HOLY BUCKETS

Alright - this week the green house has really been getting warm ... okay, its been like spring in Arizona.

It has been getting up to at least 100*F on sunny days ... and the temps are warming up at night so it hasn't gotten down below 50F for about a week now as well. 

So what did this mean to the plants?

Well last week I didn't take photos because it didn't make a big difference - it was still getting close to freezing most nights (like 35F) ... but with this warmer weather I decided to take a look ... also because its been a pretty cloudy week I needed to see if anyone needed some water.

WOW what a difference in just one week ...



Pumpkins (LtoR:Howden, Dill Atlantic)



Squash flat C (LtoR:Sugar Hubbard, Butternut)

Squash flat B (Front to Back:Patty Pans, Black Beauty Zucchini, Yellow Marrow) Yello Marrow died after overnight cold temps

Squash Flat A (LtoR: 2rows emply, Queen Anne Acorn, Sitck-o-Butter summer squash)

Swiss Chard showing color, Collards widening leaves

zoom of Swiss Chard colors - wow they look cool!

Carrots B (LtoR: Parano, Purple Haze)

Carrots A (LtoR: Red Samuri, White Satin)

Salad Table (FtoBack: 2rows Garden Heirloom Blend, Pot & Patio Blend)

Okay - so what will these things look like when they "grow up"?


Pot & Patio salad blend: includes PomPom, Merlot, Little Gem, Victoria



Parano Carrots (I thought they were purple outside, orange inside ... huh)

White Satin

Purple Haze (this is the one I was thinking of before)

Collards (cut them up, cook them down - yummy!)

Dill Atlantic - supposed to get up to 800 lb for some pumpkins ... don't think mine will be THAT big

Howden - 10-15# per pumpkin on average ... but too watery for pies unless you slow cook it to prevent scortching

Black Beauty zucchini, love zuccs but they like to hide from me - last ones we grew were huge!

Cube of Butter squash - you are supposed to be able to batter and deep fry the flowers too

Sugar Hubbard - 15-20# a squash, and about 4-5squash per plant

Early Butternut - great for "pumpkin" pies

Patty Pan squash - the kids should love the UFO shape, about the size of a 45record ... um, bigger than a CD for those too young to remember 45s

Swiss Chard - OMG have you priced this in the store lately? I am soooooo hoping this does well for me



Queen Anne acorn - these will only get to about 1-2# each


I still have quite a bit of seed that I did not start yet, or may not get to it at all, because of two reasons
A) the weather has made the garden impossible to get into with the tiller, it just gets stuck
B)hubby wants to spray it with Round Up first to cut down on the weeds - really he shouldn't have to - I have all the plastic mulch we can fight over. I like it, he can't stand it.

But I have a feeling that MOST of what I have will not be grown until next year :(
Like my cabbages ... don't think they will have time to take off before their optimal time passes ... the onion seed, although I might be able to grow it during the winter in the green house ... my broccoli - can I cry now? I love broccoli, and was planning on freezing this to beat the rising food prices ... my peas & beans - staples to my dinner table, although they can be sown later and I should still get a decent crop from them.

and the corn ...

if the fields don't start to dry out, we will never get the corn in on-time! We have until the end of the month to get that seed in though ... especially if the kids are going to sell any of it before school starts in the fall.  Normally, when we get a crop, we have the first crops coming in just before the state fair ... but its been quite a while.

still time to get out the soil test kits for the kids to take some sample though so hubby can suppliment the soil.

Organic growing will take a while for him to embrace - it took me this long to get him around to "crop rotation" ... old ideas are hard to break.