I took this picture right before I pulled out the giant yellow squash plant on the left. It's the biggest disappointment of the garden. It was doing so well and had lots of flowers and then lots of little squashes and then just when I got my hopes up that this was finally my year for being the successful squash farmer I knew I would be.....they rotted. One by one. Each and every one. In my expert gardening opinion based on copious amounts of internet browsing of images of rotting squashes I've concluded that I have "blossom end rot". Which of course has only one cure and that is to enrich the soil to prevent it from happening in the first place. Super helpful advice internet. At least now in the absence of the mighty giant my carrots stand a chance of actually getting some sunlight.
I do have high hopes that my zucchini in the other bed will not succumb to the rot though. Its first batch of little beautiful squash are already growing so now I just watch them every day, checking for signs of the decay that I would be powerless to stop. Who knew gardening was so dramatic?
Tomatoes though, tomatoes we can grow. I'm apparently allergic to pruning them, but they don't seem to mind. This year we bought three little seedlings at the nursery that were labeled to be the most resilient to the various bugs and diseases that plague our humid home and they have turned out to be everything they promised and more.
Our basil's coming back after a vicious animal attack, our cucumber is vining up the trellis so that's promising, and we've been able to harvest three hot peppers with nary an insect hole to be found so I guess the garden isn't a total disaster.
I think when we plant our next garden after the big move (which incidentally looks like it will be DC in November--but we don't actually have orders in our hand so who knows) I'm going to go with the advice I've been reading in Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots and focus on planting more things that are fun for the kids to grow like sunflower houses and berry bushes and gourds that we can make into birdhouses.
Maybe then we can avoid another squashtastrophy........