Zucchini seedlings, nearing the end of another whole day outdoors, mostly sunshine, but it’s clouded over now (looks and feels like rain!) They’ve been outside enough that they’re used to the sun, and they’re big enough to go into the ground. For some unexplored reason, I think about veggie colors whenever the light is flat and grey. Leaf greens are dulled, lose their vibrancy, while bright colors like the oranges of carrots and radish reds become intense, almost luminescent. Transplant leaves are paler green, after an infancy spent mainly under the grow lights. After they’re set out to fend for themselves, it’s fun to watch for them to turn a whole range of deep, rich greens, a sure sign that they’ve settled in to the great outdoors—maybe like returning an animal to the wild, and seeing it later on, alive and kicking!
Veggies
Sweet tooth
A baby cantaloupe, nestled in a tangle of vines under a canopy of leaves. Mmmm, will be…delicious. It’s well on its way to fully-matured, ready-to-eat goodness, a few weeks to go, but anything can happen. Last year, a freak localized hailstorm hit my tiny melon patch, marble-sized hail shredding the leaves and fatally damaging just about every fruit, while missing where I was at the time, just a mile down the road. Especially with our crazy erratic weather, you can’t 100% count on it until your teeth are sunk in, juice dribbling down your chin.
Winter squash spreading
Even with little sun, the winter squash won’t be kept down. What it likes to do is spread far and wide: huge leaves and vigorous vines snaking out all over the place. The big sprawl is just kicking in, flowering is underway, and tiny green baby (butternut) squash can already be found tucked away in there.
Season of the snail
This year, small snails everywhere! My best effort at identifying them (posting pics to the iNaturalist app on my phone) suggests they’re in the amber snail family (Succineidae). Wherever the ground is sheltered and moist, like under rocks or piles of uprooted weeds, and on some veggie leaves and stems, you’ll find a bunch. Here, they’re on the garlic. Voracious leaf munching doesn’t seem to be what they’re up to, so that’s good (and I read that they aren’t likely to be a veggie problem). For better or for worse, no damage, no problem is my motto, and that usually works out!
Melons!
You will be cantaloupe! A ways to go and just getting started. You might not think it, but there’s nothing like slicing into a sun-warmed melon in the middle of the field on a scorching hot day. That’s the thought at the moment!
Zucchini…
Always reliable, and still a pleasure, with a sense of wonder and a little relief, to see the first zucchini of the year appear. Weird? Maybe. You’d think after growing veggies season after season, at some point, one would get used to it all. For me, at least, that hasn’t been the case! For whatever reason: cool!
Wheel hoe vs weeds
A tool in its element! Wheel hoes are great, and this particular one* is fantastic. Unchecked, you can see what weeds get up to given a week or two. This stretch of dirt was protected under the edge of the row cover that’s been protecting the zucchini to the right from cucumber beetles. Now there’s a dense mat of dandelion (weed or excellent salad green?: right now, weed), thistle, mallow, and lambs quarter. And there’s the steel blade that will run through them, gliding just under the soil, slicing them down. Brutal sounding, and all part of the garden balance. (The zucchini have powdery mildew, those white splotches on the leaves, which usually happens when there’s not that much sun. It can get really bad and ruin things, but usually, zucchini will outgrow it. It’s about sunny days…the weather. Another “we shall see…”)
*I got this wheel hoe well over a decade ago from Valley Oak Tool Company, one of the few companies that are a pleasure to recommend, purely out of appreciation for quality product that does its job!