Weekly Garden Thread - July 17-23, 2021 [Everything Zucchini Edition]

July 17, 2021 | Diana in Wisconsin/Greeneyes

[Diana in Wisconsin]

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.

If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located.

This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.

It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table Recipes, Preserving, Good Living - there is no telling where it will go - and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us! Send a Private Message to Diana in Wisconsin if you'd like to be added to our New & Improved Ping List.

NOTE: This is a once a week Ping List. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest to Gardeners are welcomed any time!

[TheConservativeParty]

My perfect flower garden, with 14 varieties of zinnias, is less than perfect after last Wednesday’s wind and rain. One small tree fell on the driveway, that I removed with my E-Go battery powered chainsaw (a full size chainsaw but quiet and easy to maintain).

The garden did well considering the tall lovely blooms of the perennials and annuals. I did not watch as the wind and rain pummeled them. I took the hanging baskets down and retreated to the east end of the house.

The japanse beetles returned to eat the zinnias on Thursday, so I re-applied insecticide. Bon appetite to them, and they will be belly-up by this morning.

😁

[Pollard]

When we homschooled our kids, most the book list for RobinsonCurriculum.com was out of copyright publications and available online. They could be downloaded in different formats including sometimes a format for e-readers. All of those books went onto an e-reader I bought for $20 or something.

I used Calibre Library, an ebook library organization program that can also convert many file types to convert files into an epub file for our Kobo e-reader. https://calibre-ebook.com/ Available for all major operating systems and has smartphone apps though I doubt those have editing capabalities. Here's all the file types it can convert but not all file type combos will work right. https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/generated/en/ebook-convert.html All the conversions I've done were just a matter of a few clicks and a little waiting time for the conversion to process, minutes.

The kids are grown up now but I found another purpose for the e-reader, recipes or recipe cards as they were called and kept quite often a few decades ago. It's small and thin. Ours is not slippery. There's not many buttons and they're hard to accidently activate. There's no glare. Some will accept many different file types like PDF files, though those tend to be big. Since a recipe is way smaller than a book, you could fit many thousands of recipes on one. The lousy image above shows our Yellow Rice recipe. The reader is turned off but many types of "electronic paper", the tech that displays text, will hold the text/image even when powered off. The Yellow Rice is something we make on a regular basis and our son makes it in the Instant Pot so all he has to do is grab the reader and read it. No need to even power up.

If you're a prepper, you will want them printed out but until the shtf, you could keep the printed ones fresh and use an e-reader in the meantime. It's way easier the deal with on a counter top than a book or sheet of paper. Likewise of you're cooking outdoors since a little wind won't be a problem nor will sunlight glare. Calibre will connect to most any e-reader and then you can sync your library. Kindle files can be converted by Calibre so if you bought a cook book on amazon, you could convert and load it to most any e-reader. Likewise with a pdf file.(like the ones I posted last week)

In the case of recipes, you'll want to organize them. The most standard way Calibre organizes and groups books is by Author so you could simply name the author Main Courses or Breakfast. If you want a hierarchy, you can add custom columns with them being tag based as explained here; https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/sub_groups.html

To give you an idea of file size; I converted a pdf recipe to epub. The pdf was 84.5kb and the epub 30.8kb. I converted the King James Bible from MOBI(kindle) to epub. Mobi 6.3mb and epub 1.5mb.(that's a lot of recipes:)

So if you have an old e-reader or someone offers you one or you want to buy a cheap used one online, strictly for recipes, they are handy for that or any other info you want. You can create a book right in Calibre or create a text file and convert it to epub or MOBI or whatever format works for your e-reader. Looking at new and used ones on ebay and they're a little more expensive than I thought. $25-60 generally.

[Pollard]

I was walking out of the auto parts store once and some guy asked me if I wanted some zucchini so I said sure. He handed me this 6-8 inch diameter by nearly 2 foot long monster. Didn’t have a clue what to do with it so I did a web search and came up with zucchini pickles. None of us really like them so I still have several canning jars full.

[greeneyes]

Lucky. My oldest daughter likes to bake/cook. However, she lives in N. Dakota. My youngest might make something for us twice a year - Thanksgiving and Christmas. Ha.

[4everontheRight]

My dogs love raw zucchini!! I slice them a few pieces to give them while we eat so they get in on the meal too! About the only veggie they’ll eat!

[Albion Wilde]

Zucchini al Dente
A quick side dish — great alongside steak, fish or chicken.

Using a box grater's largest holes, shred a couple of good-sized zucchini, including peel, onto a freshly clean, plain cotton kitchen towel (not terry cloth). (I've also used a brand new Handi-Wipe for this step.)

Wrap the towel around the contents lengthwise like a Tootsie-Roll wrapper, with excess fabric at both ends.

Over a large, wide bowl, twist the towel, keeping the shreds inside. Wring and squeeze to remove excess water. (You could discard the vitamin-rich green water, but why not freeze it to use it in soup, sauces, stews or smoothies!)

Melt a couple of tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat.

When pretty much melted, turn up the heat to high, but working quickly to avoid browning the butter, dump the shreds from the towel into the skillet.

Sauté rapidly, pushing the shreds around until they are all warmed through and thinly coated with butter, but not mushy—only about a minute. They should still have a little texture and crunch.

Remove from burner. Quickly stir in salt and pepper, or herbs such as basil, tarragon or dill, and/or a dash of lemon juice, to your taste.

Immediately remove from skillet to a serving dish or your plates and eat up!

(This dish is not meant to be prepared ahead, sit and get cold, or be reheated.)

[LibWhacker]

Rainbow eucalyptus:

[Diana in Wisconsin]

‘Marketmore Cucumber’

When we grew for market and local restaurants my FIL always grew that variety and his beloved, ‘Celebrity’ tomato. Both are very dependable producers. :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Sorry about the Zinnia. :( I prepared like we were going to get hit with a tornado for that last storm that came though. We got a full inch of rain, but no winds; and they were predicting 60-70MPH! One GIANT sunflower toppled onto my bean patch, but everything has recovered.

I have seen exactly 2 Japanese Beetles, and I am very happy about that. Killed them both, in case one was a boy and the other a girl. Can’t take ANY chances with those jerks!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Sounds perfect to me! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

WOW! I’ve never seen that before!

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I tried fresh zucchini from a nearby farm for the first time in decades last year. I just couldn’t get myself to like it. So I’ve gone zucchini-less since.

(I really liked it at first as a child, though.)

[ApplegateRanch]

Still getting adequate rain & more than enough heat for me, though not too much for the plants.

Harvested the last of the shallots. Also been eating thinnings: carrots, beets, and beet greens.

The corn has reached its full mature height of 4’, and is putting out tassels.

First squash flower opened this morning; and the green beans are covered with open blooms; should be picking by next weekend.

Last night, I dug clumps of from-seed leeks, and transplanted them,, while also side dressing the older, purchased transplants.

Also last week I deflowered the potatoes. Consensus of online sources was that it won’t do any harm, and MAY help improve yields.

Pole beans & scarlet runners are finally able to start climbing the fence wire; the scarlets are already trying to bloom.

Time to side dress the onions again.

Trees are full of apples this year, but late frost after an unusually early hot spell pretty much did in the stone fruits, other than wild plums.

Our day lilies have gone nuts this year; not to be outdone, the wildlings, purple echinacea, magenta spikes of wooly vervain, and yellow cone flowers & sunflowers are everywhere I look.

Still tilling under ground covering ‘crops’ of redroot pigweed every week; each mature plant produces 75-150,000 seeds, so the ground load is still enormous.

[MomwithHope]

Did not grow any zucchini this year. I remember one year going to Dollar General and outside the door in a grocery cart someone had filled it FULL with zucchini for people to take . If they get too big, cut them lengthwise and your chickens will devour them.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Your progress sounds fantastic!

Funny how we’re so far apart, but our gardens are in sync. My sweet corn is a tad behind yours, though the field corn all around me is ready to tassel.

I honestly have never heard of taking the blooms off of potatoes! I’ll have to research that. Mine are ready to be dug for some new potatoes - but I’m hoping for a bumper crop for storage well into the winter - now that I’ve figured out how to do it! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I’ll never understand what is so HARD about picking your zucchini every few days, so it’s tender and fresh and manageable.

Yes, I will admit to a MONSTER ZUKE through the years, if I missed picking for say, three days in a row, LOL!

I’m cutting back to one plant for next season. That is MORE than enough for us. I planted three in the Kitchen Garden and had an extra for the Big Garden. I love the stuff, but enough does end up being MORE than ENOUGH!

We need to find a way to make fuel from it, or find a way that it reduces aging, or magically makes you lose 10# overnight. Maybe we’re approaching this problem from the wrong angle? LOL!

[daniel1212]

Found a way to transfer pics. Not much growth:

Notice how one plant has disease while the other one seems resistant:

Meanwhile this "volunteer" plant has been doing quite well outside the fence, next to the sidewalk:

Praise God for His goodness!

[MomwithHope]

We would never have more than one plant and picked them young.

[TheConservativeParty]

Yep, those japanese beetles are jerks.😐
I have fought them off all summer. I get ‘em right away.
I had to water all my gardens today.
Got a closer look at any storm damage. It was not bad considering the amount of rain and some wind.
The zinnias that are getting to be 5 feet tall are amazing. Those flower stems on some varieties reach up high. This is the first time I grew zinnias. Very rewarding!

[ApplegateRanch]

When it comes to zucchini, we prefer ‘cocozelle’...”Italian marrow squash’. Also, open pollenated.

https://patch.com/california/culvercity/the-bounty-cocozelle