The Nu Leaf

Pumpkins
Our pumpkins are coming along quite well! Of the 12 mounds I originally planted, around 7 are growing. As a bonus, two of the pumpkins from our carving party last year that I unceremoniously tossed in the garden to rot away over the winter have also sprouted up new vines in other areas of the garden.

Emily really enjoys the smell of the pumpkin flowers. She says they have a light lilac scent. We are also told they are very good to eat, but I find it hard convincing myself to chomp on something so pretty.

From the looks of things, I may soon have more flowers on my hands than I can possibly sniff away. I’ve already trimmed each plant down to 2-3 prominent vines (I couldn’t manage the recommended 1-2 vines) and now the remaining greenery has begun to shoot up big new flower buds at almost every joint. I’ll let those bloom and make a tasty dessert on Tuesday or so.

The pumpkins that have started to grow look like baby watermelons. The vines have also grown so long that I may have to give up a portion of my grass yard for the fruit to grow properly in the coming months.

It took quite a bit of trimming and negotiating to get the fast-growing vines untangled from the beets they had grown through, but I’ve successfully rerouted the remaining vines around the outside of the beet patch.

Beets
The beets are also doing quite well. We have passed the point where we can eat the greens (reds) as spinach and are now waiting for the veggies to grow to proper eating size.

While it lasted, the beet leaves were very tasty indeed. When I made several gallons of gumbo a few weeks ago, I included several beet leaves and they were a welcome addition to the stew.

Pickles
My pickle pot is coming along marvelously. The dill is about two feet high now and the cucumber vines are dangling down all around the edges of this large planter.

Tomatoes
Only one of the tomato plants is doing anything worthwhile right now.
All of the hanging plants are still languishing, while the one I planted upright is doing a fair job of keeping alive.

The one start we have that came from a store instead of from seed is growing quite nicely. It is about four feet tall and already has some small green fruit growing.

Hydroponics
Indoors, my hydroponics rig is doing very well. During the dry spell, all of the non-established plants died off, including the peppers, one of the lettuces, and all but two of the strawberry plants. The remaining plants are doing very well with my latest fog rig.

I have also planted several luffah seeds in the third hydro bay. They seem to be taking to it quite nicely. The roots grown with this hybrid hydroponic/aeroponic method are beautiful white structures with intricate fiber patterns. I’ll have to transform the lighting from horizontal to vertical soon in order for these loofah plants to take off as they are naturally viney and should grow to be six feet tall.