Fenton Friday: Colin’s Cucumbers and Zucchini

Colin Davan and cucumbers. Photo by Ian Ferris.

Guest Blog by Colin Davan

With a pile of seeds spread across the table, I was left with some tough decisions. After my fellow summer interns Miguel and Ian had picked their tomatoes and peppers, I was tasked with four seed packs: two kinds of cucumbers and two types of zucchini plants. 

However, these were not just any vegetable plants. Each brought their own unique challenges and tasks. Starting with the cucumbers, I had one pack of Slicing Cucumber and another of Japanese Climbing Cucumber, which required a tomato cage surrounding it, hence the name.

Moving to the zucchini, I was in charge of the Nimba Squash Zucchini and Dark Star Zucchini. 

The summer plot got off to a hot start with Miguel and Ian planting their tomato and pepper seedlings. In my first week, I spent my time thoroughly weeding and clearing out the section of the plot I was given. Since these vegetable plants required so much space, I delayed my seed sowing until the second week. 

The second week, I returned and formed the four small mounds spaced out a couple of feet from one another. After I planted the seeds in each mound, topped them with compost, and surrounded them with straw, I protected them with small wire pieces (hardware cloth), so the urban pests would not come to take my special seeds or baby seedlings. I stood back and took a picture of the dirt mounds. I began to wonder: what will come of these seeds? Will I find any success in the garden this summer?

After returning the following week, a glimpse of success began to push out from the mounds. Small green seedlings had begun to arise with a few pesky weeds around them. I tended to my four small mounds and returned the following week. 

When I returned, I saw an increase in seedlings that were beginning to flourish. Both of the cucumber plant mounds exploded as each had several small seedlings that I would eventually thin down to two each. However, I was not seeing close to the same progress with my zucchini plants. 

Photos from top down: Thriving 'Nimba' Squash Zucchini, Climbing Cucumbers, and failed 'Dark Star' Zucchini.

I would come to find later on that my zucchini plants would ultimately give me problems all summer. The Dark Star never produced a seedling and the Nimba Squash grew much more slowly than my cucumbers. However, that did not deter my garden grind. We planted a different zucchini squash variety (' Zucchini 'Black Beauty') in Dark Star's former spot and gave extra care to my zucchini each week.

As the blazing hot weeks in the garden went on, my Nimba Squash and both cucumbers would grow at exponential rates. Powerful rainstorms all throughout July, hot sunny days, and a little bit of fish fertilizer created the perfect mix for results. 

By late July and early August, I had begun to see flowers and small cucumbers, but no actual zucchini yet. A bit of concern began to creep in as the deadline for submissions in the Montgomery County Fair was quickly approaching, and I did not have enough similar-looking cucumbers or zucchini ready to submit an entry. 

I was able to harvest many cucumbers from my Japanese Climbing plant and ended up submitting them to the DC State Fair (results below*). While the zucchini plants struggled, I was able to get a nice zucchini, which I used in a chocolate zucchini cake. (Thanks Kathy for the recipe!)

At the end of my Fenton journey, I realized this experience was not only about producing cucumbers and zucchini, but also of overcoming obstacles and strengthening my patience. I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity with the Washington Gardener Magazine this summer, as I got to enhance my journalistic skills while also being on the Fenton plot working in a nice community garden.

*UPDATE:

The cucumber won first place! See the results at https://www.dcstatefair.org/2025-contest-results.

About the Author:

Colin Davan is an intern this summer session with Washington Gardener. He is a rising senior at the American University in Washington, DC, studying journalism with a minor in history. He grew up just outside of Boston in two towns (Hopkinton and Framingham), both with backyards always filled with a wide variety of flowers, herbs, vegetables, and fruits.

Fenton Friday: Garden Theft and Beauty

The bad news first, I went to the plot today to harvest a zucchini I had examined yesterday while watering and decided to let grow for one more day. Well, it was gone. Not a trace. I never would've known it was even there if I hadn't seen it and noted it the day before. Such is life in the community garden in a very public urban location. I don't suspect my fellow plot gardeners and no trace of it remains so that rules out messy wildlife. It was a clean cut and whoever took it left two beautiful red tomatoes on the vine right nearby, so they must've been keeping an eye on it too. The sadder news is that today the zucchini plants are covered in powdery mildew, which means there will not be many more fruits to harvest as the season winds down.

On the good news side of things, I did harvest those two gorgeous tomatoes and some gherkins. I also cut a bouquet of flowers for my talk/demo at tomorrow's DC State Fair.

The great news is that the two variegated red cotton seedlings, that I was gifted by a gardener on the Daylily Society's Region 3 Meeting back at the end of June, have not only recovered from their tragically sad-looking start in my plot to be absolutely gorgeous plants. (See pic above of the flower and at right image of one of the leaves.)

Next week, we hope to have some cool-season vegetable starts to plant and to start the transition from summer to fall/winter in the garden.

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).

Fenton Friday: Zucchini Trials

Zucchini hiding in Asparagus foliage.

By Taylor Edwards 

At the beginning of the internship, Kathy Jentz let me choose what I wanted to grow in the community garden plot over the summer. I knew nothing about gardening but I knew that whatever I grew, I didn’t want it to go to waste. I chose two types of Zucchini ('Incredible Escalator', a climbing zucchini and 'Dark Star' zucchini) and Zinnia 'Mazurkia' (Zinnia elegans). 

We planted the vegetables on June 7 and the flowers in the community garden a few weeks later. Throughout the summer, we would check the growth of each plant and tend to the rest of the plot. Because it was so hot, we did a lot of watering and pulling out weeds. I planted the seeds by creating a mound, inserting the seeds into it with my finger, and then watering it before and after. Within a few weeks, the Climbing Zucchini started to grow and you could see the tiny leaves come out of the ground. Unfortunately, the 'Dark Star' Zucchini didn’t sprout at all. After giving it a chance, we tried out a different squash in its place. That one didn’t grow as well so we decided to give the Climbing Zucchini room to grow by itself. There were trellises put up to guide the zucchini to grow on to them. What we found while growing the Zucchini was that the area had to be weeded out a lot. By the end of the summer, the Zucchini took over the bed and the leaves were spreading out into pathways. I haven’t done anything yet with the Zucchinis that I took home, but I plan on using the recipes that Kathy sent me to saute them and put them in pasta. 

The Zinnias were grown with the other flowers in a separate cutting garden bed. The seeds were placed in rows along with Cosmos, Cornflower, Dahlia, and Scabiosa. We planted them by direct-sowing the seeds onto the ground and covering them lightly with soil. After we planted them, we worked together to cover the bed with a garden netting to support the flowers when they grew taller. Next to the bedding were these never-ending chives that kept on growing back and shading our flower seedlings, so those were constantly being cut down. Throughout the weeks, we thinned the flower seedlings so they would have room to grow. By the end of July and early August, several Zinnias were in bloom and they were gorgeous! I really liked how vibrant the pink was in each petal. I got to take some home in a vase and admire how pretty they were. 

This process taught me how much trial and error you go through as you garden. I knew there was a lot of maintenance, but doing all the work showed how it can benefit your plantings. I felt proud to see the seeds growing into actual plants as the weeks went on. Even if you’re not an outdoors person, I definitely recommend finding a vegetable that you enjoy and start growing it yourself. It takes dedication, but you’ll be satisfied with the results.

About the author: Taylor Edwards is a rising senior majoring in journalism with a minor in Black Women’s Studies at the University of Maryland. She is a native of Waldorf, MD, and an intern this summer with Washington Gardener.

How is your garden plot growing 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 12th 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).

Fenton Friday: The Zs Have It

After last week's drought post, we have had some really nice overnight rains. Isn't a good rain while you sleep just the best thing in the world?

The plants are growing by leaps again this week thanks to all those rains at night and intense sun + high temps by day. 

The zucchini has doubled in size and I even lifted up a leaf today to see our first zuke baby! I will give it a few more days and then harvest it. 

The Bush Bean 'Ferrari' seedlings are up and off to a good start. I have them inside our rabbit-proof box because bunnies love to eat bean seedlings down to the ground. 

The cutting garden and PopUp garden are growing fast. We cut the first blooms on the Zinnia 'Mazurkia' plants. They are a deep-pink with light edges. I cannot wait until we have armfuls of them to pick.

I also finally pulled the Broccoli plants that were far past their prime. In their spot we planted the Celosia seedlings that were coming up in and around the row of Basil I had planted a few weeks ago. I plucked the Celosia out as gently as I could and I think they transplanted okay, even though it was a very hot day and they look a bit unhappy about that treatment. These self-sowing Celosia are pretty tough plants though and should pull through. Now that the encroaching Celosia are out of the way, I can thin the Basil seedlings and give the remaining ones plenty of room to grow.

How is your garden plot growing 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 12th 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).

Fenton Friday: Zucchini Report

These next few weeks, I'm letting the summer interns take over the community garden plot reports to share what they grew and how that went.

By Amanda Cash

Over the course of the summer, I have been nurturing the seeds of a 'Cocozelle Green Striped' Summer Squash from Landreth’s Garden Seeds. The squash essentially is a small zucchini with light green stripes running along the sides. 

On the back of the seed pack it notes that the squash is a “tender, flavorful variety of zucchini that all gardeners love. It’s an early producer and generous yielder, bearing very large fruit up to a foot in length!” To plant the seeds, we simply made a mound of soil* and placed the seed in the middle. We created two different zucchini plant mounds side by side. We placed a marker with the name of the zucchini on the top of the mound and then thoroughly watered it. After that, we regularly came back to the plot to monitor and weed the zucchini plants.

As the seed packet notes, it takes 5-10 days for the seeds to germinate and 45-60 to mature. The seeds took just about two months to successfully grow zucchini and there continue to be more and more flowers produced! We had to make sure each week that the plant was getting enough water as this summer has been quite hot. We also had to cut back any the vigorously growing morning glory vines that kept trying to attack the plant and remove any weeds that were trying to interfere in the space.

  Zucchinis can be used for a variety of dishes from sweet to savory. We used ours to make delicious zucchini bread. I highly recommend giving this plant a try next summer!

What is growing in your vegetable garden?

*The soil in this bed was amended with Bloom just prior to this growing season.

About the Author

Amanda Cash is a journalism major at the University of Maryland, College Park, and interned this summer with Washington Gardener and at WBAL-TV11 in Baltimore, MD.

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 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

TikTok Tuesday: Zucchini Bread

@wdcgardener

Zucchini grown in our garden plot transferred into a delicious bread - yum! ##gardendc ##growyourownfood ##zucchini ##zucchinibread ##gardenrecipe ##dmv

♬ original sound - Kathy Jentz

By Molly Cuddy

This past week, I tried making zucchini bread for the first time! I got this large zucchini from our community garden plot. (It was way more zucchini than I needed for this recipe!) Since I love to bake, I knew I had to make zucchini bread. My good friend Casey sent me her recipe. I’ve been making her banana bread recipe for over a year now, so I knew I could trust her zucchini bread one too! 

Casey’s recipes made two loaves of bread. I only wanted to make one, so I adjusted the recipe a bit. Here’s what I used:

• 1.5 cups of shredded zucchini
• 2 eggs
• 1.5 cups of all-purpose flour
• ½ vegetable oil
• about 2 ¾ cup of white sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon of baking soda
• ½ teaspoon of baking powder
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• about a teaspoon of cinnamon
• chocolate chips (if you want!)

Right as I got ready to make the bread, I realized our apartment baking soda had gone missing! I couldn’t find it anywhere. So I just added more baking powder and hoped for the best. I think it still came out great for my first try! It’s super flavorful and moist. I love having a piece for dessert or with a cup of coffee. 

Washington Gardener's editor, Kathy, also sent me her favorite recipe for chocolate zucchini bread and that looks super good as well, I just didn’t have any cocoa powder on hand this time to make it.

Check out my TikTok video here on my process of making the bread.

About the Author

Molly Cuddy is a journalism major at the University of Maryland, College Park, and an intern this summer with Washington Gardener. She is also a campus tour guide and will be a teaching assistant for a professional writing class next semester.

Fenton Friday: Cukes and Zukes

This week at the community garden plot the temperatures finally moderated, but still not a drop of rain! Once again, the promised storms went directly south and north of us. Nothing here. It is getting really desperate in my home garden and I am so grateful once again to have a plot near the cistern as hauling water to keep the plants alive is become a daily chore. 

Last week, I wrote about our first baby zucchini. I was able to harvest that a few days later and have a few more zukes quickly following. I hope we can keep up the pace for a bit -- at least enough to share with all 3 interns and then have enough extra to shred and freeze packages for winter baking.

The cucumbers, blackberries, and the 'Sungold' tomato are all setting fruit. As a matter of fact, the cucumbers seems to be set with all female flowers! I hope somebody has a vine nearby with male ones. The beans are sending out lots of flowers themselves, so am hoping they'll start producing purple pods soon too,

I was able to start cutting bouquets from the celosia and zinnia. The yarrow is done and needs to be cut back.

We are gleaning for a harvest share group this weekend, so I plan to cut a bunch of swiss chard for that.

What is growing in your edible garden?

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 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

Fenton Friday: Baby Zucchini

This week at the community garden plot was another scorcher and the rains keep missing us - so I spend my time that I should be weeding instead on watering and triage.

The Morning Glory vines are trying to take over the whole plot as are the Mulberry tree seedlings that pop up everywhere and just will not die. No matter how many times I cut them back to the ground! And don't get me started on the Nutsedge, which is a true curse on many of the plots and common areas of our community garden.

The good news is the heat is continue to push growth spurts from the cucumbers, blackberries, and the 'Sungold' tomato. We even have a baby zucchini forming! Of course, in a few weeks, I may be lamenting the coming zucchini explosion, but for now I am thrilled to see this little cutie forming.

The marigolds are coming up and join the cosmos, celosia. and zinnia seedlings in putting on good growth. I hope to have some of each of these in flower to be able to enter them into the Montgomery County Fair next month.

What is growing in your edible garden?

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 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.