Hello garden friends! I am Casey, the Community Garden Coordinator over at First Presbyterian. I am excited to begin contributing to our garden blog here, and so thankful you’ve dropped in! I have grown up gardening, however, am wrapping up my second season as a fully solo gardener (without the oversight of my dearest Gram). I hope you enjoy as I share my experiences with you, and can laugh with me as I learn along the way. Without further ado, here are some of my “Muddy Musings.”

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Everyone loves a guaranteed win- especially with the garden. From pest pressure to ever-changing weather patterns, sometimes all a gardener wants is the guarantee that they will reap a worthwhile crop. And yet, I have found myself gambling with the garden gods to see if I can beat the system.

“What have you done Casey?” you ask. Well, I have planted zucchini in August… I know, I know- let me back up.

I did not initially plant zucchini this year, simply because I expected a good tomato crop and to be honest, I just didn’t feel set up to be able to handle both a boatload of tomatoes AND a mountain of zucchini. I am still dipping my toes into canning and preserving, and I have small children running around, and a small kitchen, and a small garden, and so I wanted to make the use of my space(s) and also not grow more than what I knew I could successfully put up. So, we were doing good, trucking right along, and we’ve been harvesting tomatoes left and right (my toddler revels in the sun-warmed tomatoes straight off the vine). As I mentioned, I have a small plot and I try to utilize every. last. inch. In my current set-up, I am a big fan of square foot gardening as opposed to rows, although I don’t have much rhyme or reason- simply tuck things in wherever they might have a smidge of space. This year, as produce has begun to slow down, I have been quick to pull tired plants and make way for new things to be sown. It was there I found myself one day in late August, with a bag of seeds and more freshly cleared ground than I was anticipating, counting on my fingers how many days to maturity various plants had and comparing it to the (then) 70-ish days until the anticipated first frost. Zucchini, having about 55 days to maturity was my clear (and only) winner. And so, four little seeds got tossed into an empty space without much emotional attachment to their success, and I moved on sowing carrots and harvesting more tomatoes.

A few days later, it was an absolute shock when each of my four haphazard zucchini seeds had successfully germinated AND were rapidly growing. Immediately, I abandoned my “eh, if they make it, they make it” attitude and I wanted them to win. There is something invigorating to me about seeing seedlings burst forth, and I got so pumped about the potential of eating risky zucchini fresh from the garden in the middle of October.

I have a few various hopes; the first is that perhaps our first frost comes a little later than anticipated and that I am able to reap fruit for at least two weeks before my plants inevitably perish. My second hope is one more of curiosity, in that my plants will be healthier with less pest pressure than in the middle of the summer growing season. Being as there is only one generation of vine borers every year, I hope that they have passed us by and with a later plant I will have missed their dreaded presence entirely. The last hope I have on the matter is simply that the space in which I have planted will have enough sustained nutrients to help the zucchini flourish. I planted in the empty space of my first year potatoes upon a pile of compost-rich soil that was freshly aerated via potatoes. While I realize both are heavy feeders, I have been fertilizing, supplementing, and amending soil all season long. Hopefully, my TLC through the season will carry over into the vigorous growth of some October Zuchs!

I have considered trialing staking my zucchini up a pole (YouTube it!) to see what that does for the plant and the fruit, but I also might just leave it and let it go, seeing as we’re already working against the odds and the season. If I actually reap zucchini this fall, even if it’s no more than three fruits, I would be ecstatic. I am excited to keep you all in the loop and share my progress and my (hopeful) success! I will say, it has become quite the paradox to go to the garden and see things slowly withering and then off to the side, my zucchini getting bigger by the day! Fingers crossed for the green guys, and I’ll be sharing updates soon. I have attached some pictures below of a few weeks of progress just within the first month! Make sure to check them out.

And so concludes this weeks muddy musings- wishing you all a good time in a garden- anyones, anywhere, just somewhere! Get outside! Get muddy!

Casey