Around the garden this morning...

I just ate a bunch of pea pods in a stir fry this weekend and these guys are already big enough to eat.

More and more leaves growing on the squash, which had a rough transition outdoors.

With the purchase of my Gardenia, I had a new container to fill. A couple of random cucumber plants now call it home.

The Gardenia loving its first morning at home.

Cucumber spotting!

The cucumber crop has seen better days. I haven't yet planted them in their new outdoor homes, but they've been living on the picnic table for the last week or so. Here they are, looked ragged:



But last night I noticed something happening on one of the plants. Holy moly, it's a spiky cucumber!



So this looks a little too much like a pickle for my tastes (yes, I am a pickle hater), so I am hoping it keeps growing. Grow, little one, grow!


Either way, veggies are on their way!

Cucumber Advice Requested!

My cucumber plants have been fairly wussy so far. I've tried bringing them outside for a few hours at a time and they freak out, brown their leaves and hold the grudge. Even now - 3 weeks since their last outdoor adventure! - they're still holding back growing new leaves. Their fuzzy-flower-messes, however... now those are growing like crazy.




I'm curious to hear from other cucumber growers... is this normal? Doesn't a plant need LEAVES to grow? Evidence below shows a little bit of leaf action, but nothing like the squash. Help!

Flower power

This morning I showed Chris how to water the garden while I'm away this weekend (Mother's Day) and just after he went inside, I yelled back to him. I had discovered some sweet pea flowers on the pea vines.





Looks like the cucumbers are trying to follow their lead:

Cucumber Casualty.

So when I planted all my seeds this spring, I assumed that not everything would sprout and grow and thrive. A surprising amount did. Out of all the things I planted, there were only 3 or 4 duds in the bunch.

But today I think we're going to count our first real casualty in the seedling garden. Look at this sad little cucumber guy!



To give you some perspective, here's what his brothers are looking like:





Possibly for the best, though. This weekend I'm going to start moving plants outside and I will have to either buy 5 billion containers for them to live in all summer or give some away. I guess survival of the fittest is alive and well, even in Brooklyn.