Freaky Friday II... it's growing!

Well, something is definitely growing on the Mystery Squash Vine that I recently discovered:

Any guesses as to what this will turn into?  Do yellow flowers always mean zucchini?  I don't have enough squash-growing experience to know...

Tomato training

In garden seasons past, I've raised some pretty unruly tomato plants.  This year, it's my goal to keep the plants neater, for both aesthetic and scientific reasons.  In the gardening class I took this spring, we learned that better-tended plants produce more fruit, and more airflow around plants can reduce pests and disease.  In the class we received this drawing of a suggestion for how to stake and stabilize tomato plants:

Using this system, you only need one stake for every two plants, and don't have to fool around with those  messy tomato cages.  I feel like I managed a decent reproduction of this in my 2 rows of tomato plants:

I actually planted these seedlings several weeks ago, but had to wait for them to grow a few inches before I could weave the twine around them. 

I'm really hoping this little system works.  I've also been taking care to prune these plants like crazy, removing any sucks or very low "branches" that won't bear fruit.  A friend told me that she prunes everything beneath the lowest flower - anyone heard of this?  I don't have flowers yet but it's something I'll certainly try.  Below is another picture from the gardening class - this one showing how to identify and prune a "sucker" - which is basically a stalk that does nothing but suck energy out of the plant and never produces a tomato.  They are much more obvious once the plant is larger, but you don't want to wait too long as they will take nutrients away from your developing fruit!

So here's hoping that in a month or so I'll be able to celebrate another windowsill full of tomatoes.  10 plants should be enough for 2 people, right?

Amendments

A little over a week ago, I finally made it to the garden center to see what I needed to add to my soil based on the test results I'd received.  The entire collection cost about $30.

The big one is peat moss, the smaller packages are Urea and Sulfur.  Coffee cup is optional.

Unfortunately, the only day that I could do this was pretty dry and windy.  Which meant rock hard soil and peat moss everywhere.  I followed the directions based on the size of our garden plot - 16 feet x 16 feet.  I scattered all 3 on top of the soil and then did my best to rake them into the top 1-2 inches.

The brown is peat moss, the Urea is yellow-ish flakes, and the sulfur is little white beads

This project took a little longer than expected.  I did one side at a time.  Here's the halfway point:

Makes the gray clay soil look downright sad, doesn't it?

It was so windy that when I finished I felt like I needed to water the whole thing down just so all my hard work didn't blow away.  The result:

Notice the garlic growing down the center! And the owl back at his post.

 So now I guess we just sit back and wait for a totally successful growing season?

Case file: Zucchini

I think I've cracked the case of the Huge Zucchini Plant with No Zucchini!

After many hours wasted looking online, watching videos about hand-pollinating zucchini, trying to hand-pollinate zucchini, and then having no other option but to blame and bemoan the state of the dwindling bee population... it turns out the culprit all along was my soil!

The soil I had so industriously and regularly supplemented with 10-10-10 fertilizer may actually have had perilously high nitrogen levels, which prevent the formation of fruit!  (learned in my gardening class, supported by multiple Google searches)  Huge leaves, but no fruit.  Two summers in a row.  Two summers of the same fertilizer, industriously and regularly applied.  Two different zucchini transplants, two others planted from two separate packets of seeds...  and when they weren't growing, I added more fertilizer.  The common denominator?  The soil. 

Step one is not adding any more of that 10-10-10 fertilizer!  Then checking the results of the soil test to see what other things I may need to do.  My hypothesis at this time is that the pH of my soil is high, which would indicate high nitrogen levels (I think). 

Soil testing, 1...2...3...

This year is the first time we will be getting our soil tested.  This is important for any successful garden, and to be honest I just never knew how easy and cheap it is.  Particularly because we had a... challenging season last year, I'd like to know if there are any changes we can make.  The steps to doing this are pretty simple:

1.  Visit the Penn State Soil Lab website (yes, there are others out there; this just happens to be the one I am using)
2.  Download the relevant forms
3.  Follow instructions for taking soil samples.  Basically, for each garden plot you'd like to have analyzed, you take twelve small scoops of soil (see the link for more details).
4.  Combine the samples (see my bucket, pictured above).
5.  Spread out on a sheet of cardboard to dry for a day or two.

6.  Follow directions to mail in sample.  Results take a few weeks to receive.

The results will tell you the pH of your soil; depending on the result, there are different amendments you can make to get your soil to the ideal pH.   More on that when my results arrive!

Herbs, part II

Several years ago, while at the garden center, I made the random decision to purchase a tarragon plant.  I had never used tarragon in a recipe but thought it might be nice to have on hand.  These are the sorts of decision you make when plants are priced very low.  Tarragon has a sort of licorice-y aroma and is popular in French cooking.  Tarragon vinegar is a very common ingredient in salad dressing.  Ina Garten uses tarragon quite a bit.

Much like the thyme plant we have, the tarragon grew rapidly and soon overtook the bed it was planted in.  It was the first plant I uprooted and moved to another location, figuring since I kind of hadn't used it yet, there was no real risk.  If it didn't make it, so what?

Several years later, the tarragon is flourishing.

It gets along well with its neighbors in the row of herbs I've planted and transplanted along my deck:

I trim it back from time to time, as it grows like crazy.  And I use it... hardly ever!  If you have any good ideas (other than those I've linked above), please share! 

It also appears to have multiplied.  When I was cutting it back the other day I noticed that we seem to have five plants instead of just one:

Which I am sure is an important biology lesson, but I'm not a botanist and have no idea how to explain it.  What I know is that tarragon is bright green and healthy, smells nice, and apparently goes well with tomatoes.  I welcome any other information! 

You know your zucchini has a fertility problem if...

...it looks like this:

Here are some telltale signs... very little flower action (check), tiny little zucchinis that do not grow, but shrivel up and die (check), leaves much larger than a human head torso (CHECK).