Holy Neem, Batman!

I was introduced to neem oil as an organic insecticide for my plants some time ago after I did some personal research having seen it at my local mom and pop garden store an OMRI safe insecticide. (This stuff is never at Home Depot or Lowes, phbbt!)

So, after finding it to be relatively effective on my plants, I started noticing its presence at the local Indian grocery store in all things beauty and hygiene like soap and toothpaste. Cautious of quality, and no offence (<-- Brit spelling!) to India, but contamination issues have occurred before and I was a bit nervous to purchase any neem oil stuff that I might leave for long periods on my body, as it felt weird put what I use to rid myself of plant bugs on my actual person. AND... the fact that the expiration dates on some of the beauty products were off by a year or more sometimes. Hmm.

(I'd like to note too that I do not buy anything made in China too that involves ingesting or stays on my body... THAT quality control feels nearly non-existent)

All this background info finally brings me to my actual point that I walked into Whole Foods today in search of some sort of relief for my bug bites. I get terrible reactions to mosquito, spider and tick bites, but mosquitoes are the majority of these bites and in my case the itchiness and redness and SWELLING (the size of grapefruits I tell you) can last for a week or longer. Aggravating it further is when I get bites behind my knees and I wear pants. Ooooh, rubbage.

After speaking with the holistic-essential oils-extracts-supplements lady (who cooed about the hotness and coldness of things, and how mosquitos are repelled by "cold," which I ignored) she mentioned neem oil and I decided to give it a try as I had heard so many positive things on it earlier. I felt as a commercial store, and having many different brands of neem oil made me more comfortable with the idea of putting it on my body.

(What I got: Alaffia brand neem oil, $8 for 8 ounces. Ouch, but if my jojoba/tea tree oil is proof, this stuff lasts. This was initially oddly difficult to find their website too, more shea butter than neem)

http://www.alaffia.com/index.php/balms-creams/alaffia-basics-unrefined-neem-oil-0-8-oz
(interestingly enough too, shipping is more expensive on the site than the actual neem product I got!)

Later when I got home I decided to make Indian food with my husband and I needed to harvest some malabar spinach. This is where I never learn and usually get the majority of my bites. I think to myself/am lazy, "I'll just be out for a couple of minutes, I won't get bit... no need to change completely into long sleeves, socks and pants..." but invariably do get bit, literally 8 bites in the 5 minutes I'm out there. *face slap* Everytime...

When I get inside, within seconds I am itching like crazy and the bumps are getting all welty and spreading fast. I take the neem oil and dab and rub it on everywhere bumpy.

There is no instant relief and I start cooking to remind myself of the bites and keep my hands busy from wanting to scratch.

The smell, warning, is an odd mixture of strongly peanut with some garlic undertones. If you like thai/indian/asian food then you're good?

Later, I TOTALLY forgot about my bites until hours after dinner and think, "I wonder how my bites are faring?" Looking around at my legs and arms there's a "waitaminute?!?!" moment.

I CAN'T FIND THE BITES. I don't ITCH.

WHOA. This is a total breakthrough for me as I've tried tea tree oil, baking soda, benadryl, soap, toothpaste, laundry detergent, and anti-histamines in all my prior years. Everytime I use these things and get any relief at all either it's brief and the itchiness comes back with a mere brush against the bite, or the redness/swollen-ness is present for a long time.

I am currently running my hands on the areas where the bites were and I can't find them. It's so weird and relieving that it's mystical.

So, HERE's the apparent SCIENCE: (all taken from memory after some further research)

Neem has been used for centuries in India as a medicinal and insect repellent and is considered to be a near panacea for ailments from hair loss/graying to acne to potential aid in cancer treatment. (While I am not in total agreement with all those claims, bug bites get my A+)

The major chemical in neem is azadirachtin, which impairs many insect pests from breeding, eating or changing into their next phase of metamorphosis. Neem also has many beneficial chemicals and acids that aid in skin disorders such as eczema and also traces of sulfur-like chemicals which help its anti-bacterial properties. It is also anti-fungal and anti-viral to an extent.

And it's been shown to be safe for humans/larger creatures, like your pets, though warnings to wait to allow children to use it until they are 12 or older is due to the potency of neem and also that women who are trying to become pregnant or are pregnant should avoid it as it can be an abortificant like pennyroyal and juniper berries.

I am most curious about the claims of skin effectiveness and will be diluting it in my jojoba oil for my face. More excitement if it clears all blemishes up, gives me minor plastic surgery to my flat nose, and increases my IQ to 200.

Just kidding :) But hey, more updates when they come!

LINKS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neem_oil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azadirachtin

Tricolore Garda shows its colors!

Isn't it gorgeous?! Orange, purple, cream, yellow! (Ok, so cream and yellow can nearly be the same thing, but we're making an exception here because I like more colors)

I still have yet to take a little bite from each different colored pepper (a little scared honestly) but I know, in the name of food science, I must :P

This will make an even lovelier pepper jelly than the one before, and I really, really really ought to try it the proper way... rather than the cheatin' freezer jelly method. Gotta be hardcore and all about this canning business.

Speaking of which , my pineapple sage is looking mighty overgrown and I hear that's spiffy to make into an apple jelly with....

Already I'm feeling all jelled out.

I may have a problem.

I've been wanting to do this for a while, form an inventory of all my plants in stock and I am realizing that NOT maybe I have too many plants, but I do have a lot...

I have been thinking as a good winter exercise to blog about all the plants in my inventory and talk about their aspects. I might need to select the best of the list but... hey winter is long.

NOTE: I did this pretty much entirely in my head and when I think I am done, I always think of more:
(n.b. this doesn't count the prior structure landscaping plants of oak tree, nandinas, hollies, azaleas, otto luykens and etc.)

FRONT GARDEN
-random rose
-spiderwort
-iris (swamp and bearded)
-bells of ireland
-ice plant
-day lily
-california poppy
-icelandic poppy
-red and yellow and bengal cannas
-cinnamon, painted, tokyo, beech ferns
-purple perilla
-solomon's seal
-red hellebore
-asian ginger
-nasturtiums: India Empress, Jewel, Fordhook, Alaska mix
-hollyhock
-columbine (little lanterns)
-autumn joy sedum
-vinca minor
-(maybe) anemones
-camellia sinensis (green tea plant)
-2 various Chinese herbs
-scented geraniums: citronella, ginger, rose and mint

BACK reg GARDEN:
-hostas
-chrysanthemums
-strawberry begonia
-golden turkey vine
-creeping jenny
-pennyroyal
-osmandus fern
-white calla lily
-shade sedum
-May night and Friesland Salvia

VEGETABLE GARDEN EDIBLES:
-All American pickling cucumber
-Clemson spineless okra
-burgundy okra
-everbearing strawberries
-blue lake and kentucky wonder pole beans
-Scarlet Runner Beans
-passionflower (passiflora incarnata)
-Red Stem Malabar Spinach
-Jersey Knight asparagus
-Baritone Bush Beans
-sweet bell peppers
-eggplant
-Tomatoes: Green stripe zebra, Nebraska Wedding, Brandywine
-Sweet potato
-Siberian blue Kale
-India Mustard
-English and sugar snap and snow peas
-Zucchini and waltham butternut and acorn squash
-carrots
-parsnips
-purple top turnips

-hot peppers: jalapeno, poblano, serrano, cubanelle, tricolore garda, calico

HERBS:
-common and golden oregano
-thyme
-dill
-cilantro
-sages: purple, variegated, regular culinary (but it died), pineapple
-bee balm (coral reef)
-rosemary
-lovage (may die)
-rue
-feverfew
-(maybe) black cumin/nigella
-mints: garden and chocolate
-culinary ginger
-stevia
-lemon balm
-lemon verbena
-Basils: purple ruffles, sweet, cinnamon, thai, lemon, spicy globe, (random hybrids from basils crossing, eg. lemon-cinnamon???)
-Egyptian Walking Onion
-softneck garlic

RANDOM FLOWERS:
-morning glories (heavenly blue and grandpa ott)
-cardinal vine
-hyacinth bean vine
-Hibiscus: Red river, white one, Haight Ashby

MORE RANDOM PLANTS:
-random palm
-escargot begonia
-random begonia
-kohleria (black velvet, I think?)
-avocado
-purple passion vine

HOUSEPLANTS:
-2 phalaenopsis orchids
-1 cymbidium orchid
-deersfoot fern?
-parlor palm
-snake plants
-umbrella plant
-wandering jew looking sedum

I did not even want to count all that. Granted this is nothing compared to Diane Meucci's garden Oy Vey (http://www.gardensoyvey.com/), but I am also not a nursery and live on 0.2 acres...

I am starting to understand my husband for thinking that maybe I have enough plants?

Randomness.... trying to keep up!

Alas! High winds have broken my handmade 2 year old trellis! The beans! The bean! They have all, fallen down.

:(

That was nice and Shakespearean dramatic eh?

But yes, to be specific, only a third of the trellis broke down. I still was able to harvest quite a few snap beans prior and even after the fall:
These are the same beans too that I brutally burned with baking soda, so little loss there. Good time to replant too anyways, the vines were getting ridiculous! The only issue now is finding the branch clippings from neighbors to create another trellis. Maybe I'll just knock some nails into the fence and string some twine this time around.

The area where the beans were planted was in a raise bed with okra and strawberry plants, so I like to believe that they were getting some legume lovin', nitrogen fixing goodness.

I wasn't entirely certain if it is best to dig under the bean plants back into the soil to keep the nutrients in, or just compost the vines/leaves, but from what I've been readin, it seems that you can just cut the vines at the base and let the nitrogen fixing nodule roots go back to whence they came and allow the next crop of whatever enjoy it.
So, that sounds like a good plan. I am trying to decide whether I want to grow pole beans there again because it was such a good place for them, at the the bed 5 to its left is still full of cucumber vines and I can't plant there. But I also know I need to take into account that crop rotation thing. I think as long as I plant something different in the spring I should be fine.

More things of interest! Snake!
(skin):


























Anyone able to recognize what kind it is? It's 32 inches long, though I am sure longer by now if it was shedding. I am hoping it's not one of the 4 major poisonous ones in the area, but if it is... well, we all leave well enough alone. Though if I recall, the poisonous ones have diamond shape heads and this one looks triangular.

It's sort of a love-hate relationship because I know it's taking care of all the bunnies and mice, but then again it probably eating all my beneficial toads/frogs...and I haven't seen many lately now that I think of it...

FINALLY,
remember that praying mantis I saw hiding out underneath the hummingbird feeder some days ago? Well it got BIG. Double the size from last time. I would have taken a pic of it but well, I noticed the hummingbirds were acting a little antsy by the feeder and then reason was, when they got near to drink the mantis was actually taking SWIPES at the birds! It was at least half their size by now and those arm/claw things seem to have some good reach. So......... I immediately went out and with a long stem of perilla because its so utterly disposable at my house, I relocated its happy green self to the cucumbers/okra bed where I then realized I had lots of cucumber/okra flowers with lots of pollinators buzzing about, so I hope it doesn't feast on so many beneficial things that fruit doesn't set....
That would be ironic.

Anyways, adieu and more later.

Oooo, Mommy!

Hahaha, that's what I think the name of a blog ought to be for some savory food obsessed mother! Get it, UMAMI? Umami is that mysterious savory/meaty flavor that until recently has been given little cred in comparison to their more known cousins: sweet, salty, sour and bitter.

Commonly known umami flavor can be found in mushrooms, fish sauce and only recently did I learn: tomatoes!

Interestingly enough, you can get an exceptionally savory tomato sauce when you leave the seeds/pulp around the seeds in the sauce because that is where tomatoes have their highest level of glutamic acid.

Frankly, I've always been too lazy anyway to excise the core and/or remove the tomato pulp, so I guess my taste buds secretly knew this deliciousness.

Apparently a chef, a curious and rebellious sort wanted to challenge the tomato coring thing and upon experimentation he found that the tomato was tastier with the pulp and with some food scientists/chemists they tested the glutamic acid content between regular tomato flesh and pulp and that settled it.

Supposedly the higher concentration of glutamic acid in the pulpy areas around the seeds is like the seed embroyo's placental sac and has a high amount of amino acids and nutrients. Mmm'mmm, placenta! (on a semi-related note, some cultures suggest that women eat the placenta after they birth their child. Regulates hormones and stuff.. or something... If anything, soem eco-conscious women at least bury it, good for the earth and all that rot :)

Here are the juicy bits on the topic:
Secret of tasty tomatoes revealed
UMAMI Information Center - The umami of vegetables

Gardening, gardening, diddly dee. So much to learn....

I admittedly have been sort of lazy around the garden these past couple of weeks lately, not wanting to fuddle around there because of all the rain, bugs and having gotten myself caught up in a million things. Which is a pity as I like how productive I feel getting up early, walking the dog and then nearly first thing I do is check out the garden and make sure all is right in it at the morning and finding that it's still well before noon is when I feel it's a good start to the day.

I hadn't felt like that until today morning when I severely pruned back some hedges (hate 'em but they're part of the "bones" of the property and then I don't have to plant other things there). Massive prunage occurred as some branches were way out and wonky, preventing light from getting to the branches below and I also noticed that the bushes were afflicted by soft pink scale, also called strawberry scale, which took out one of the otto luyken's in my backyard last year. So, neem spraying will probably have to occur.

(thanks, www.yale.com)

I have a problem of neglecting the inedible plants at the house (unless their the groundcover ones that prevent me from having to mulch):
(love it! strawberry begonia, golden turkey vine, shade sedum and creeping jenny mix)

because I figure if they can't make it, they weren't meant to be there and if I have to put forth all this effort for something I can't eat or isn't that cool then I sort of don't care for the plant.

Example, I think my irises in the front are being affected by iris rot either the bacterial or fungal kind. The bacterial one, Erwinia carotovora, can be caused by iris borers that attach the base of the rhizome and the bacteria enter into it causing a soft nasty smell rot. This is a bacteria that is common to decomposition as compared to the fungal rot which is major problem apparently and is a dry rot officially called Sclerotium crown rot (so rotten it has 'rot' in its Latin name!), caused by Sclerotium rolfsii. The dry rot is actually brown and crumbly looking in the rhizomes and I don't think I've been messing with that because if it is there supposedly I need to do some major quarantining. (http://hyg.ipm.illinois.edu/pastpest/200507b.html)

More things I learned! How to identify ragweed:
http://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/

I planted a lot of marigolds last year and scattered their seeds around too, so if you were to see this plant, without say, the flowers in this picture... you would think it was a marigold too right???? Other than the fact too that these plants get giant, about as tall as 4 feet, which tips me off that no, it's not a marigold. Wheee... This may explain some sneezing here.

And the fun doesn't stop here!!!! Because of the rain (I've been saying that phrase so much lately) I tossed around baking soda on my damp plants, versus making a baking soda solution to spray on the plants to prevent/treat fungus because I figured it would become a solution when the baking soda landed on the damp plants, why make them more wet?

Yeah, I totally burned my tomato and bean plants... but I think the tomatoes will make it. The beans could go for a second sowing anyways I noticed, so no huge loss. So, if you ever are tempted as I was to do something incredibly stupid like that, don't.

On a happier note, I has a harvest!

The butternut squash vine was showing signs of kicking it from borer damage, so I put it out of its misery and pulled it and kept the small squash fruits. ah well. I plan to make that area a flower garden of sorts to attract pollinators as I will be moving some black eyed susans there in the fall once they have gone to seed as well as some clearance gallon salvia's from Lowe's (about a buck apiece! Go get!)

I figure at this point, the vegetable garden is mostly established, and now I need to work on making it look goooood. Other than this guy:
(Ugly siamese Brandywine tomato says hi)

Mmm, mmm, Meat.

So my husband and I are having a silent discussion about meat. Here and there, no more than a couple times I guess, about me mentioning that I was interested in getting meat that's organically and humanely produced, including eggs because chickens are raised in such terrible and unsanitary conditions it would make you cry tears for not only them, but for all future omelets you'd like to eat.

After reading Michael Pollan's books, "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food," I've become more aware of what a crappy and nasty life farm animals go through and there are sustainable, much more efficient, clean ways to eat meat.

One way I propose would be to keep my own chickens for eggs, but I am losing on that end with the husband. (Note, when I am not a happy wife, I call him "the husband" not "my husband" :P)

The temptation to "accidently" hatch some chickens in the yard is great. Just like I the time I "accidently" got a pet rat for myself for Christmas when I was 13... and didn't my inform my parents ahead. They dealt with it and didn't turn it (or me) out of the house amazingly, but I did get hell for it. I will say, rats are one of the best pets ever and I hear that chicken are great pets too. I just need to confirm that the suburb allows that sort of thing...

Another way to get healthy meat would be from local Fresh Markets or Whole Foods, but the price is always prohibitive and my husband and I have a hard time not being thrifty especially when the Kroger nearby sells ground beef and chicken for so little in comparison. My husband and I usually grocery shop together and stop by the manager special meat section, but the past few times we've just avoided it. The topic of other meat sources is at a stand still for now as we are clearing out the meat aplenty that is in the freezer.

I am starting to do research on the prices and options of local farmer produced meat. I am hoping the prices start to be right to the husband as I figure, we are mostly veg already, the meat that we do it will be so little that we might as well eat the good stuff and the price won't be such a pain.

Anyways, little rant from me. If anyone has any suggestions it would be appreciated.

UPDATE: West Wind farms is a local option, but the change from $2/lb meat to :

Split Chicken Breasts

Two split chicken breast halves, with bone, skin on. Moist and delicious. Each package weighs 1.0 to 2.0 lbs.

for $14 is frightening. Maybe I should just go completely veg....

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's..........

.... a strange object was hanging underneath the hummingbird feeder today. I only noticed it when a hummingbird seemed to zip in and out at the feeder, but did not eat and appeared to be scrutinizing something green waving it the breeze beneath the base of the feeder.

Upon squinting my eyes a little, I noticed this:

oooh! and I so I went outside to confirm, and yes indeed, it was a praying mantis!

It has been raining like a mofo lately and I think it decided to duck under the feeder for a little shelter, maybe eat a spider or other winged creatures attracted to the nectar, and hopefully not a hummingbird. I can't even imagine a praying mantis eating a hummingbird and think I would be scarred if I did see something like that happen.

I thought I had seen a tiny praying mantis once hanging about one far side of the garden in the bean/cucumber vines a month ago, and left it alone hoping for the best.

I am only hoping that this is another one and that I actually have a lot of them hidden away.

Here's a better pic:
She's givin' me the evil bulbous eye!

Going native

First, just want to mention how sneaky vegetables can be. This green on green thing: green beans on green vines/leaves surprises, non-observant me sometimes and I had a bunch of beans earlier this week to harvest because I totally missed them.

Also hidden was this cucumber:

Camouflaged amidst all the leaves as well (and all the way in the back of the trellis. Easily a one pound cucumber! Pickles... or cucumber salad...? Cucumber salad for lunch today!

(another quick update: I was able to get the asparagus that popped up randomly in time and was it sweet and delicious. Hurray for fresh asparagus in July! Literally 2 minutes from garden to my plate)

Anyways, on to my story:

As I was walking out of the place I volunteer at earlier this week, I walked to my car, hopped in, and stared out the window in slight disbelief. Approximately 6 feet away, hanging by vines in a little past the cut grass of the parking lot into the wooded area were these green egg shaped things swinging in the wind.

Wild/native kiwi? I first thought initially, except I was pretty sure kiwi weren't native. I couldn't remember what kiwi leaves looked like and then I saw this flower (bad pic, sorry):


I started nearly jumping for joy when I realized that I had discovered a native maypop, aka passionflower vine growing on the property!!! I nearly ripped the entire vine from the ground until I thought better and grabbed a flower and fruit first so that I could show the administrative staff at my volunteering place.

They were nonplussed, and sort of thought, "Wha---?" and when I asked them if I could dig up the passionflower vine they said it was ok as long as I didn't get eaten by coyotes in the woods.

Easy enough.

Being too impatient to drive the 10-15 minutes home to grab the proper tools, I decided to give the vine a yank at the bottom since it had been raining and the ground was soft. Hmm... I got some (broke off) tap root and bent up the vine a little near the base in the process. That might not be good for the vine and so I found another vine and attempted to pull that up and same thing, some tap root, but no full rootiness.

Well, just to try to have more chances of success as these becoming established I took both vines, each over 6 feet in length, with fruit and flowers on them (not smart to take the entire thing probably, lots of plant to sustain with a lot less root now) and wrapped them into my car.

I popped them straight into a bucket of water and the weather has been cool out so I am hoping that I may see some roots developing that I might find a nice place to let the maypop carry on with regular growing activity and give me delicious fruit. If not this year, maybe the next!

(UPDATE: 3 days in and there be new roots growing! Also, I'd like to note that I have been trying to grow maypops prior to this discovery, receiving little seedlings from a local gardener lady, but the damn things always get eaten by squirrels/placed in poor areas by me/I break them >_<)

Passionflowers are a fascinating looking flower with a lot of symbolism/backstory to the Passion of Christ. The parts supposedly signify:

• The pointed tips of the leaves were taken to represent the Holy Lance.
• The tendrils represent the whips used in the Flagellation of Christ.
• The ten petals and sepals represent the ten faithful apostles (less St. Peter the denier and Judas Iscariot the betrayer).
• The flower's radial filaments, which can number more than a hundred and vary from flower to flower, represent the Crown of Thorns.
• The chalice-shaped ovary with its receptacle represents a hammer or the Holy Grail
• The 3 stigmata represent the 3 nails and the 5 anthers below them the 5 wounds (four by the nails and one by the lance).
• The blue and white colors of many species' flowers represent Heaven and Purity.

(Thanks wikipedia!)

Pretty cool eh?

Passionflowers are commonly called Maypops in the southeastern part of the U.S where they are native because in May they seemingly pop out of nowhere. I have also heard from locals that they are named this because the fruits are ripe sometimes trailing on the ground, when stepped upon they "may pop." Ah, local lore.

They are a deciduous vine as compared to its South American tropical companion vine you might find in grocery stores. The tropical ones in grocery stores have an orange flesh with little black seeds and purple-black skin when ripe. Maypop fruit however have greyish-white flesh with black seeds and orange skin when ripe. This orange skin gives it is other name, apricot vine.

Interestingly enough, the parts of the plant, leaves, stem, flowers, when eaten together apparently produce a combination of chemicals, that can help with sleep and are anxiety reducer. Use of passionflower as a medicinal is unusual in the States, but popular in Europe.

Though the fruits of the maypop I have now are green and still unripe, I took one and cut it open curious to see what it looked like. Pretty drab white spongy flesh. When it ripens up I've seen pictures where the entire fruit case is filled with big cells of the fruit, like a pomegranate's, with the black seeds within each cell.

Taking pictures of the unripe fruit though was still a lovely experience as the light of my camera would allow the green skin to show through from the inside.

Enjoy!

Grow my pretties, grow!

My first year gardening I built 2 large-ish trellises using branch trimmings borrowed from neighbor's yards. They've been holding up well enough for their shoddy construction, a little rotted twine here, a broken branch there. I just attach a new branch/stick with more twine in an empty or fragile looking place and pray for the best. This year I attempted to plant Kentucky Wonder and Blue Lake beans by each of the trellises, but for some reason, be it sun or a pest issue, only one trellis got covered with vines. It seems that the other trellis was not going to get covered with beans despite a second attempt on my part, so I figured I'd try the next best fast growing vine I could think of: cucumbers!

I grew cucumbers last year and was aghast as to how fast the vines grew and smothered everything in its path. This year I figured I'd have it covered, plant fewer seeds and thin, thin, thin. Yeah... that thinning thing is hard for me... it always seemed like such a waste... so once again, the cucumber is taking over. This is not a bad thing per say either; I know plenty of people who like/want cucumber and my husband and I are interested in trying to make kosher dill pickles again (he hates vinegar and the first time we made them it was failure, the jar wasn't big enough and the scum reached the pickles, ick).

It's just that... sometimes the cucumbers... they frighten me. I'll be looking one way and then I turn around and it's though it's grown a foot in front of me! One minute there's a flower and then the next, fruiting.


It's sort of good that I let the cucumbers go to town because I've been noticing some squash vine borer moths flying around the cucumber/strawberry/okra bed, and so I think they've gotten desperate and are going to make their move on the cukes. Fudge muffins. Well, this is why I've got more plant than I need... *sigh*

The irony of me being up to my chin in cucumbers is that my husband doesn't even like them with the exception of an occasional kosher dill pickle. I've found recipes that involving cooking them and he tolerates them a lot more, but it's definitely something he isn't fond of. He also doesn't like melons (cantelopes, watermelons, honeydew... he's a nut!) So, I wonder if his taste buds sense a similar distaste with cucumber as he does with those as they are all in the same family.

As you might have noticed, these cucumbers come armed. Not sure what's up with the black spikies, but my understanding is that the pickling types (this is a cheap seed pack I picked up) tend to be short, stubby and spiky fruited. The spikes come off fairly easily when they are mature enough to pick. A little more prickly when young.
Perhaps I'll go a more exotic route next year in cucumbers, if I do grow them. Maybe something like the Armenian cucumbers that are fuzzy. Gotta love a fuzzy cucumber ;)

My butternut squash seems to still be holding on, though I do note nasty fracas near the base of one of the vines, and the usual suspect is a vine borer. I've allowed another main vine to grow alongside the ground as I noticed it had started producing small white roots. If it roots up well the squash will probably survive as it has alternate routes to get water/nutrients. It's sort of a crap shoot when growing the squash up a trellis too as it might survive the borers better if it was growing fully on the ground to produce more roots where the stem touched, but ground is precious space and if you saw my husband with the spin trimmer, well...
Lookin' good though! I think it needs to turn more yellow and the stem becomes more dry and woody when it's mature enough to eat/cure for storage. Mmmm, butternut squash soup. Vegetable gardening seems sort of morbid in the sense that you grow your "babies" only in anticipation to eat them!

All this cool rainy weather has apparently confused the heck out of the asparagus and it thinks its spring again because 2 lovely looking stalks were poking out of the soil this morning. I jumped at the thought of eating some of it for dinner and reminded myself to grab it before dinner but of course forgot to. I have hopes that it might be there still tomorrow, but as the asparagus is as frightening in its speedy growth as cucumber is (potentially 7 inches in one day), I won't be surprised to see some frondy, unappetizing stalks tomorrow. *Cry* Proscuitto wrapped asparagus, thou hast thwarted my tummy!
I keep becoming paranoid about my asparagus because these were moved after their first year in one bed to another as we realized that the bed was in an unfortunate spot. While they appear to be doing well, I couldn't accurately gauge if they seemed to have suffered greatly because well, we had moved them. Upcoming spring should give me a more accurate picture. I understand too that asparagus really like to stay established too. Able to produce for 20-30, and maybe 50 years, their roots can reach as deep as 40 feet! So, when I plan on moving, as I don't think I'll be in this house that long I don't know if the asparagus will be willing to move with me.

Honestly though, I am probably more paranoid by the thought that someone might not want an asparagus bed for free when I move. Fresh asparagus with the house! That ought to be a selling point hm?