Garden Update

Look how big my plants have gotten!

When I arrived home from my visit to Bristol, I had quite a number of surprises waiting for me in my container garden! For starters, I finally have RED TOMATOES!

Also, I have my first cucumber, which is getting bigger by the day.

In addition, I have my first squash, also getting bigger by the day.

Did you know that cucumbers mate sexually? Well, they do! For a plant, that means that there are both male and female flowers. The pollen from the male flowers has to make its way to the ovaries of the female flowers.
On my cucumber plant, the numerous male flowers look like this:

The female flowers, which are more rare, have a little cucumber at the base of the flower, like this:

So a bee has to find a male and a female flower that love each other very much, and bring the two together! POOF! Cucumber salad!

Unfortunately, my Early Girls have Blossom-End Rot, which is too bad for me. It can be due to inconsistent watering or poor calcium absorption from the soil. I have crushed eggshells and added them to the soil, but it may be too little too late. You can still eat the fruit, but you have to cut off the bad part. Basically, the tomato plant needs calcium that it isn't getting
from the soil, so it starts taking nutrients back from the fruit, killing the blossom-end. Yuck.