squash problems

Garden update. Again. Apparently this is a gardening blog now, who knew?

So, I’m confused. I believe that I have both pattypan squash plants and butternut squash plants in my garden (yeah, I think that’s right but at this point no one can be sure).

If you don’t know, pattypans look like this:

And butternuts look like this:

And my squash looks like this:

Could they be interbreeding? Is that possible? Or could my pattypans just be weird shaped? So, they’re white like a pattypan, kind of spikey like a pattypan, and taste like a pattypan, but they’re shaped like a butternut and grew off of what I thought was a butternut plant…. Interesting….

In other news, mini red bell peppers!!

garden update

I didn’t realize how big the butternut and pattypan squash plants were going to get. They’re pretty much invading the squash corner of the garden. But I have to say, I am impressed with myself. I started these from seeds – last year everything I started from seed was either destroyed by bugs or looked sad and sickly all summer. This year almost all the squash and cucumber plants I started from seed are still alive, and they all look surprisingly healthy. They even have flowers. I don’t understand it, but I’m not complaining.

Also, Turnips! I grew a turnip!

Also from seed. And a carrot. I have a lot more still in the garden, we decided these weren’t quite big enough yet so we would leave the rest in for awhile longer.

Mini red pepper plants (not from seed. I’m not that awesome).

Bush beans, pole beans, wax beans, purple string beans, and peas!

Peas! I was pretty excited about these.

Green peppers!

What’s on MY windowsill?

Rapini broccoli. Since yesterday it has turned into a sad leggy mess. I think it’s because it’s been cloudy for the past week and they’re only getting light from my bootleg artificial set up. So, we’ll see how they survive.

Various herb and veggies I started only last night! So basically just dirt. There’s patty pan (which I’m very excited about) and butternut squash in here, as well as some various beans. Yes, I start my beans inside. I’ve been told that’s weird. But you know what, I’ll get beans before anybody else, so there! Also some poppies, basil, and dill. And a luffa plant.

Did you know that luffas come from a plant? Really, they do! And I found some seeds at Target!

And this violet that really really loves it here. It’s pretty much always in bloom. It’s a happy plant.

Also, here’s some knitting, it will turn into Slinky Ribs (I hope)

And YES I’m knitting it in the yarn recommended by the pattern. This is the first time I’ve ever done that. And it’s really nice yarn. And I want it to fit exactly like it does in the photo (the second photo, just to be unnecessarily clear), so I’m actually following the directions to the letter – that’s a first.

This is also why I don’t post photos of knitting – see, this is boring! It looks like a blob! A blob that wouldn’t even fit me – but the ribbing stretches (as ribbing does….)

What? Broccoli?

These are my rapini broccoli seeds. Look! Spring! No, not really, in fact I need to keep them in my room because everywhere in our house where it would be normal to start seeds is still way too cold. But still, growing things.

Last year my mom and I started a vegetable garden for the first time. We had a broccoli disaster. I started 40 broccoli and cauliflower seeds (total, I did not have 80 plants). First of all, apparently broccoli seedlings (and cauliflower) get really leggy if they don’t get enough sunlight (fyi, no where in our house has significant sunlight, or our yard for that matter). So I had 40 leggy broccoli seedlings that really weren’t very far along when we put them in the ground (remember that sunlight problem I mentioned?) (I’m so into parenthesis today). So we planted them with high hopes, and within two days all but one plant was completely destroyed by bugs. Or maybe I should say vaporized. They were just gone. I would check on the garden once, and then come back two hours later and another row would just be gone…. And a few hours later the NEXT row would be gone. My one surviving seedling (of either broccoli or cauliflower, no one knew by this point), looked really strong and healthy, but never produced anything. So yeah, huge fail. String beans, tomatoes, and squash worked out well, but not the broccoli.

I decided I wanted to try broccoli again this year (who knows why I would ever want to go through that disaster again, but I do). But I went with rapini broccoli for whatever reason…. I haven’t even ever eaten rapini broccoli, but it looks good.

Here’s my bootleg seedling set up, a compact fluorescent lamp with a tin sheet to help reflect the light. I have no idea if this will do anything at all. Hopefully it will produce wonderful not leggy really strong broccoli. I don’t know where I’ll put the rest of the seeds I’m going to start next week….

But in reality they are looking a little leggy already. I could just be paranoid though.

We’ll see.

By the way, I got my rapini broccoli seeds from this lovely etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/HomegrownHealthy