Zucchini Setback

Saturday morning. I wasn’t feeling so well this morning, so instead of weeding my garden as I should have, I just sat quietly on the stoop and watched the birds. Black kites preened in the trees while others flew overhead in all directions. Marabou storks formed large kettles, soaring ever higher into the warming thermals. Gray-headed sparrows perched in the mango, avocado, and poinsettia trees and chirped incessantly. One lone village indigo bird sang and sang from a high snag. A long winged and long tailed falcon soared by leisurely, but didn’t linger long enough for me. It might have been a Eurasian hobby or an Eleanora’s falcon, but there are so many falcon possibilities that I could not sort it out before it disappeared. The African palm swifts have such long and narrow wings that I wonder how they get enough lift to fly, but surely they were designed more for their spectacular aerobatics than for sustained flight. Eastern gray plantain-eaters laughed like maniacal monkeys as they gathered food and nesting materials. Yellow-vented bulbuls shouted their loud song from every direction and a young bird snuggled up to its parent, hoping for special attention or a little food. Three willow warblers, recently arrived for the winter after their breeding season in Europe, gleaned bugs from the overgrown hedge. Creation is full of wondrous things.

Eventually I wandered into the garden to see whether the weeds or the zucchinis are winning. The weeds are indeed gaining ground, but for now the zucchinis still prevail. There are many blossoms where I expect soon to see more zucchini-lets, but a few days ago I sadly discovered that my first small zucchini had rotted on the vine. It had not grown much at all since I first proudly described it. Maybe we had too much rain – there has been a lot. Or it could be the bugs. Inch-long grasshoppers, boldly striped in black and yellow-green, are particularly fond of the zucchini leaves, and scores of tiny flies too small to describe swarm out of the plants when I pull back the leaves to look inside. I may lose the entire crop to bugs if I don’t use insecticide, and since I have none, that is a distinct possibility. I discovered another plant in the garden that may be my only green pepper seed to have sprouted. I’ll have to watch this one to see what develops. The tiny watermelon seedling that sprouted from my compost a couple weeks back has become a blossom-laden six foot long vine and is still growing. Even as my zucchini prospects become dim, I am brightened by the thought of a few sweet watermelons some day.