Rain, Rain, Rain. . .

I apologize for the lack of posts last week.  It's been crazy busy around here.


I've been steadily collecting cherry and grape tomatoes, with one Sunbright thrown in.  I'm thinking about doubling up on the cherries next year and skipping on the grapes.  Cherries are sweeter and more full of flavor, while grapes are more like tiny plum or Roma tomatoes.  Mine are least.  Maybe because they are bigger than the grape tomatoes you buy in stores or at your local farmers' market.


The pickling cucumbers are going great.  In fact, I put a bunch into the compost because I wasn't able to pickle them before they started going bad.  Now I have the supplies, and about half of my current stock is sliced for making bread and butter pickles.  Next will be the dills.


Now, my yellow squash has a story to tell.  There is one plant in particular that is producing "conjoined squash."  The fruits of this plant grow with two connected to each other, or a seam where two could be joined together.  When I tried to pick one of these oddities, they broke apart.  The larger one, came off in my hand and the smaller stayed with the plant.  This proved that they have separate stems.  I guess the smaller one will grow now that the big one is gone.  Time will tell.


My small gourds are thriving.  The bigger ones have huge plants, but I haven't been able to pollinate any female flowers yet.  I've missed a couple due to the incessant rain we had for three or four days.  I couldn't get out to the garden because it was so wet.  When I finally made it out, there weren't no female flowers to be seen on any of the plants.  There were small ones that will be ready in a couple days, but none ready for some love.  I don't know if the rain stunted the growth of the females, but it almost seems that way.


I'm sorry for the lack of pictures here, but Blogger isn't letting me load photos.  I'll post them when I can get it to work.