Zucchini-lets!

17 November 2009. I have been avoiding the garden for a week or so, but I can easily see from the kitchen door that the weeds are starting a reclamation project. So today I went out in the cooler part of the afternoon when the sun is low and the shadows long. I like to loosen the dirt with a shovel and pull the weeds by hand, especially near my zucchini plants. When my weeding took me close to the single mound of my September 23 test planting, I peered inside. There, bright and healthy looking, was a dark green 3 inch zucchini-let. Whoo-hoo! In a week, maybe less, I’ll be stir-frying that very zucchini.

It has been 8 weeks since I planted that mound of seeds. My second planting was on 14 October, so at that rate we ought to have a second crop in mid-December. Maybe we’ll have zucchini bread for Christmas this year. Maybe I’ll try a third planting – but now there is a risk there won’t be enough rain; the short December-January dry season is coming.

My green pepper and New Zealand spinach seeds all seem to have failed. But as if to make up for the loss, a tikitimaji (watermelon) has sprouted from my earliest compost site. It is growing very well and I can’t wait to see if it produces some melons. And today I discovered another plant in the garden. It looks just like green beans my mother used to grow. I’ll be watching it, but will it produce enough beans for even one stir-fry?