The Very Definition of Stupidity!

Oak Park Woman Faces 93-Days in Jail For Planting Vegetable Garden: MyFoxDETROIT.com

This just makes me so mad! It seems this poor woman faces 93 days in jail for growing vegetables on her front lawn. If I was a resident of Michigan, I would be incensed that my state tax dollars were going toward prosecuting this woman. I find it most ironic that the district attorney doesn't feel compelled to go after residents in the neighborhood who allow weeds to take over their properties. It seems the town of Oak Park would rather see their residents neglect their front lawns than to actually put it to good use.

In my opinion, it should be a constitutional right (human right for that matter) to grow food anywhere you would like on your property.

Acorn Squash

After a while of doing absolutely nothing, My acorn squash plants are taking off now. They haven't been producing any male flowers so I've been pollinating the females with pollen from my zucchini plants. I won't be able to save any seeds but at least we have squashes forming.

We're not huge winter squash eaters but I do like butternut squash soup. I'll have find a good recipe using acorn squash.

Opossum, Oh My!

Last night, I caught a baby opossum in my havahart trap. Despite it's strange tail and spiny teeth, it was actually pretty cute. I didn't quite know what to do with it. For some reason, it didn't feel right to drive it to the faraway woods where most of my garden pests end up. I've yet to see one in the garden and until I do, I'm willing to play nice. Also, part of me likes the fact that opossums also eat rodents and bugs. In the end, I decided to release it into the woods behind our property.

Has anyone ever had problems with opossums doing damage in the garden?

Prelude to Beans

Today, I picked the last of the snow and shell peas. The vines look rather ragged these days and will soon be pulled up. The freed up space will eventually be planted with fall veggies in the coming weeks. The end of pea season usually coincides the beginning of the bean season. My early sown crop is flowering now. Pictured above is a Dragon's Tongue bean flower.


The Contender bean flowers are a lighter shade of pink.


My early sown Envy soybeans (edamame) have recovered somewhat from the groundhog attacks and begun to flower as well. It'll be interesting to see what kind of yield we get since the plants have been compromised.


The first pods have already begun to set. I can't wait until these Dragon's Tongue beans mature. They are very tasty in my opinion and their crisp texture holds up well when cooked.

The First Artichoke

Yesterday, I noticed that one of my Imperial Star artichokes was sending up a flower stalk. It won't be too long before we pick the first edible flower bud of the year. I have seven plants and all are doing well. Last year, I harvested my first artichoke in mid-August. This year, I planted them in an area of the garden that gets full sun, which may account for the 5-week difference. I should probably side-dress the plants with some additional compost and maybe apply a foliar feed once a week. Last year I did not feed my artichokes at all after planting, which may be the reason why they quickly faded after producing 3 or 4 flower buds. Hopefully that won't happen this year.

Growing artichokes successfully in our zone 6 climate can be somewhat challenging, which in many ways adds to the excitement in my opinion. If you're interested in hearing more about it, click here.

Corn Down!

This afternoon, I went into the back garden to find that half of my corn had been toppled. It was windy yesterday evening but never would I have imagined that something like this could happen. I'd started my corn indoors this year. I wonder if transplanted corn is more susceptible to this sort of thing.


Not really knowing what to do, I hammered some stakes into the ground at the end of each row and tied the corn stalks to a double length of string.


Getting the stalks upright again was not easy. And it didn't help that it was incredibly hot and humid this afternoon. I tried my best not to snap the large fragile leaves in the process. Hopefully, the roots weren't too badly damaged by the toppling either. Whether this support system will be sufficient, only time will tell I guess.

Melons in Bloom

My cantaloupe and french melons have erupted in blooms. The pretty yellow flowers are attracting tons of beneficial insects to the garden. I was in the melon patch yesterday hand-pollinating the female flowers and the bumblebees and honeybees were buzzing all around me. It was quite a sight. I like to hand-pollinate my melons, squashes and citrus trees to ensure pollination. Pictured above is a male flower on an Athena cantaloupe vine.


As you can see, it's pretty easy to distinguish between it and the female flower (above), which has a green center as opposed to a yellow one.


The female flower also has a noticeable ovary the size of a jellybean at the base.

The ovary will enlarge and develop into the melon if proper pollination has occurred. The one above is currently the size of a large lemon. As you can see, a fungus of some sort has developed on the leaves. I've sprayed the plants twice already with a copper fungicide and am cutting off the affected leaves. So far, this seems to be keeping the disease in check.

Yesterday, I also spotted the first cucumber beetles of the summer. Last year, my melon, zucchini and cucumber vines all died prematurely from bacterial wilt, which is an untreatable disease spread by the beetles. The beetles also steal the pollen and chew up the leaves. Tonight, after the bees have retired for the evening, I will spray all of my vines with pyrethrin. Hopefully, this will control their numbers this year.

Picks of the Week - Favas, Shell Peas, Peppers and Zucchini

This week was all about the Fava beans and shell peas. We also picked the first Hungarian Wax peppers and the last broccoli of the season.


I was finally able to grow a decent amount of shell peas this year. Boy it takes a lot of pods to fill a bowl of shelled peas. As you can see, I like to harvest my peas on the mature side - when they are plump and crammed inside the pod. They remind me of the peas of my childhood at this stage, before sweet baby peas became the popular choice.


We also picked the first three zucchini of the summer. Already, I'm letting them get too big.


I also harvested a nice-sized Red Detroit beet and more pickling cucumbers.


These pickling cukes are VERY crunchy and mild tasting. I think I'll make a batch of refrigerator dill pickles and peppers with this week's pickings.

"Get Away From Her, You B*TCH!"

...to quote Lt. Ripley. Well look who decided to take the bait of sliced peaches and vanilla extract! Woohoo!!!! Right about now I feel like Sigourney Weaver at the end of the Alien movies - reluctantly triumphant. You hope for her sake that she's dealt with the last of them but then the next alien comes along and bursts out of the chest of some unsuspecting fool and of course the saga repeats itself. In my case, this groundhog has parents and a sibling out there somewhere. But for now, I can at least breathe a short sigh of relief.

Mr. Groundhog, you and I are going for a little drive. :)

Update: In case anyone is curious, Mr. Groundhog has found a new home in the woods FAR away from me and my cucumbers.

Scenes from the Garden - Part II

Things are starting to fill up in the back garden, despite the work of Mr. Groundhog. Oh, apparently we have not one but two juvenile groundhogs. Marc chased after one with a shovel yesterday only to spot a second one in the garden. We've decided to get a .22. In the town we live in, we have to get permission from our neighbors who live within 500 ft of our home in order to discharge a firarm. I'm sure our two next door neighbors won't mind but I'm not certain about the two since we've never met them.

Anyway, here's what's going on in the back garden:

My artichokes are looking good this year. No signs of disease yet. My cantaloupe and french melons on the other hand show major signs of fungal disease.


The worst of it looks like this. I sprayed with a copper fungicide solution the other day. However, I've read that copper-based fungicides are more affective as a preventative. For those of you who've used it, do you find this to be the case? I'm debating whether to turn to a non-organic "cure" before the vines start to fruit. In some ways, I don't mind utilizing a non-organic alternative as long as it's the solution of last resort. Any advice?


The corn is about 3-4 ft tall now. And by the looks of things, we should have a good amount of beans this year.

Tomato vines reaching for the sky.


The first Hungarian Wax peppers are almost ready.


San Marzano tomatoes.


Cherokee Purple tomatoes.