Summer has finally hit in Seattle and I'm so happy! Yes gardening is a big distraction to art making, but hey how many days of sun do we get in Seattle?! This is about 2 1/2 weeks of growth in the raised beds. It's amazing what sun and heat can do for plants.
Zucchini blossoms:
I had really bad luck with my zucchinis last year. The leaves kept getting mildewy and the baby zuchs just shriveled up and dropped off. I found out that mildew is a huge problem, especially if you plant where the air is stagnant. I had planted them in a back corner of the raised bed last year. This year I decided to give them the primo-front and center location. There's a nice draft, a lot more sun and enough room for them to grow. I also read that spraying milk on your plants will help keep mildew at bay. I haven't tried it yet.
As an added benefit the zucchinis also live next to a huge clump of oregano, which attract a lot of pollinators. It turns out my baby zuchs were dropping last year because they weren't fertilized. It's called "fruit abortion"... brings about all sorts of horrible visuals. But when the seeds aren't fertilized the plant decides it doesn't need to bring the fruit to full maturity. Why waste the energy right? The bees are definitely doing their job this year!
This was my first zucchini harvest this year! I got 5 this week from 2 plants.
Did you try eating the zucchini plants I read you can deepfry them. It's suppose to be delicious!
ReplyDeleteI've never tried, but I have seen the deep fried flowers before. I must save some of the male blossoms!
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