Gardening Lesson #2

ca·su·al·ty
n. pl. ca·su·al·ties

1. An accident, especially one involving serious injury or loss of life.
2. One injured or killed in an accident: a heat wave with many casualties .
3. One injured, killed, captured, or missing in action through engagement with an enemy. Often used in the plural: Vegetable casualties were high.
4. One that is harmed or eliminated as a result of an action or a circumstance: The prolific zucchini plant was a casualty of the 100+ degree temperatures in Portland.

Yes, my friends, I am here to report further casualties. The gruesome pictures aren't until later, though, so don't worry... I'll ease you into it.

This tale of woe begins on a happy note. My zucchini plant has been extremely healthy. It has grown bigger than I ever anticipated (bigger, even, than it is here.) The leaves are big, strong, and bright green. I had lots of babies on the way, and I was content. I saw 4 pretty big zucchinis well on their way to being ready for harvest. Every day I went to check on them, and they appreciated the attention. The first one was getting pretty fat, but was still shorter than I thought it should be - so I waited. Patience, I've been told, is important when gardening. Well, a couple of days later, I went out and it was huge! Definitely time to pick. In fact, I probably waited a bit too long. See?

Yes, that is a Saturday Night Fever album in the background. Leave me alone. You know you like the Bee Gees.

This particular zucchini is what I believe most experts would call "gone to seed." I don't know a whole lot about it, but my guess is that if you leave some veggies on the stalk too long, they get really "seedy" and don't taste very good. This is definitely the biggest zucchini I've ever seen. And no, even though it looks like it's on steroids, I am not using chemicals. It's all organic, baby. You know me better than that. So anyway, Gardening Lesson # 2 is: Don't let your veggies get too big. This is actually harder than you'd think... you don't want to pick them before they're ready, either, so there's a delicate balance.

A couple of days later, I figured I should pick this one too. It was starting to look a little bulbous, as well.

I did get one regular sized one, though. He's in the middle:

See my little tomato??? I'll talk about her in a minute.

Okay. Are you ready? Here's where it gets ugly. So, I had a 4th zucchini that was looking good. I went out and checked on it every day, just like the others, but it didn't seem to be getting any bigger. And then I noticed that a lot of the other little babies weren't really growing either. And pretty soon they started turning yellow. I'm no expert, but I realized immediately that this was not good.

I called my local gardening store (where I bought the zucchini) to ask them what I should do. She said it could be one of three things. Scenario ONE could be that I let the first one get too big, and now the plant thinks it has done its job of procreating. I guess as soon as one of the veggies goes to seed, sometimes the plant will stop producing. I'm hoping this is not the case, because I want more zucchini. Scenario TWO could be that it's been too hot. Apparently most vegetables don't like temperatures over 90 degrees, and yesterday was a record-breaking 103 degrees here in Portland. Scenario THREE could be that it is not getting enough steady watering. I guess zucchini doesn't like a dry - wet - dry - wet watering cycle. They like to have wet soil all the time. I'm not sure how I can accomplish this without overwatering, so I'm hoping that scenario 2 is what's happening so I don't have to figure that out.

Anyway, she told me to go ahead and pluck off all the bad veggies so it can sort of reset and start over. The leaves of the plant still look strong and healthy, so that's a good sign. Hopefully all is not lost. So, if you're ready, here are my dead babies. All 7 of them.

Sad, huh? Most of them barely got over 3 inches long. They'll soon be buried with a little ceremony over the compost bin.

But, I can end on a happy note! Here she is, my very first Sungold tomato!

Isn't she beeeeeautiful? And, I have lots more on the way. I see some cucumbers in my near future, too. So, get ready for that!

You see, with gardening, I've already learned that you win some, and you lose some. Hopefully the next few will be winners.