Woah Zucchini!

Today we cut our first BIG zucchini out of the garden. And this being our first year for growing food in our garden, I am quite pleased. It is definitely coming with its share of learning opportunities as I work to maintain the health of the plants. We have tomatoes, squash, and zucchini in the same area of the garden and previous to the plants moving in, there used to be a sidewalk to the garage. I added soil from other areas of the yard evened out the area. I then sectioned it off and put the plants and seeds in. Hmmmmm....sounds pretty simple. The plants have grown quite huge regardless of all the things are are struggling with. The is a mildew that has started growing on the leaves of both the squash and the zucchini and spider mites have found the squash. I have taken to spraying the leaves with natural remedies and removing dead and consumed leaves from the plants to help it to survive until the end of season. I am so glad that this encouragement has helped the plant to produce such good fruit, or in this case zucchini.




Lessons I am learning from growing my own food.

Prepare the soil - Good food needs good food

If I want this zucchini to bring nourishment and nutrients to me, I want to feed it with the good nutrients I want to receive. I pretty much just used the soil that was there and considering there was a sidewalk there before, it was a gravel base that I was working with. I added topsoil and a couple bags of other soil I had picked up from the store. I also added bonemeal around the plants and watered the plants with rainwater. We have a compost pile on the go and in the spring when I turn it over, it should be ready to spread throughout the beds and provide more nourishments for the garden we will plant next year. The nutrients and good composition of the soil helps the plants not only to grow, and be healthy, but to produce a good yield as well. The plants grew big and abundantly, but their health can be improved on as well.

The same can be said for us. We need good food to become good food. We need to nourish ourselves from the inside out to produce good fruit in our lives. We can make sure that what we are putting into ourselves,(i.e. healthy food, good information and knowledge, positive influences, etc.) will help us to grow and produce a good harvest. We are a part of this world we are in, and others benefit from the fruit that we produce.

To reap an abundant crop it takes daily maintenance.

I admit, I wasn't out there in the garden everyday. If it rained, I stayed inside since I didn't have to water the garden. But a few days later I came to realize that something was going on with the squash plants. They had spider mites. If I had been out there on a more consistent basis and more watchful and observant of what kind of growth and details were going on, I would have easily noticed the spotty leaves and could tackle the situation as it began. I lost a few plants to spider mites, but now with the mildew that is growing on both the squash and zucchini plants, I am looking to remedy the spread before it takes over. I will be trying a solution of chamomile tea to spray the leaves with and hope that it works. I have already removed heavily affected leaves and dead leaves from the garden. The sooner I take action to go after these problems, the less work I will have to do to fight for the lives of these plants and we can still enjoy the harvest they are working so hard to produce. I can help to keep the plants healthy, by making sure they have enough water, check for pests or disease, keeping the plants fed and harvest the fruit as it is ready.

Taking daily, consistent action towards nurturing your growth helps us to keep moving forward in the same way. Focusing on staying healthy in all areas of our lives takes thought, and watchfulness followed with the right actions. Staying hydrated, taking in balanced nutrients, watching for negative influences, thoughts, and habits and removing or replacing them with positive thoughts, habits and influences. Also being watchful for disease and things that seem to be out of place or not inline with what you are trying to accomplish. Sometimes they are not negative things, but they could be things that are not productive to the goal you are going after. Keeping things in moderation and maintaining focus are good actions towards fruitful growth as well.

Share the good harvest, and more will come

The zucchini plants produced many little zucchinis and they would grow to a certain point and then start dying off. They would turn yellow at the end and then start shrinking back. If I could catch then just as they start to change colour, I could still have a good zucchini to eat. Also with cutting back the additional fruit and pruning some of the leaves, it helped the zucchini plant to put more energy into growing bigger fruits. The more I pruned, the bigger the fruits that were produced. Now again, the BIG ones are still growing bigger and bigger and the plant is producing more new shoots and leaves now as well.

With pruning or refinement and continually giving from our fruits, can we reap a bigger harvest? If we grow more and give more can we receive more? My life has proven that in many ways, and I see it in the lives of those around me too. I am surrounded by people who give with what they have (their talent) and from what they have and people seem to be eager to give them more. But I have also seen the opposite, where those who take from the harvest of others, don't give from what they can produce and has left them with less in the end. There is a market out there full of the good harvest of others and we are consumers and producers in that market. What we produce, we are giving to others, and what we receive in return may very well be dependent on what it is we are giving. It is good to good to give and makes you a better receiver the more you give what is good. All I know is that I have never held a zucchini that big from my own garden and I gave it to our friends to enjoy. It was the first of the big fruits out of our garden and there is more to come and more to enjoy. Guess it's a good thing that I love zucchinis.