August in the Garden

Our internet is finally back after going out the night of the thunderstorm. Since that time, the zucchinis have gotten out of control, lots of eggplants have emerged, and two varieties of tomatoes have started to ripen.

I'd read zucchini plants were prolific before we started the garden, but I guess I hadn't really grasped just how prolific because I kept 7 of the 11 plants we originally had. Our counter is covered in zucchini, and our freezer full of shredded zucchini. Now I've pulled almost everything, leaving just 2 of the smaller plants. I think that next year I'll start with 4 plants and eventually pull 2. I also want to try varieties other than the traditional green zucchini.
For the last few weeks, though, the garden has been suffering through more than just a glut of zucchinis. Beginning with a melon plant, powdery mildew began to affect the curcubita plants, and I had to pull 1 pumpkin, 1 zucchini plant and 2 melon plants. I wanted to keep them, but neither organic treatments nor fungicides helped, so I had to remove them to stop the fungus' spread. The spread of fungus is something that I will definitely keep in mind when designing the garden next year. I also need to do more research into disease-resistant pumpkin seeds, because I really want a successful pumpkin harvest.

Fruits of the Garden

Purple Peppers

Zucchini that got out of control!

Pickling cucumbers

Potatoes

Pumpkin

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins

They're taking over. I've got 3 small sugar pumpkin plants, and they're vining all over the place.

I'm not complaining though, because along with all those vines are lots of little baby pumpkins.

This is the first pumpkin that I found early last week. Unfortunately, it didn't get pollinated so it's dying.

Rain in Vancouver

It's been raining in Vancouver for the last three days. And by raining, I mean raining. It feels like November out there. But the garden is loving it. The zucchinis and tomatoes are more out of control than ever, but it's the pumpkins that really have me excited. I was inspecting all the plants this morning, and I found a little baby pumpkin!

I'd been kind of apprehensive about whether the pumpkins would grow any fruit, as I'd read a blog by a woman who grows about 10 plants every year and is lucky to get 5 or 6 pumpkins. But there it was, my first pumpkin, and there are lots of other flowers forming. So fingers crossed, because I have lots of carving, baking and canning plans for this October.