the view outside my kitchen window

So you see why i have no tomatoes. I love the way that it's not enough for the squirrels to take them and eat them...they have to mock me as well. Fuckers have an attitude!

wow i have not been updating this blog

Actually it is because this is such a depressing year in the vegetable garden. The only thing which grows well are the zucchini & the pumpkins. It is August and i have almost no tomatoes. Part of the reason is that the damned squirrels get them first....that is a story in itself. Oh, and do you know what else grows well? Those MARIGOLDS. They are TAKING OVER THE GARDEN. It is insane, i have never seen such marigold plants. Not much in the way of flowers, but lots of leaves. Indeed i don't have many bugs on my tomato plants. Here is a picture of the mess:
Can you believe it? They are even bigger than the zucchini plants! I should take a different picture so that you can see the scale. Maybe i will....sigh.

i should be sleeping

I suppose i will try that again in a few weeks, see how it looks. Hopefully, a little redder!

I was looking back through things here -- last year of course is a wash, what with the birth of the twins. But the year before i do have things documented nicely enough. I found that by this point in the year, i already had beans, cukes, and even the occasional tomato.

This year, i have none of those things. I did plant them, and they are sprouted but no food yet. So far all i have this year is (bolting) lettuce and zucchinis. And those damned marigolds which i swear are taking over the place.

The squirrels are starting to steal my tomatoes, too, even though they are still green. I found a half-chewed green tomato on the steps this morning. See, not only are they stealing them, they are rubbing it in my face. I really have to get a gun.

idiot

I knew i didn't have the space to grow pumpkins. So then why on earth did i plant them??? And not one plant even but two. Actually i know why i planted two -- the seeds weren't germinating well, i think i actually planted 3-4. But i was supposed to cull, and i didn't...i went to visit my mother instead. So now the whole space alloted is already completely taken up by these two already huge plants.

I know i will have to kill one. I hate to do it. It seems so evil. Why didn't i pull it up when it was little, somehow that seems so much less destructive. Oy, i have to learn to be more hard-hearted towards plants.

I am leaning toward letting them take over the lawn, which is nothing but weeds (and a play structure) there anyway. But i think dh would be very unhappy about that. He likes things neat. I wonder how he ended up with me?

zucchini grows fast

I left this baby zucchini on the vine when i picked the other baby zucchinis on tuesday to make that zucchini & basil thing. This one was very small, but 2 days later it is bigger than most of the ones i picked.

Yeah, news flash, zucchini grows fast. And the sky is blue. And the garden is full of weeds.

a nice recipie

I made this tonight -- Fettuccini with walnuts and zucchini. I really liked it, but noone else in my household did. A flatly refused to eat it at all, and dh said 'don't make it again, these walnuts are terrible'. C refuses to eat anything green at all, so her opinion is moot. The babies would've liked it, but they were asleep already/ But actually i might try to make it again, because i like it. I like the concept, which is sort of a pesto with zucchini. I like the fact that i can make it with zucchini (i have the stuff growing in the garden but dh only likes it fried, well that is not very healthy kwim?) and it has a really nice fresh taste. (Due to the fact that the zucchini isn't even cooked) Plus, it is easy & done quick.

I used baby zucchinis & fresh basil from the garden, which was nice. I left out the mint (i don't have any mint, hate the stuff) and i probably used too much basil because my version tasted like a pesto with some zucchini thrown in. But i didn't have enough zucchini to do it right. "I like regular pesto better", said dh...."do i have to eat this?" said A. In fact, he refused, and i made him clean the kitchen in consequence.

Next time i will use more zucchini and less basil, and no walnuts (they were bitter. Pine nuts might work, or no nuts at all -- that would certainly be cheaper). I probably wouldn't do it with mature zucchini rather than baby ones -- the baby ones are tender & have a nice sweet taste.

basil seedlings, for zoey

I have been waiting for my basil to sprout, and a bunch of stuff sprouted but i couldn't tell if it was basil or weeds. Finally, today you can tell.

these are basil
these are weeds
this is a basil seedling surrounded by weeds.The variety of basil is 'Sweet Genovese' so i imagine different varieties will look different.