Changing of the gourds

As it turns out, the Mighty Pumpkinzilla is not so mighty afterall.

Yes, folks, this is a sad post to write, Pumpkinzilla is no longer growing in the garden.

Why you ask?

Well, obviously not due to ignorance and experimental pruning by Finny. NO!

I'm choosing to blame it all on mysterious bacterial wilt which came into my garden and attacked Pumpkinzilla without any intervention on my part. And if you're even thinking it was because I decided to hack off one of Pumpkinzilla's limbs so that it might concentrate more energy producing one meteor sized specimen and then the resulting hole produced by said pruning left it vulnerable to bacteria such as the type that causes wilt in the pumpkin family then you would be exactly right! Er, I mean, wrong.

No, you're right. I'm pretty sure that's what happened. Boo.

So, last weekend (yes, I've given myself time to mourn before posting on it) I pulled Pumpkinzilla and gave him a proper burial in the green waste bin (far FAR away from the composter so as not to spread bacterial coodies) and turned and covered the soil so that the far-reaching melons could have some more room to call home.

Before I move on to happier gardening topics, let us take a moment to remember Pumpkinzilla in his glory:




OK, happier topics!

As I shored up and pruned the frisky tomato plants, I found a little cucumber surprise growing underneath the multitude of leaves and limbs:



Fancy that! A volunteer plant sprouts up just when another gets hefted into the yard waste bin! Everybody sing, "Circle of life..."

And if that weren't enough, I actually found a good amount of green tomatoes buried in there that were pretty happy to see the sun:




The nice woman at the NOT SNOBBY nursery reassured me that most tomatoes aren't ripening just yet in our neck, so give it a couple more weeks before freaking the fuck out. (I added that last part. She, unlike myself, is able to express extreme emotion without swearing.)

This boosted my mood so much that I went on a tear and decided to rescue the few remaining strawberry plants in their dwindling supply to fill the empty spot left by Pumpkinzillamayherestinpeace.



So, in hindsight, it might have been wiser to have left the strawberries for someone else and left the extra space vacant in the bed to accomodate the newly discovered cuke, but, well, I am impulsive and here we are.

No worries though, we have lots of cukes:



And, at the end of the day, also many MANY honeydudes.



And, really, who knows, I may have even more vegs making an appearance before long.



It appears that my neighbors vegs are seeking additional acreage and, having heard word of extra space in my yard, have started making the voyage through/over/around/underneath our shared fence. Spaghetti squash coming soon.