Thursday, September 13, 2007

The biggest zucchini

Have you ever gardened? One of the things that I do miss in apartment living is my garden. Where I used to live before the entire front yard was a garden. When we moved in there over twenty years ago, the front yard was a gravel parking lot because our house was a model. We bought the model because we were in desperate need of a home (we were living in a motel) and the owner was willing to sell it to us. However!

Instead of covering the gravel with dirt, they simply rolled sod over the gravel and naturally the next summer the grass died. I dumped two or three bags of potting soil out there and planted marigolds. The next summer I dumped a couple more bags of dirt and planted a couple more flowers. And twenty years later, the garden pretty well filled the front yard. It flourished. I had perennials that bloomed every year and a couple of blooming bushes, some roses, and then bedding plants.

One year I took a notion to plant some vegetables--tomatoes, peppers, zucchinis and sunflowers--along with the marigolds and petunias. Now you have to understand that I'm a fairly indifferent gardener. I fixed the beds, planted the plants, and then wandered off and forgot them unless we had a really dry spell. Then I would haul out the hose and water everything before I ignored them again until the next time they needed water.

One day when I arrived home from work, I noticed the zucchini plant was taking over the garden. It was enormous. It even had flowers! After changing out of my work clothes, I returned to the garden to poke around and see what else might be blooming or even have buds on it. I had tiny tomatoes and peppers and several small zucchinis. Satisfied, I went into the house to make dinner and promptly forgot about the garden.

A couple weeks later, when I happened to glance at the garden, I was stunned at the size of my tomatoes. Then I checked on the zucchini. One of them was bigger than a football. It so happened that we were flying out to visit my brother and sister-in-law and so I picked that one to take to them as a "hostess" gift. They made us stash it in the overhead storage. It was a big zucchini.

And that's the story of the zucchini and where I got the idea for the zucchini dealers. Naturally, you would need a heavy duty peeler for a zucchini that size!

Alas, the zucchini zukkars are all gone. Alas.

Anny

To see where Amarinda has taken the were-bunny blogga saga check http://www.amarindajones.blogspot.com/ and to see what Kelly is up to check http://www.kkirch.blogspot.com/

And we have a winner from the Back to the Past contest. The winner was scientifically picked by placing all the names in a hat and drawing one. Our winner is Cindy! Cindy, I'll be incorporating your suggestions in the story with your name. Oh, yeah, and recognition for your contribution in the dedication. Fame is right around the corner for you!

5 comments:

  1. ah well, that explains a lot to me now.

    I love gardening. The drought has curtailed that somewhat. But I did buy 3 new drought resistant plants the other day. Let's see if they live up to their name

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  2. I have a black thumb, so I admire anyone who can inspire produce to grow...I've evn killed philodendrons!

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  3. It is the sad nature of the standardized store zucchini which makes it difficult for some to understand the size a zuucker can achieve.

    I'm with you Molls. I torch everything despite my abiding love in all things green and living. But no, the hanging vine even died. You know how hard it is to kill a vine? Not for me and my super death ray abilities. However, the swinging vine became my "stick plant" and the birds loved it enough to come swing in the dirt and sticks jutting out of the pot. Death and yet life. How inspiring.

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  4. I may have mentioned this previously...when hubby and I moved into a 2-brm apt, I stepped out on the patio and admired the beautiful purple flower towering over the electrical box. D said, "Uh, Molly? That's a thistle."

    This is no joke...a week later, the thing was so dead, it was crumbly! D said he's never seen a thistle wither and die so fast and so hard...so I guess I have a 'black eye' as well!

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  5. I planted those 3 plants yesterday and I got to use water out of the rain water tank! How exciting! Yes, I will try and get out more

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