First... WTF is this? My potatoes used to be here...til the bugs ate 'em, now this is here and I didn't plant anything here.


Second... WTH is this? I thought it was a gourd, but it don't look like one no more.

Third... where the hell did this come from? I don't know what it is but it's growing next to my front porch...one day it was tiny, we got a bit of rain and now it's up to my window


Third...my pitiful garden...overrun by yellow squash and zucchini (and grass that has sand burs on it )...does anybody want any I can't eat anymore freaking zucchini or yellow squash...

My tomato plants got run over by the zucchini and now they're falling over

This is one of the zucchini that fell off the vine during one of the massive storms that caused mud to run over the plants... (take note, my boy is 50 inches tall and neither the damned zucchini from hell or my son has been genetically modified)

Ain't nothin' pitiful about that there zucchini.

Oh Abs... it's all I got out of the garden... a few cobs of corn, a shit load of yellow squash, and a mountain full of zucchini... it's pitiful when I had beans, tomatoes, peppers, several kinds of squash, cantaloupe, watermelon, potatoes, pumpkins, (cucumbers, lettuce, radishes, onions, etc... never even came up) all planted and then it got over taken *facepalm* and then to top it off, we got several days of rain (and it looked like rain again tonight) and the damn weeds joined up with the zucchini and we have a jungle out there.

I ain't even got the energy to go pull weeds, it ain't worth it if I'm gonna be eating zucchini for the next two years. I've fried it, turned it into soup, dehydrated it, made mush, baked it, filled it with brown sugar, stuffed it with other stuff...can I mail you some?!

And the tool that planted the garden for me went through like 20+ packs of seeds! And all I got out of the blasted thing was several of the overgrown items that my son is holding.

I never thought about dried Zukes.

Anyway, my mother, who participated in the Master Gardener program for three years, still can't grow a weed. Part of the issue lies with the environment: it's really dry, windy and the soil is crap.

She tries to grow things in pots on the porch but: The environment is dry and windy and hot, and regular watering seems to merit nothing. The tomatoes crossed the rainbow bridge a while back.

So did the fern, which grows well in moist soil and mostly indirect light. Its pot was placed in the garage where temperatures exceed 120 degrees. I don't know the logic behind that decision.

In comparison, your garden looks green at least.

That courgette (which is what we call them here btw ) looks more like a marrow. They're good for making jam (especially with a bit of ginger), or for stuffing with minced beef. *drools*

There's also a recipe for courgette cake (the same kind of thing as carrot cake) - would you like me to dig it out for you?

Sympathies for your disappointing crop, Stars. We've had a bad year over here too, due to the weather.

On the bright side, I like your view of the landscape there - it looks ace!

Ooh courgettes are lush, I love 'em, you just let them get too big Stars, you are supposed to pick them when they are about 6-8 inches max.

My recipe, is to cut these beauties in half long-ways , then scoop out the seeds and mush so that you are left two small canoes.
Then coat them in olive-oil and sea-salt and bang them in the oven until cooked. Then fill them with cheese-sauce and return to the oven for a while.....Luvverly!!

I agree with Gilly too, the view there looks lovely.

I think a marrow actually is just a large courgette btw - and still usable an versatile.

What would zucchini be good with,or can you make a soup or what?

allrecipes.com/recipes/fruits-and-vegeta...vegetables/zucchini/

StarsChildren wrote:
thats a butternut squash

www.closetcooking.com/2009/09/kolokythok...cchini-and-feta.html

I have this book that mentions companion gardening. The book has a great potato plan for a garden. You need a barrel to grow the potatoes in and on top you grow something else(I forget what it was) which keeps the potatoes from being eaten by potato bugs( again name escapes). I am no gardener though but had though of trying this. Apparently once they are done you can kick over the barrel and have loads of spuds.

Yes, some plants thrive if planted together (my mind's gone blank - I used to grow a particular tall, blue flower in with my strawberries because of this, & I can't remember the name of it) - while sometimes you plant them together so that one (like marigolds) draws the bugs away from the other, and some refuse to grow if there's a particular type of plant in with them, yet it's nothing to do with them stealing nutrients from each other.

was it borage?

batou wrote:
Yes! Thank you, Bats-in-the-belfry. I think you're secretly a twisted genius and / or a very clever mind-reader.

im a twisted mind reader. thats why i can read your twisted mind!

Gilly wrote:
There's also a recipe for courgette cake (the same kind of thing as carrot cake) - would you like me to dig it out for you?

On the bright side, I like your view of the landscape there - it looks ace![/quote]

Have stuffed them
I've never eaten carrot cake, or any other kind of vegetable cake...can't hurt to try. Thanks.
Yes, the view is lovely when you ignore the dotting of neighbors and their junk, and you ignore the sounds of the highway just in front of that mountain set. When we first moved here, there weren't that many people...they've moved in, and I believe they did so with the sole purpose of irritating me
jhado wrote:
Didn't purposely let them get that big, that happened while I wasn't checking the greenery either because of torrential rain (did not want to drag the canoe out to paddle over and check on the garden) or for whatever reason that escapes me right now (short term memory is shot right now, I know there was a reason though lol).

Have "banged" them in the oven...filled them up, stuffed 'em, as well as several other ways that I made up on the go.

The view is even better when you crawl up on top of that hill and there is no one in site

Thanks for the recipe...
Rick wrote:
Zucchini goes with, when sliced and pan fried, garlic yellow squash, onions... you can turn it into soup, make bread and butter pickles, dill pickles, chop it into chunks and jar/can it, you can eat it just the way it is, batter it and deep fry it, bake it as previously mentioned... there are numerous things to be done with it.
batou wrote:
Thanks dear... 1 previously unidentified vegetable...I now know what butternut squash looks like...although I don't recall having any seeds for it.
oioioi wrote:
Thanks.

...Also thanks to everyone I am not quoting for their advice/ideas and thoughts...

Courgette & raisin cake (from Nigella's Domestic Goddess book)

Ingredients

60g raisins
250g courgettes (two or three) weighed before grating
2 large eggs
125ml vegetable oil
150g caster sugar
225g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
For the filling:
Approx half a jar of lemon curd
For the icing:
200g cream cheese
100g sieved icing sugar
Juice of 1 lime

Method

Preheat oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4. Put the kettle on and make yourself your hot beverage of choice while you rustle this delight up. Pour some of the hot water to cover your raisins which makes them beautifully plump and gorgeously juicy.

Grate the courgettes and remove excess water by sieving over the sink.

Cream the eggs, oil and sugar together in a bowl.

Sieve in the flour, bicarb and baking powder until well combined.

Stir in the courgette and the drained raisins.

Split the mixture between two greased 21cm sandwich tins and bake for 30 minutes. (Or you can split the mixture between 12 muffin cases, icing optional.)

Cool on a rack while you make your icing.

To make the icing:
Beat the cream cheese in a bowl until smooth.

Sift in the icing sugar and keep beating and finally add the lime juice to taste.

Assembly:
Put one cake on the plate and spread with the lemon curd. Put on the top cake and smear thickly with the cream cheese icing. If the icing is a bit runny, chill for a while in the fridge.

We like it.

That's not much to go by though, as the cake we don't like has yet to be invented.

Rick wrote:
G'day Rick.

A couple of ideas ....

Grated raw and put in with a salad.
Awesome in a split pea soup.

zuchinis make an ok lasagna too if you slice it like the pasta