the front and middle of the garden. I wonder if I could pollinate them myself. Hmm...
Bear with your plant. My summer squash are late this year, and have just started producing. You can only keep the amount of strawberries your garden permits, I have had to compost quite a few of the runners this year. x
A late crop is what I'm hoping is all it is!
I have been trying to give away strawberry plants and plan to move some - I just can't bring myself to compost them. My husband is offering to make me zucchini beds for next years planting. I may have to take him up on it!
Just back from vacation, but I wonder if your problem isn't that you have too many male flowers and no female flowers. I had that happen to me one year when I planted squash - I had all male flowers. Martha Stewart (I think) said "pinch off the male flowers and it will stimulate the plant to produce female flowers" or something to that effect. So I did. And I got some female flower action at long last. I'd google this for more technical assistance, though, because I've never grown zucchini.
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