Skeptics

As Hawksbill Cabin blog readers know, I was away for a couple of weeks and did not check on the vegetable garden during that time.  The cabin garden was planted under the assumption that the plants would mostly be on their own in any case.

Recall that I found the idea to plant directly in bags of top soil in Mother Earth News and decided to try it.  While my cucumbers and eggplant failed to germinate, I did get squash plants - zucchini and yellow gooseneck, and after the failures, I planted a white petite pan and a small watermelon plant.

Unfortunately, the dry summer is causing slow going on the watermelon, so at this stage, I don't expect anything from it.  The lack of water probably has something to do with the odd shape of this zucchini also.  We'll keep an eye on the petite pan, which was blossoming last weekend.

The big story is the zucchini - I finally had on ripe squash which I picked on Saturday.  Unfortunately, it looked like a bunny had nibbled a bit on it to see if it was ready - so I deemed it not fit for human consumption.  I sliced it and put it out in the yard for the deer (they've eaten all of the hostas and still might be hungry).  Before I tossed it I decided I had to have a photo of it for the record.

There are also goosenecks coming around.  Hopefully this one will make it until our next visit, when it might be our first produce from this garden.  Meanwhile, Mary is getting tomatoes and peppers from the Alexandria patch - the organic squash plants have succumbed to the heat and the cucumber beetles.

A final note - I saw that the cabin's Rose of Sharon hibiscus was in bloom.  This plant was a volunteer in the Alexandria yard, off of a plant that was a volunteer at our previous house in Alexandria.  So there's a tradition that will continue.