OK, so maybe I'm just tired of seeing the "Pig Poo Tea" thread :D and I was inspired by the awesome zucchini pix that Misq17 posted, so I thought I'd shamelessly show off a few veggies I harvested from my garden on Friday.

I know there's others who garden as well, so get out the camera and take some pictures of that great produce!! I'd LOVE to see what your gardens look like!!

I'm getting about this many beans (about 3 lbs.) and squash (about 15 or so) every DAY... I've been gone for the weekend, I hate to imagine how much stuff I'll have waiting when I return home...

Beautiful vegetables, TNS! :sunny:

Gorgeous! I'm green with envy! :bobo:

Some pics of my gardens and produce:

Some more:

Oh how COOL!!! Look at your tomatoes and peppers! I'm so jealous! I grew peppers last year and they did wonderfully here - I didn't get around to planting any this year... yours look just great!

What variety of tomatoes? They look lovely too! My corn is pathetic, I should show a picture of that just for laughs...

Thanks! :)

Those are Purple Calabash tomatoes, but I'm not happy with them, they split and rot too easily, so I won't be growing them again.

My corn is silly looking. It's a native american corn, Tohono O-odham 60 day corn, it's just about three feet tall, but making ears! I hope the racoons don't eat it...

Oh, wow. Never heard of those particular tomatoes... they look cool though.
I'm growing some zebra striped tomatoes that are pretty cool looking, and my "Black Russian" ones are a really pretty purple-black and red right now; hey, I guess they're almost ripe..

Wow. Great gardens, Ludi and TNS. :up:

omg you guys are making me so jealous, i want a garden so bad !
your veggies look awesome!
TNS what's that round squash called ? i've seen those before but i figued you'd know the name for them since you're growing them.

Ludi, the tomatoes that you're growing, do they have a big dark mark in the middle (where the flower was) and are they really sweet ?

and TNS the Black Russian tomatoes are my favorite :drool: i'm so growing those when i have a garden .... it's funny because in Russian they're called " Moldovian" (which is a different contry)

OK, so i don't even know what i'm doing in this thread, drooling all over your veggies, i'm not even supposed to be here :o

I have an apartment in the middle of San Antonio, but I have a pretty good sized patio. I would LOVE to plant my own veggies, but is it possible to plant potted veggies?

I have an apartment in the middle of San Antonio, but I have a pretty good sized patio. I would LOVE to plant my own veggies, but is it possible to plant potted veggies?
Yes. Some vegetables can do fairly well in pots. I think there was a thread called 'container gardening' a while ago.

Thanks guys! And Vicky (or anyone ) you're always welcome to wander around the gardening threads...

The flattish roundish squash is called (well, the seed package called it..) a PattyPan Squash though the ones I've seen are usually a more pale green. (OK, I've also heard the lighter ones called "White Scallop Squash") Anyway - I'm wondering if it cross pollinated with my summer squash (yellow) or zucchini...

OK, nevermind... I'm rambling 'garden talk'....

you're not rambling, i've never seen yellow ones with that shape either - they're usually pale green :) so you must be right about them crossing

You only have to be concerned about cross pollination when you are harvesting the seeds, and then, only of certain plants (like sweet corn). That is because part of the seed, the germ I think, is a heterozygote, a mix of paternal an fraternal, and this can affect the growth of the whole seed, in some plants, even tho the rest of the seed: the seed coat and the endosperm, are maternal. That is, depending on the plant, sometimes the chemistry of the germ affects the growth of the endosperm, in other plants it doesn't. And the rest of the plant, including the fruits -- as squash are -- are all maternal, so it makes do difference whether the seeds have been pollinated by the same variety or another. The squash seeds are probabably not affected either, because I've never heard of anyone recommending you keep your various squash and pumpkin varieties apart, but I always hear that, for best results with corn, you should keep the different varieties apart.

In short, crossing won't affect the appearance of squash fruit -- until you plant the seeds (in the female ovary, the fruit, the "squash") that you got from the plant that you suspect has been fertililized by a male of a different variety, or even species.

I took about 10 pictures just now of my garden, but due in combonation to my bad camera, unsteadiness, and bad lighting since it's starting to get dark, they all came out fuzzy and unrecognizable.

Our garden isn't that big, we have 5 tomato plants, a lot of cucumbers which are dying because of the really hot weather and not enough water, 2 zucchini plants, and 3 basil plants. Everything is super crowded together and I pick 7 or 8 tomatoes almost every day.

Awww... MisQ17, too bad - you'll have to post some pictures some time anyway... you had some GREAT zucchini pix in the photo album!

Soilman, thanks for clearing up my question re: my squash... however I still don't know for sure what kind it is I guess... tastes pretty good though.

..I am.....so jealous!

Some kinds of squash will cross, they must be of the same species, though, and bloom at the same time. Most summer squash are Cucurbita pepo. Some pumpkins are Cucurbita pepo but some are Cucurbita maxima. Other kinds of winter squash that may look like pumpkins are Cucurbita angyrosperma(probably misspelled that) and another species whose name I can't remember right now....Many seed catalogs don't give the species name, darn them.

Vicky, those Purple Calabash don't have a dark spot and they aren't particularly sweet.

ETA - I looked at them again and they do have a small dark spot at the blossom end....:doh:

Go ahead and add me to the "I'm jealous and wish I could have a garden" list. :)

I have one patio tomato plant which is doing okay at best. It's very much alive, and getting plenty of sun and water, but thus far it has only produced a whopping total of 3 tomatoes for the entire summer. The 2 I've picked previously, and one that is ripening on the plant right now. Do any of you have any ideas as to what I could do to get more tomatoes from it? I have noticed that all of the tomatoes that I've gotten have all come from the same area of the plant as well. I'll try to take a pic of it later on today and post it here.

Go ahead and add me to the "I'm jealous and wish I could have a garden" list. :)

I have one patio tomato plant which is doing okay at best. It's very much alive, and getting plenty of sun and water, but thus far it has only produced a whopping total of 3 tomatoes for the entire summer. The 2 I've picked previously, and one that is ripening on the plant right now. Do any of you have any ideas as to what I could do to get more tomatoes from it? I have noticed that all of the tomatoes that I've gotten have all come from the same area of the plant as well. I'll try to take a pic of it later on today and post it here.

If your tomato plant isn't one specially bred for container culture, it may resent having its roots crowded and not want to make more tomatoes.

I got the plant from my mother, who assured me it was bred for that. She has one and my sister has one and both of theirs are tomato-producing like mad.
:confused:
It's in a big pot too, so I don't think it's rootbound.

A friend from Asheville, NC gave me several pale, orange, squash shaped somewhat like a bell. They stand upright. I have never seen them before and do not know how to cook them. Does anyone have any ideas what they might be? Sorry I don't have a picture of them. Thanks, Ima Hug from

Brandon, give your tomato a "blossom builder" sort of fertalizer that it encourages it to produce more blooms.. that would be a fertalizer with a high phosphorus content - the middle number in the three you'll see on a fertalizer package...

Like 10 - 50 - 10 or similar...

May not help for this year, but for future reference...

Also - heat above 90 degrees can cause tomatos to produce less blooms...

A friend from Asheville, NC gave me several pale, orange, squash shaped somewhat like a bell. They stand upright. I have never seen them before and do not know how to cook them. Does anyone have any ideas what they might be? Sorry I don't have a picture of them. Thanks, Ima Hug from

Sounds like a butternut squash?

Look at this link - might help...

http://www.wholehealthmd.com/refshelf/foods_view/1,1523,189,00.html

And if it is indeed butternut squash - here are some excellent recipes (of course you may have to sub some vegetarian ingredients..)

http://www.seedsofknowledge.com/butternut.html