I’m not sure that I should be giving gardening advice, all things considered. However, kabob skewers come in handy!
Zach bought a pack of 200 wooden skewers about two years before we got married. He never once opened them. In fact, the first time they were used was for my first gardening emergency (my basil was falling over). Ever since then, I have been grateful for what I once thought to be a very odd purchase by a man who doesn’t grill.
They came in handy again today!
You may remember from last week that my container garden wasn’t going so well. A thunderstorm had rolled in and tried very hard to destroy my plants. They were infested with bugs and mold and who-knows-what-else. I’ve been ignoring them because, quite frankly, they depressed me. Today, however, I decided to put on my Big Girl Panties (which shall henceforth be referred to as BGP) and deal with it. I started with the zucchini.
I still don’t know if that white stuff is mold…but when I shifted a leaf, it came flying off of it like a cloud of dust. Is it pollen? I don’t understand….
Anyway! It had a lot if dry, dead leaves. So I clipped them. I’m not even sure if you’re supposed to do that, but I couldn’t take it anymore.
How the skewers came in handy: Zucchini plants are surprisingly prickly–a fact I did not know until today when I grabbed a stem and it stabbed me. But I had to get underneath the plant. So I put on gloves and propped up the main stems with kabob skewers. The plant is no longer just laying in soil, which may or may not be good for it (I suppose I’ll find out). It looks fuller and allowed me to see the reproductive stems.
Here’s the thing about zucchini: they do best if you hand-pollinate them. My problem right now, though, is that I have a ton of male parts and I can’t seem to find the females. I’ll try again in a day or two. (For more on how to care for and hand-pollinate zucchini, please refer to this great post from My Urban Garden.)
One side looks a little sparse, but I’m sure it will thicken now that the zucchini has more room to grow.
Lots of dead stuff.
I decided to add a skewer to my strawberry, since it was nearly horizontal. I intend to get a bigger pot for it tonight. You know what I noticed, though?
I have a strawberry! It may not look great, but dammit, it’s there!
I also propped up my basil, which is looking rather pathetic. I intend to prune it, as well. It really needs it. I’ll give it a couple days to get used to sitting upright again, though.
I also propped up my string beans and removed some dead, brown leaves, and guess what I saw!
I have beans! Yay!
I am so thrilled with my garden right now! Which is great, because now I feel motivated to go back to taking care of it more regularly.
Next, I may need to prune some of the leaves of my green bell peppers that the cat ate. -_-
As for the tomato:
It’s doing pretty well. Not fantastic, but it’s not dying. Yet. It hasn’t made much progress over the last few weeks, though, and that’s slightly disappointing. But I have hope for it.
As far as the kabob skewers go, the reason I would recommend them over actual gardening skewers (if they make those…do they?) is because they’re cheaper and, if you wind up not needing them for your garden, you can use them to prepare food. 😛
What is your most useful gardening tool?