Adventures in Gardening Part 32 ~ Goodbye Zucchini & Cucumbers

I have been so busy working on the inside of my mom’s house that I’m afraid I’ve neglected a few things on the outside ~ my garden.

And specifically my zucchini.  Just look at the size of these babies!I had to place that yardstick in the photo with them just to try and show how freakishly humungous they are ~ 20 inches!  But you still can’t really tell.  And they weigh a ton.  Heck, I could club someone to death with these things.  Not that I would mind you, but you get the point.  😉

Well these massive mutants will be the last two of the season because I decided to clear all my zucchini plants out of my garden.  I have bags and bags of shredded zucchini in the freezer for later use, and have eaten my fill of them otherwise as well.  I am very pleased with the bountiful harvest of zucchini I’ve had, but it was time to say goodbye.

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Once I got them all cleared out I was able to get a better look at some of the poor plants that had been crowded out by them for most of the growing season.

Look at this sad scraggly broccoli plant.It’s probably not going to produce anything, but it was still alive so I couldn’t bring myself to pull it out.  It wants to live!  😀

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And look at my beensie little carrots.  The poor dears never got enough sun to fully develop properly.~

My poor celery will be so relieved to be out from under the shade of those giant zucchini leaves.  I hope they perk up a bit now.~

Also, with the zucchini out of the way it’s nice to be able to see (and smell) my rosemary again.  Mmm…~

Even despite the zucchini crowding it, my jalapeno plant is still growing happily and producing its spicy little gems.I found a few new recipes online and made some jalapeno cheddar parmesan cornbread muffins and a different sort of jalapeno poppers.  Both were quite tasty.  🙂

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My bell pepper plant that was nearly destroyed by a storm a while back, still has one stalk that refuses to give up.  There is a nice big pepper on it that I’m anxiously waiting to have turn yellow.And new little ones are forming on it as well.I sure hope no more storms come along.

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I’m excited to see that my onions are poking up out of the soil and are almost ready to harvest.~

And my champ of a strawberry plant still has tasty little berries consistently coming, but it’s producing much smaller fruits now.~

I also have small bunches of tiny tomatoes growing, but I don’t think they’ll amount to much.  I just do not know what is the deal with them, they have not met my expectations at all.  😦~

Of course it doesn’t help that the naughty thieving squirrel is still raiding my produce at will and leaving his half eaten evidence behind.

And just look what the absent minded little beast is doing to my mom’s lawn looking for his nuts.  There are tons of holes like this all over her yard…

Here’s one of your stupid nuts you idiot!Found this in one of my pots and I’m stealing it as payback to him for stealing all my stuff all summer.  Starve this winter you horrible little creature!  Muwhahaha!  😉

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I also pulled out all of my cucumber vines.  They were looking mighty haggered and weren’t producing any new cukes, so I harvested the last of whatever cucumbers were still on the vines and said farewell to them as well.

My garden box looks sort of bare now…Especially compared to before, but it feels really good to have it all cleaned out, and I did enjoy a wonderful bounty of cucumbers and zucchinis while they lasted.  🙂

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The various blooming things around my garden are at a bit of a quiet stage at the moment, even my begonias have lightened to a softer shade of pink.~

But there are a few things blooming outside at my apartment that other tenants planted earlier in the spring that are looking lovely, so I snapped a few photos of them this morning.

Blue morning glories against a glorious blue morning sky.  Ahh sooo pretty!

And a creamy white Zinnia nestled in among some pretty pink Snapdragons.

Oh I do so love blooming things!  ♥

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It was really nice to spend time outside in my garden today.  Even though it was quite a bit of work, it was relaxing work ~ unlike the remodeling project going on inside.  😉

~Gardening is my therapy~