Fenton Friday: Baby Gherkins

Gherkin cucumber seedling photos by Josh Panepento.

Another HOT and dry and windy week -- thankfully we finally got 0.2 of an inches of rain yesterday. It wasn't much, but every bit helps!

The mound with the Gherkin Cucumber seedlings has sprouted 6 seedlings. We will thin them down to just 3 next week -- seems heartless but is for the best of the remaining plants. I placed a wire cage over them to keep the birds from plucking them out of the soil. I may switch that wire cage next week to the Zucchini seedlings and place a cover cloth over the cucumbers for a few more weeks to protect them from squash vine borer. Once the vines start to flowering I'll remove the cloth so the blooms can get pollinated. 

Speaking of getting pollinated, our covered Eggplant and the Blackberry plants may soon lose their protective coverings too and have to fend for themselves for the rest of the growing season.

The two variegated red Cotton plants that were planted in the heat are finally starting to recover. It was real touch-and-go for the past week with them.

The peppers, sweet potato, and tomato plants are humming along -- I think we will soon have the currant and cherry tomatoes to snack on.

Next on our list will be to clear out some space for planting Okra and more cutting-garden flowers such as Cosmos.

What are you growing in your edible garden this week?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 13th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above (at the top, left on this blog).