tardy update

I didn't get a chance to post an update on our garden yesterday because I needed to run a bunch of errands early in the morning. Then Anna came home from Portland. We decided to go to Disneyland, picked up the boys from school, and didn't get home till late.

So here it is...

I've learned to appreciate bees. The plants won't produce anything if the bees don't come and pollinate them. Other bugs can do it too, but the bees are the most efficient. I even find myself being happy to see them. I do my best not to disturb them. Here are 3 on a pumpkin blossom.


This visitor was a lot less welcome. One day last week, I was looking over the progress of the garden, and there it was... a big ol' nasty garden spider. I wasn't too happy about it, but left it alone. I thought, maybe there's a good reason to have one of those around? (Like the bees)

I left it alone for a few days, but I couldn't think of a good reason to let it stay. In fact, I kept thinking of reasons it had to go. I didn't want it catching bees- I need those around. I didn't need it catching ladybugs- they eat the aphids, I need those around too. There were a couple zucchini growing under it, and if I was going to pick them, that spider needed to be gone. I hit it with a blast of bug spray (away from the veggies), and took it's web down. Glad to have it gone, but I'm on the lookout for others.

This is not the zucchini plant the spider was in. It's one of the two second round zucchini plants, and this is it's first full grown fruit. Hopefully there will be more like it very soon.

I picked these on Tuesday. The one in the center is from the picture above (It's about 10.5 in. long). The largest one is from the old plants, and the smallest of the three was under the spider.

The Lima bean plant that was started in Liam's kindergarten class has a bunch of pods on it (about 6-10). It was nice to grow it and all, but I don't think we'll put them to much use. Neither Anna nor I are big fans, and I doubt the kids would eat them. So, not quite sure what to do with them.

We have some new pumpkins growing! This one must not be from the vine I cut into last week. There are two that are all tangled up, so it's hard to tell which is which. The vine I slashed might be on the way out- at least most of the little ping-pong ball sized pumpkins are, so I'm assuming they were on that vine. The one below hasn't withered, so it must not be from that vine. It'll probably be ready by Thanksgiving.

Here's another one. It's from an early vine that never produced anything but "almosts", up until about a week ago or so. When they're ready, they grow fast. This one is easily visible from the kitchen windows. The kids like to look out at it.

I didn't take a picture of the corn, but they still look good. The tomatoes are still mostly red. Not sure what to do with those. The plant it's self, isn't looking too grand these days either.

There you have it. The latest garden news.