h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

All of a sudden, the cucumber plants that seemed such a fizzle have been working overtime. I picked my ninth cucumber this morning, and there are maybe six more in various stages of development. All this from just five little plants!

I brought supper to my father this afternoon. I went out into his garden to see if any summer squash were ready, and found two. One of them was in a far corner, so no one had noticed how big it had gotten. I also picked a smaller one, and my father urged me to take both of them with me when I returned to my own house.

One thing that you must remember about this time of year is that everywhere you go you will find people with green beans or tomatoes or zucchini to hand out because there are so many of them coming ready at the same time. I lurked by my doorway waiting for people to pass by in the street, and then I ran out and offered them a squash. They took the smaller one, so I still have to deal with the bigger one. That's okay, it'll be fine in a loaf of zucchini bread. I made a loaf of it two weeks ago, so I'm ready to make another.

If my green beans all produce at the same time, I'll have to figure out what to do with them.

My potted cantaloupe (in a 16 liter pot, trained on a heavy guage support cone) just went into a second round of production, with several sets on it now, after producing three melons in its first round of production (one of which is still in the refrigerator) and taking a short break in production.

This particular plant is a 2nd generation line bred specimen, bred to flower pot culture and I'm keeping a seed file with this particular line.

The only other plants currently in production in my garden are the red okra, which has just gone into a slowdown phase after an initial round of production and my white eggplants, which have just started setting fruits.

I'm waiting to see whether my New Zealand cucumbers (the lime flavored, orange skinned, spiny ones) are going to be going back into production with cooler weather ahead.

They were moderately good producers late in spring and in the early summer, after being started shortly after the winter solstice.

Just started my first zucchini of the season. (I usually space them a couple of weeks apart so they'll produce sequentially.)

I still have couple of seed zucchini on the shelf from last season that will eventually find their way into a casserole of some kind, after I harvest the seed,

(Late August is the prime planting season locally.

Very few cultivated plants survive the local torrid season, but most produce well if started in late August.)

Thank you for the inspiration, paulh

I shall now write my masterpiece: "The Curse of the Ninth Cucumber"

I'm flattered to think that I could be an inspiration for you, Pierce.

Part of the charm of growing vegetables is that on a hot day I can get splashed with cool, refreshing water as I fill my watering can and irrigate my plants.

I can do that without growing anything

Plus I can sit back, relax and not lift a finger and even then enjoy all the free s and other abundant veggies given to me by friends

Seriously, though: Next year I *will* grow my own s and other veggies

When I got home after lunch, I happened to notice more green beans in my patch. Gosh, those things grow awfully fast. They were nowhere near ready two days ago, the last time I picked beans.

The beans are in front of my house. I'm sure to notice them when I get out of my car. I ended up giving most of them to my neighbor so he could boil them up with potatoes for his supper. It's nice that this time of year I can share my produce with people who do me favors like mowing my lawn.

My cucumbers were originally supposed to be given to my sister-in-law, who lives 100 miles away. She likes to make pickles. But since I only see her about once a month, I'm not sure my cukes would still be fresh by the time I got them to her. I've ended up eating them myself . She doesn't mind.

Ask her for her pickles recipe

That's *her* hobby, not mine.

Congratulations Paul on such a good harvest. I have not inherited my Dad's green fingers and the soil that's in my garden is of poor quality and is full of small pebbles and stones, it's terrible to dig up. It's the worse soil, I have ever come across. My Dad grew lots of fruit and vegetables when we lived in Essex and in Ayrshire. In Ayrshire in Scotland he managed to grow pumpkins outdoors and they were not watery.

Could you build up the soil with compost and manure? In my area there are garden centers where you can buy good topsoil and various types of fertilizer. There are many stones under my soil, but I dump topsoil over it and fertilize. In some cases I buy potting mixture, put it in containers, and grow things in it. I get good results that way, and it's something you could try. They just need to be watered regularly and fertilized occasionally.

All of my success with plants is outdoors. I can't even keep a philodendron alive inside.

Thank you for the tip of adding soil mixed with compost and manure. I have only been been adding compost to the soil. I have not much success growing plants indoors.

Supplementary fertilizer [usually liquid] can also help.