Garden Update

It's been a week since I got home from my trip to Utah, but I have still not gotten use to how big the cucumbers in my DIY Earthbox have gotten. Remember what they looked like a month ago when I last updated?

I had added some cages and the plants started getting some tiny blooms right before I left.

Last week I came home to this: 

It is huge! Dan said that it is so heavy it fell over one night after some really high winds. It's a daily battle to keep the tendrils out of the screen, too. There are a few little cucumbers on it. 

Since we have the plant on our screened in patio, we have to hand pollinate the flowers. The variety of cucumbers that I planted have male and female flowers, instead of male and female within the same flower. Male flowers are attached right to the vine while female flowers have a tiny, undeveloped cucumber behind them. If the female flowers are not pollinated, the cucumber won't grow. 

female

male

Since we have so many more male than female blossoms, we've been pulling the male flowers off, stripping them of their petals and rubbing the pollen directly from the stamen into the center of the female bloom. 

Now for the sad garden news, the basil plant died. The pepper plant isn't looking so good either, but it is still producing. The tomato and spinach plants are producing like crazy though. Dan got 26 tomatoes and 2 cups of spinach while I was gone. The spinach might be on its way out though, it has gotten freaking hot.