Kitchen Garden: post-vacation review

Oh my. What a little time, less water and benign neglect can do to a garden.

Compare this photo at right to the photos below at this post.

Wowzer.

These Early Girl tomatoes are just beginning to blush; I expect to pick them within the next 10 days.

But they aren't very early, should have picked the first ones a few weeks ago.

Another expectation shot in the keister: zucchinis are not yielding at all, only one has been harvested so far.

You can see they've developed a case of mildew already, and that the young zucchinis yellow and drop off before they become established mature fruits.

Going to hurt the double-chocolate zucchini bread forecast.

Cucumbers, however, have been plentiful to the point of obnoxiousness. My spouse kept them picked while I was en vacance; I came home to a peck of them on the counter and more than a peck in the garden waiting to be picked.

Unfortunately, the salad cucumbers outpaced the pickles on a 3-to-1 basis. May have to break down and pickle the salad cukes this week.

The biggest disappointment remains the pole beans, all three varieties. Only one species of the three I planted has begun to flower. I'll let you guess which one it is.

The loveliest thing so far this year has been the Gypsy peppers. They are also beginning to blush, having started as a pale ghostly green, becoming Hungarian yellow, and now an appetizing red. I'm going to continue to resist the urge to pick them until they are scarlet, head to toe.

Tonight, weather permitting, I'll take a photo of the garden at night. I should have done this all summer, but it will be even more lush with all the neglect of the last two weeks.

How's your garden doing? Do tell.