Morning Garden Findings
I decided to dig up a few more potatoes from the pot I planted March 16, in “Rainy Day in the Garden,” Episode 4 of “Late Bloomer.”
The purple ones, though, looked like they had the measles! They were covered in little bumps. Did I leave them in too long?
And the skin just peeled off in my hand.
Last night I spotted this baby watermelon from a distance, but got my first close-up view just now. Looks like a little spot on there. I will be interested to see if that affects the developing melon.
My patch of seven baby watermelon seedlings planted on March 15 (73 days to maturity, the tag said), is only 6’x6′, so it will be interesting to see if the vines move into the open area. Something tells me they will go where they darn well please. Just like nasturtiums, which self-seeded in my watermelon patch. I have pulled out several bunches, but it’s nice to have a little color.
Next, I noticed my yellow zucchini plant is not looking so well.
I had cut over half the leaves back this week, which my occasional helper Rene told me was not a good idea. But, they were covered in powdery mildew and choking off the cherry tomato plant I unfortunately planted right beside it (before I knew that zucchini take over), so I felt I had no choice. The bean plant I had squeezed in a corner is not looking so well either. Anyone know what this means?
This is almost funny, because I was JUST reading about sunflower care yesterday, and made a mental note as my first round of sunflowers are about done. It said when you see most of the yellow leaves falling off, act quickly to put the head in a paper bag and either let it dry on the stem, or cut it, as the seeds will be all over the ground. Am I supposed to pick all these up?
It wasn’t like this last night, so I assume some birds “went to town” on them before I got up. I don’t think we had any wind last night, but a couple of branches were also broken. Hmmm. There were ten heads that looked like this.
The best thing about gardening is the mystery of the cycle of life and watching things grow. The worst thing is not knowing what to do about the problems. But, I have found myself in a wonderful, giving community and I’m so happy I finally arrived! Thanks for reading! – Kaye
Category: Flowers, Vegetables
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Hi Kaye – I don’t know beans about ‘real’ sunflowers – never had any luck w/ them BUT I do know about the native sunflower that once you grow ’em you can spot them all along the freeways…they’re really JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES!!! and the way you grow them in your own garden is this: get a bag of organic JA’s (whole foods is a source), cut them in pieces (or not) and stick them in a corner of the garden where you aren’t going to put anything else – eventually you will have plants up to 8-10 ft tall w/ many branches and yellow flowers approx 4-5 inches…meanwhile the plant is busy making more tubers underground as those you planted will have disintegrated giving food to the flowering stalk….enjoy the greenery/flower display and let them go full cycle to dry…at that point, if you dig in the ground, you will find a crop of JA’s…harvest some for eating and leave some in the ground…next year they’ll start the cycle all over again …note: they spread underground and even the smallest tuber will create a plant! – cheers – Edythe
HI! about your zucchini plant – usually when the developing zucchini turns yellow and shrivels and decays it may mean that it was not successfully pollinated. In this case you may need to manually do it yourself. I have an issue with powdery mildew as well and a spray of 1/10 milk and water a couple of times has been keeping it in check for me although I have considered running out and grabbing some eco-fungicide… But since the plant seems to be holding out ok I’ve held off on this decision so far.
Hope this helps!
Melissa
I mean to say a couple times a day with the spray
Melissa, thanks for writing! I read on a blog somewhere about spraying milk and tried it a few times. I wasn’t too regular about it and then I dropped it. Meanwhile, I recently learned that powdery mildew only lives on top of the leaves, and mine were white spots starting on the bottom, and moving to the top when the leaf was overtaken with it. The yellow zucchini plant was such a problem, and I was cutting many of the really disgusting leaves off, that it stopped producing, so I recently yanked it out. This you will see in my zucchini episode of “Late Bloomer” in about a month! Thanks for writing. If I get what I really think is powdery mildew, I will definitely be trying the milk again. – Kaye