Zucchini and Squash Galore!

When you enter into the community garden the first thing you will notice is all the zucchini and squash! It is exciting to be harvesting the fruits of our labor so early in the season.  With these vegetables it is important to remember to pick them often and before they get too big.  Letting a zucchini get too big is tempting, but doing so will only result in tasteless bitter zucchinis.  Zucchini can be harvested at any time.  Baby zucchini will have a sweeter taste.  Harvesting zucchini when they reach six to seven inches long is most common.  Removing the vegetable from the plant can be done with scissors or pruners.  Twisting the vegetable from the plant can also do the trick, but when using this method be careful to not disrupt the stem structure or break any of the fragile stalks.

A easy and delicious way to enjoy your zucchini and squash is by simply cutting them into thin slabs, brushing them with a little bit of olive oil, adding a little bit of salt and pepper, and throwing them on the grill.  They can be eaten right off the grill like this or cut up into smaller pieces and put into pasta dishes.  One of my favorite pasta dishes is spaghetti with grilled squash, grilled zucchini, olive oil, parmesan cheese, and a hint of lemon juice.  It's a simple and tasty summer meal.

Some other great ideas for using zucchini can be found at

http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20509747,00.html

TIP Community Garden - The Creation Story

The Community Garden is up and running!  Here is a photo timeline that shows just how far the garden has come in such a short period of time.

Before.  The TIP maintenance crew did a great job of creating the garden infrastructure.  The grass was removed and the dirt was leveled off.  Landscape fabric was laid down and a layer of pea stone was placed on top of that.  The pea stone allows for the proper drainage of the raised beds.  

We built the raised beds in the new maintenance barn.  It was fun and we all improved our power drilling skills.  A special thanks goes out to John Racciatti and Tim Hobb for volunteering their time to help complete the beds.  

The beds were brought to the garden site and set in place.  

The beds were filled with topsoil.

The beds all in place and ready for planting!  2 Water hook-ups were installed and hoses were attached.  

I was the first to plant my bed.  I used a combination of seeds and already started plants.  

I planted a few different varieties of tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, peas, summer squash, zucchini, lettuce, cilantro, and parsley.

A fence was installed around the perimeter of the garden and the center and corner stone planters were planted with aromatic plants.  

Things have been growing very well!  In my plot we already have spinach and lettuce ready for harvesting.