Gardening 101

Will our first garden produce anything? That was the question. Gardens do better over time as the soil gets better and composted.

Our harvest has started and we are very satisfied to be eating a little from our garden. We have already had some zucchini squash, yellow squash and have used a bit of fresh cilantro.
I've learned a few things along the way.

Squash plants have these beautiful yellow flowers on them. One is the pollinator and the other turns into the vegetable.
This is a picture of the pollinator flower. That yellow stuff in the middle is the powdery pollen.

This is the flower that "fruits" as they call it and makes the squash. The pollen has to get into the little fingers inside the flower or the squash will not grow. The master gardener brother-in-law, Darren, told me that if I didn't see bees I would need to pollinate myself.

To self-pollinate you just need a small paint brush like kids use to water color with. Get a little pollen powder on the brush from the pollinator flower and place it on the fingers of the other flower. That's it. I have been doing that, however, I have seen bees so I think we are safe now. I also noticed little tiny black ants inside the finger flower. Darren said not to worry about these as they help pollinate too. Whew! I thought we had a problem.

Our first yellow squash.

Our first zucchini.

I think we are going to get a lot of zucchini. I have already picked five this week. While we love zucchini, it's hard to use it all. I have decided to puree and freeze for use as "hidden vegies" when making meals.

Roasted vegetables using our very own harvest!

Tomatoes are on their way and are just starting to turn red. Can't wait for these.

I also learned that if you plant garlic in between the tomato plants it will help with bug control.

That's it for now. Hoping for some more harvest soon.