Pumpkin, Zucchini, and Cucumber Vegetables Starting to Flower

Today is just more of an update on the garden since it has been at least a week since my last post.  This week has been crazily busy especially with all the rain and the weeds growing in the garden.  I have had to work in the garden most of the week trying to remove all the weeds that I could.

All I have left to weed would be the tomatoes and some other small areas.  I will begin mulching some plants which might include corn and maybe beans.  It all depends how much mulch I am able to collect this week.

It looks like my lettuce is starting to wind down and they should begin going to seed at any moment.  I can still pick some more before they go to seed and if I cut the center of the plant I can extend them a little bit longer.  This prevents them from going to seed quickly and becoming very bitter.

I am happy with the iceberg lettuce this year and even though some of it has been eaten by groundhogs I still was able to harvest the most in a very long time.  I will most likely do this again in the coming years and hopefully much more.

Right now I want to discuss about the vegetables that have been appearing around my zucchini, pumpkin, and cucumber plants.  I noticed that some of my pumpkins were flowering, but I didn’t think that they would be pollinated this early in the season.

This is the first pumpkin that has been pollinated this season.  There is another one on the same plant, but one of them will be sacrificed by the plant in order to provide nutrients to just one pumpkin.  Right now they are pretty much the same size so I am not certain which one will be sacrificed.

Here is the second one that is on the same pumpkin vine.  They are both pollinated and it is only a matter of time before one of them drops off.

On the other hand I can have multiple zucchini on each plant at the same time without any problem.  That is exactly what I have noticed on my zucchini plants.  I noticed that many of them have grown to large sizes very quickly and are ready for harvesting.

These are just a couple of zucchini vegetables that are growing right now.  There are plenty more that are growing and some that have just been pollinated.  So far my squash plants are doing quite well and hopefully they will keep producing.

I noticed on some of my cucumber plants that cucumbers were beginning to flower and this is the first of the season.  I have several plants that were planted at different times including the transplants that I added to the garden.  The transplants will most likely be the first to start producing cucumbers.

I only checked on one plant since I happen to see this one while I was watering my plants and I had to take a picture of it.  They usually only open up in the morning when all the bees and pollinators are out and about.  I will have to check on this cucumber later to see if it was pollinated or not.  This might be the first cucumber of the season.

I have also been working on weeding lately which includes both carrots and corn.  Carrots are a real pain to weed because the plants are incredibly small and the weeds are usually much larger than carrot plants.  I had to be real careful removing weeds around my plants.

I have quite a few carrot plants and I can actually grow some more if I wanted.  They do not take that long to mature and are great for storing over the winter.

Corn was weeded which included the corn and in between the rows which was filled with large weeds.  Corn is not good at competing for nutrients and that is why it is recommended to place mulch around them to suffocate weeds and retain moisture.

I can’t forget about my first Roma tomato of the season as well.  All the tomato plants are flowering and many of them are producing tomatoes and will begin ripening in July as long as we get plenty of sun.  Check out the Roma tomato below.   It has been getting bigger and should soon start turning red.

I will also start planting my fall crop in pots very soon as well.  I usually begin the first of July to begin harvesting them in the fall.  I will be planting broccoli and cabbage at the moment and hope to be planting kale.  I will most likely be planting them where my lettuce plants are or even where my onions are.  It all depends how much room I will need for the amount of plants I grow.