Tag Archives: zucchini

Weekend Photo Montage

Whew! It was a long, busy weekend! Apologies for the lack of a photo post on Friday – I was hauling dirt around our yard all day. In lieu of that, here’s a weekend recap in photos!

An “after” photo of Friday’s hard work. Doesn’t look like much, but we pulled crabgrass, spread dirt to fill in the holes we created, and re-seeded in hopes that next spring’s yard will be lush, green, and weed-free!

The berries are starting to come out on my Snowberry bush. So pretty!

Captured some raindrops on one of the Knockout rose bushes in our front yard.

We went to a wedding on Saturday night that was hosted in an art gallery. A cool environment, with a really cool view of Cincinnati at sunset.

On the way out of the reception, Tom sat down in these funky, mod chairs. I think he looks pretty handsome, no? Like Mad Men meets James Bond?

On Sunday, my mom and I hit up the Burlington Antique Show across the river in Burlington, KY. I picked up this little table – it’s the perfect size to fit between our two accent chairs. And it was only $28!! Now I just need to decide how I want to refinish it. I think spray painting is in order (yellow? black lacquer? metallic?) and I’m debating adding a mirror trim, a la Kristin of Bliss (check out her DIY makeover here). What gets your vote??

I also picked up some new, upcycled yard art at the antique show! The dragonfly is make out of silverware handles (so clever!) and the flower is made out of glass bowls. The center is a tiny amber beer mug! Ha! Love that! You can check out the artists’ website here – Allglassflowers.com.

That about covers my weekend! We finished Sunday out by watching football (welcome back, old friend) and eating some delicious black bean and zucchini chili (recipe from Real Simple)…

Now that’s what I call a good weekend!

 

Wild Thing

After 7 weeks, it has become pretty clear that I did not give my garden enough space. While my father has always told me that plants grow better when they’re closer together, I think my makeshift square-foot method was too close.

Case in point:

It’s outta control!

The zucchini squash and cantaloupe in front have just started growing under the netting fence. Due to some recent rough winds from a storm, the tomatoes are all leaning precariously forward. The netting fence doesn’t seem to be doing much good at this point! Although maybe it’s keeping the deer and rabbits at bay? I’ve seen plenty of each in our yard, but none of the plants appear to be chewed up or missing from our garden (would I even notice at this point? If they were just nibbling here and there??)

Oh well, even it if looks a bit unruly, the veggies are growing! Tomatoes are cropping up, a few cucumbers are tucked under the leaves, and, what I’m most excited about… a cantaloupe! A baby melon on the vine!

Wahoooooo! I rationalized that if I got one edible melon out of this plant, it’ll have paid for itself, haha!

It’s Aliiiiiiiiive!

Thought I’d share another update on our veggie garden! It’s been 5 weeks since we planted our garden, and things are literally bursting at the seams!

The squash is like the vegetable version of the Incredible Hulk – see how the leaves are squished up against the netting!! But no zucchinis to eat yet.

I have a tendency to make a lot of impulse purchases from the veggie, fruit and herb section at Lowe’s. Weird, I know. I guess it could be worse. This summer’s impulse buy was 1 tiny cantaloupe in a 3-inch pot. Fast-forward 5 weeks and it has completely consumed the left-hand side of the bed. It’s growing up the side of the netting and sending little shoots out that grasp onto anything within reach – zucchini stems, the tomato plants, etc. It’s threatening to overtake the strawberry plant behind it, but I’m keeping it in check with my handy dandy clippers! I think this means I’d better create a more solid plan before I plant next year’s veggies!

 

My 4 cucumber plants have a lot of small shoots on them, and one in particular is starting to look like an actual cucumber! Hopefully it’ll be ready to harvest soon!

I also noticed a few tomatoes hiding among the leaves…

I definitely waited a little too long to transplant my veggies – I know a lot of people have been harvesting for a few weeks now. But maybe this means we’ll be reaping in fresh produce into the fall months!

Instagram Sunday

I realized the other day that I forgot to write my Friday Instagram installment. Ooops! So, please accept an Instagram Sunday post in its place!

a bug’s eye view of our zucchini plant

the last of the hydrangea blooms

a cloudy Sunday

You can follow me on Instagram @onuwriter06

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and are looking forward to a short holiday week ahead! I’m hoping to get a mini blog project (or two!) completed, but we’ll see how that goes!

 

 

 

Vegging Out – Part II

I have finally taken the leap & planted my veggies in the ground! Eek! I know it sounds silly, but this was kind of a big deal for me, mostly because I have an uneasy feeling that every deer within a 10 mile radius is going to feast like there’s no tomorrow. And I’ll be left with a bed full of half-chewed leaves.

But anyways, let’s get to how it went down. First, I chose the area that I wanted to use, then Tom & I cleared it. I loosely referenced square-foot gardening guides, and decided to try a 3×6 area:

clearing the future garden space of leftover straw from the grass seeding

Tom used the end of a shovel to section off the area, and then we began digging up the grass. We added 4 bags of topsoil and mixed in 1 bag of manure. We bought the cheapest topsoil and manure we could find at Lowe’s (the brand is Gardener’s Pride). Once it was spread around to our satisfaction, we drew 1×1 foot lines in the soil with the edge of our shovel so I could break down plant placement within each square.

1×1 foot sections — ready for planting!

I lined up my plants, and once they were in the right spot, in the ground they went! Here’s a shot of the final product (before we draped them in netting to keep the critters out):

the finished product

I won’t insult your design-savvy eyes with the rudimentary Microsoft Word table I drew of the bed plantings. Just know that I have it for reference 🙂  Hopefully, in the next few weeks, we’ll be reaping in crops of tomatoes, green bell peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, cantaloupe and strawberries!

Have you ever tried square-foot gardening? What was your experience like?