Garlic, Onions, Cucumbers and Winter Veggies Growing Strong

These past few weeks have been extremely busy so many changes have taken place in a very short period of time some things I will post later will be my new hawk, new puppy and oh boy, my all of a sudden new rabbitry. I feel like the Swiss Family Robinson around here. But all the while as these things have been taken place my Winter veggies are really enjoying this cold crisp weather. I planted some garlic some time ago and I have some great shoots especially from this elephant garlic. Its mammoth. I also have set several Sweet onions around the garden and they are growing very strong. Zone 8 is proving to be very good for having a garden through the year. into the spring. The cucumbers have been the big hit around here. This Japanese variety does not do well in the heat. It developed all kinds of problems due to the humidity. But we didn't give up. We planted again in Sept-Oct and amazingly it took off. Today is the Saturday after thanksgiving and its 30 degrees and this beaut is still setting flowers. I recommend this variety to everyone who wants to extend there growing season. Although a little tricky at first you have to time it just right so that the temps are not high during the day and cool at night. This would easily be a Cucumber for the spring, mid to end of summer and fall in the north. Also my kale is growing beautiful leaves along with my collards and Bibb Lettuce. We are just so happy around here. Happy Holidays!!

Growing Japanese Cucumbers

After several attempts this year to grow Japanese Cucumbers we finally got a few seeds to grow and set flowers. It seems like this variety really does well in cooler weather. The whole plant has several Flowers with both male and females strutting there stuff. My wife and I are hand pollinating them all and so far so good. This past summer we were up to our ears in Cucumbers and although my wife was not a big cucumber person she really started to like them. They just add a really fresh crisp to our food and I started adding them fresh, to all my meals. Even though its cooler these days I really hope this Japanese variety really hangs in there. It's kind of tough for our pollinators at this time of the year, they are all hunkering down getting ready to embrace the cold.

Growing Japanese Cucumber

Our Japanese cucumber has been our problem child, due to the disease that overshadowed it a while back. I quickly learned that the disease was more from me than anything else and when we pulled back on the watering she began to live again. She is doing so much better these days that I was amazed to see this flower. It is a good thing but from what I have been learning, one flower is not going to do any good. SO for now I am enjoying the one bloom. There seems to be another one in process but I can't tell and I am not sure with the timing. But I will leave it up the plant to decide and if by some chance another bloom happens to occur I will try diy pollination.

Plant Disease

I have been doing some research on why my plants have been getting these spots on the fringe of their leaves. What I have learned is that it may be happening from over watering. The picture shows that in the foreground there is a leaf that has suffered from this spot disease. This is Japanese Cucumber; I have noticed that most of my melons along with the cucs and tomatoes have these spots. My wife and I have seriously cut back on the watering and have noticed that our plants have really taken off. The picture shows a new leaf that is virtually spot free and strong this leaf grew after we cut back from the mad watering. All of my tomatoes have also shown great improvement as a result of cutting back on the watering. What we have done was to give a good watering every other day rather than every day. And with regards to the cucumbers we have literally gone to watering this girl once a week. As long as the soil stays moist and is not dry she seems to love the little neglect