Monday, September 20, 2010

You can't carve zucchini into Jack-O-lanterns

Remember earlier this summer when we planted our garden?

We weeded, we tilled the ground, we planted various kinds of seeds.........

One of my kids planted an entire row of zucchini?

I mocked said child, and teased them mercilessly about the number of zucchini that we would be blessed with, and the number of creative ways that I would be cooking said zucchini, and how sick we would be of eating zucchini and that we would probably be finding a myriad of other non food uses for all of that zucchini that would be overtaking not only the garden area but our entire back yard.........


Well guess what?


None of the zucchini plants grew.



Zero.





Zip.





Nada.



Before you start thinking that maybe one or more of the children had something to do with this, I will add that none of the seeds that we planted in this area of the garden actually grew.

The entire middle section of the garden was completely bare.

I thought that maybe there had been something wrong with the seeds, so I went out and bought some healthy pepper plants and planted them in that area, however, within a day or two, they were completely dead.

The weeds, however, seem to be thriving.

I felt really bad about this, we planted a gazillion seeds in hopes that we might get a few plants. In that plot, we planted zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, bell peppers, and jalapeno peppers, and none of them grew. I was beginning to feel like a gardening failure.

Fortunately, on either side of this barren patch of land (barren except for the stupid weeds which seem to be growing quite well, thank you) we did have some gardening success.

The cute little pea plants were growing!


Or at least they were until I sent one of the offspring out to weed the garden, then the pea plants just disappeared.

This kid felt really bad when they realized what they had done.



Wait, come to think of it, this particular child has never liked peas.



?????


There were also two cute little lettuce plants that sprouted up, or at least we thought that they were lettuce until they started getting really tall and began to resemble weeds.

On the other side of the garden, the pumpkin plants were beginning to grow. 5 cute little pumpkin plants had sprouted and seemed to be doing OK.

Fast forward to today, we now have 5 very large pumpkin plants, (one vine is over 15 feet long!) and so far it looks like we'll have a several pumpkins!

We were hoping to grow enough so that the kids could each carve one for Halloween, and so far it looks like they'll each get at least one.

I'm hoping that next year we might be able to grow something that we can actually eat.

11 comments:

Kristina P. said...

Isn't zucchini one of those things where all you have to do is say the word "zucchini", and they will sprout up all around you? I mean, not that I'm judging your skills, or anything. Yeeaaaah.

mommeeof10 said...

My gardens died due to neglect. I even managed to kill summer squash, or the mildew that seems to kill all squash like plants in my garden did.

Jen said...

I too have a mysteriously barren spot in my yard. However, I did start a garden one year where the weeds were the heartiest before I ripped them all out and had more success. May the great pumpkin smile down on you this year.

InkMom said...

I planted two tomato plants this year -- only two! And I swear I harvested over 80 tomatoes. The last couple of dozen, I just left for the bunnies. I was a little tomatoed out. Apparently, it's the new zucchini.

(I've been reading you religiously since the CBC, you know. But the commenting gods have not smiled upon me whilst reading your posts until now -- I'm usually nursing, or interrupted by a bleeding kindergartner or two. And I never did tell you how much I enjoyed talking with you when we met in real life. So now I have.)

val of the south said...

I had that same success with zucchini last year, so this year I planted nothing and got the same results! This year it didn't cost me any time or money though..win-win for me!

mCat said...

And further proof that I don't need to start dabbling in the whole gardening thing.

Although, I bet if you tried hard enough, you COULD carve zucchini.

Jessica G. said...

We didn't plant the garden this year. When my dad was visiting, he was just itching to take a crack at our weed jungle. It was kinda funny watching his twitch when I said to just ignore it.

Me said...

Let me help!! Together we can make your garden grow :-)
We might have to take a soil sample to the USU lab and have it analyzed! Oh, I have always wanted to do that!! :-)
{I know...Total Geek}

Jessica said...

Our garden did the same thing. Nothing in the middle grew. Our tomatoes did ok, but we only got 2 or 3 zucchini and yellow squash. I think maybe with the weather being so cool and wet, it did something weird to the plants?

annie valentine said...

I have a mysteriously barren spot in my life regarding gardening in general. Two years ago I planted some tomatoes, then let them rot on the vine while I paid for them at the grocery store. Because I'm a sicko like that.

I LOVED your comment today. Thanks.

Alison Wonderland said...

I can't get anything to grow from seeds. Ever.