A kitchen gardener's blog

Rain Makes Great Cubrits

November 04, 2009 - Here in Nashville we had the second wettest September on record; I recorded 8.8 inches in my garden. This follows a very wet July and Spring. Due to all this rain, this is the first time, in my 20 years of growing tomatoes, that they died before the first frost. I lost all my paste tomatoes in August, and my slicers in September. I had one lonely hybrid cherry that held on until October.

While tomatoes and peppers have not liked this wet summer, my cubrits have loved it. In July I had so many cucumbers, that I have enough pickles to last for years. While still not the yields I would like, this was my best year ever for watermelon and cantaloupe. And finally I was able to grow winter squash. Here in Tennessee this is a challenge since we have three pests, cucumber beetles, squash vine borderers, and squash bugs, that kill my plants before the squash can fully develop. I am especially proud of my two Dill's Atlantic Giant Pumpkins that weighed in at 50 and 38 pounds. And the flavors of the buttercup and potimarron are amazing.

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