My garden is still alive!! And, as you can see from the picture above, it is still overflowing! The darn Buttercup Squash is overtaking my garden!! I actually did research on Buttercup Squash just this past week (I probably should have done it before planting, but oh well) and I guess their vines can go up to 8 ft long? I was excited to read that people find Buttercup Squash to be sweet and also that it can keep for months and months because I’m seeing TONS of girl flowers with little mini squash. When I took this picture it was already mid afternoon so most of the squash flowers had closed but in the morning my garden is so pretty with the bright yellow zucchini flowers and buttercup flowers. Also – I’ve worried about bees in the past but today when I went out bees were almost every where. In fact, I got a bit skeeved out for a little while.. I had three buttercup squash girl flowers on one vine that had opened and one of the flowers had 3 bees in it! So, I decided to let nature take its course today and not worry about attempting to pollinate those flowers. 🙂
Above is a baby Buttercup Squash. This is the largest one thus far. I’m hoping that it continues growing unlike my cucumber, cantaloupe and zucchini plants. 🙁 Do you remember the cucumber picture I posted last week? Well, it still looks like that. That was the first and only sign of a cucumber my plants have produced thus far. And my zucchini and yellow squash plants? The “fruit” that they have produced stopped growing after just one or two days. Very disappointing. **Many of you commented on stuffing the flowers and cooking them.. Can you give me more information on how to do that? I would like to try that this weekend!
Above is one of the zucchini plants. Do you see all of the really thin stalks? (Is that what they are called?) This plant really is struggling and I think I’m going to pull it to give my other plants more room. Speaking of – is there any tricks for removing this plant? Do I just pull it out or do I need to be more careful? Would love some help on this.
Above is the first sign of a ripening tomato! 🙂 This is from the potted tomato plant (still potted) that I’ve had for over two months now. I also have three tomato plants in my raised garden bed and I’m so excited because one of the plants has baby tomatoes all over it! One of you were super funny posting a comment a few weeks back telling me that it is bad luck to count the tomatoes on a tomato plant. So, I’ve tried my hardest to refrain from doing that! 🙂 Especially since I know I would mourn the loss of each and every single tomato. I have to say that from an estimate, there are at least 20 tomatoes!! And, one of my two Roma tomato plants just started giving me marble sized tomatoes so I’m super excited about that since Roma tomatoes happen to be my favorite!
My pepper plants are doing absolutely amazing. Above are two of the skinny Cayenne peppers growing. I have four of these plants and three of the four are producing skinny peppers like the ones pictured above.
How cute is this baby Green Bell Pepper!! I think there are only 4 peppers started thus far even though I think have about 8 plants which are flowering. I am SO excited to think about harvesting these peppers! I cook with peppers as often as I can so I could think of tons of uses for these!
My red chili plant is doing really well too. Question though – I am assuming I wait for these peppers to turn red before picking? Can someone confirm that?
Lastly – above is a picture of my Yellow Banana Pepper Plant. This has tons of peppers and I may pick one of them tonight to try it out. This plant is lots of peppers even though it is literally growing on a 45 degree angle (not from the weight – I think I may have transplanted it poorly).
Oh – and my jalapeno plant is still thriving! I have 7 jalapenos on my counter that I need to use and the plant has at least 20 baby peppers growing. Every meal I cook my husband is commenting on how it is super spicy. (I do better with heat than he does ;)) I made homemade pizza (using Publix pizza dough – does that make it not homemade ;)) Friday night and my hubby looked at me and said that he shouldn’t be sweating just from eating. Ha. I know I should be removing the seeds but I feel like that is wasteful! Every little seed counts especially when I’m just happy to be picking fresh produce!
Questions for you:
I actually only have the few questions and I asked all of them above. But I would love to hear how your gardens are doing! What veggies do you have planted? What veggies have you been able to harvest! Please tell – I would love to live vicariously through all of you! 🙂
Thanks for coming to Addicted to Saving! Here’s a little bit about me so you can know who’s behind all these posts!
My name is Liza and I began my money-saving journey in the Spring of 2009 as a way to stretch a limited household income. I had lost my job and my hubby was self-employed. I launched Addicted to Saving in November of 2009 and it has grown by leaps and bounds. Since then, my hubby and I have struggled with the ups and downs of two failed adoptions and are now LOVING being parents to our little man Asher who we brought home from Ethiopia in August of 2013. I feel incredibly blessed to be able to help you save money. My goal is that you will have FUN and become empowered to save more and more money each week..
Your garden looks great! For some reason my tomato blossoms keep falling off, but they keep growing and blossoming so I’m hoping for the best! So far the cucumber plants look good but no blooms yet.
I don’t have a recipe for stuffed zucchini blossoms, but they are amazing fried! I know it sounds weird but we tried them last year and they’re great. Just do a quick dip in an egg wash, roll them in finely crushed cracker and deep fry ’til golden brown.
One reason you could be losing your tomato flowers is not enough water. When you have a lot of flowers they will drink a lot of water. My earthbox has 2 tomatoes and it drinks close to 3 gallons a day. I hope this helps
I just planed my veggies last week. I have green and red sweet peppers, japaleno’s, squash, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, strawberries, potatoes and 2 kinds of tomatoes. This is my first summer planting veggies.
The rest of my gardens are all flowers.
Here’s some pictures
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150109267757583.276956.527687582&l=578837ad73
I only planted tomatoes this year. I have regular size, roma and grape. they are all doing great! I live just a little north of you and planted them a week or two before you did. I planted mine in 5 gallon buckets. So far I have picked 4 big tomatoes and a hand full of grape size, the romas are doing well but none have turned red yet. I think I planted them a week after the others.
I have never heard of anyone pollinating the plants before!
you can use plastic pipe pvc make sure you get sch 40 it’s heavier and you and make an easy support 8 feet high if you want to grow your wines don’t sweat it . also old panthose or stocking cut in strips make great things to tye up the vine without breaking them .b4n kathy
Looks beautiful!
You should be proud!
looks awesome! i was wondering where you got your.. walls (for lack of wording!)for the garden? i love them!:)
Hi Jen! The walls 🙂 were given to me by friends of ours.. The pieces are actually parts to white outdoor fencing.. Our friends cut the pieces down and added corner pieces. I know you can buy wood sets at Lowes and Home Depot though..
I’m surprised you’re doing so well here in the Bay area. I’ve had terrible luck with gardens in our heat. I tried jalapeno and bell peppers in pots last year. Got zero bells and a couple dozen not-very-big jalapenos. Once the nighttime temps got over a certain number, the flowers mostly stopped setting fruit and dropped off.
Clapping hands for you girl! I am truly jealous, your garden looks WAY better than mine. Even though I got my food and dosed my cukes with nitrogen, I think it may have been just too late. I am checking into how long I can plant them here. I hope I can seed some inside in 24 hour light and plant more because they are just NOT gonna make it. Red chili’s will turn red but if they start getting too big, pick them, set them in a sunny window sill and they will ripen, tomatoes are the same way. If they start getting too heavy pick them.. OH.. and try fried green tomatoes if you haven’t..YUMMY! Congrats!! So glad you decided to do this.. are you a life ling gardener now????
I planted corn, yellow squash, cucumbers and tomatoes. my corn plants have grown very well, shot right up. the others seem to be doing well, but no sign of any veggies yet. I water daily, but the leaves on some are very yellow…. too much water? not enough water? thoughts? Next year I definitely need to plant earlier in the year. I waited until around Mother’s day to plant this year.
First of all, thank you very much for all your posts and coupons!
My family lives in Wesley Chapel area, and we usually plant tomatoes, cucumbers (need a lot of water otherwise they will have pear shapes), different herbs, onion, sweet peppers, letuce and most of the times have a lot of veggies at the end of season. We also have oranges, lemons, some weird citrus fruits (we don’t know the name of it :)), apples, blueberries, rasberry.
Here in Florida you deffenetly need a lot of water. We recycle water – we use rain water :))
You have a nice garden!
Good luck!!
Nice peppers!
Hi,
Nice garden and very pretty tomatoes and squash. I wonder how to water your tomato plants in bay area. I am in Bay area but for some reasons my tomato plants never produce tomatoes, the plant dies or the leaves get lots of holes in them and eventually wilt and dry out. Can you share tips on how to water them and how to long to place them in sunlight or indirect sunlight. Every year I try to grow veggies but none of my plants do well, it has something to do with me not watering it right or using the right soil or fertilizers.
This year I have started tomato and cucumber from seeds. They just got their first pair of leaves. Not sure if I should move them into soil or let them stay in the container/pots. Please provide some tips for me.
Hi Sherri! You have great questions and by no means am I an expert – this is literally my first attempt at gardening! 🙂 But, for me, I water my tomato plants (all of my veggie plants in fact) every morning sometime between 7 am and 8:30 am. My plants are in direct sunlight for over 8 hours a day. So far they are doing okay with the sunlight although my potted tomato plant is starting to show a few signs of too much sun…
Addicted to Saving readers – can you guys help Sherri out with your tips on how to water, how much sunlight, and planting her seedlings?