Weekly Garden Update #5 – First Harvest, Leeks, Rabbits & Deer

In this week’s garden update, we harvested our first vegetable from the garden, our leeks are actually growing, and we are having an issue with rabbits and deer. Plus, our tomatoes are managing to hold on. Let’s dive in.

Harvesting the First Zucchini

We are growing a ton of squash this summer, and the plants are taking off. The first variety to produce fruit is the Costata Romanesca, an Italian heirloom zucchini. The fruit is striped, lighter green than a typical Black Beauty zucchini, and huge. We harvested ours at 12 inches, and it was as thick as my forearm. We ate it the evening we picked it, and it was delicious.

Our favorite way to eat summer squash is to chunk it, drizzle oil over it, season it with Season All, and roast it in the oven until the skin is a little crispy and the “meat” is tender. It had a lot more flavor than the standard green zucchini. It was even more flavorful than the White Scallop patty pan squash we grew last year, which had been our favorite type of squash. We will certainly be growing this variety again in the future.

Our Leeks Are (Surprisingly) Growing

I started leeks this spring because I really want to successfully grow onions one of these years. I started leeks inside and directly sowed some in the garden. The leeks that I transplanted died pretty quickly, and while I saw that the seeds germinated in the garden, I had low expectations for them given the excess rain we had and stopped checking on them. This past weekend, however, I noticed what looked like onions in the garden bed. Sure enough, the leeks are still growing and are pretty tall (about 12 inches). I still don’t know if they’ll be able to develop bulbs below the soil surface, but I’m really excited that they’re still growing.

Issues With Deer and Rabbits

In spite of the Irish Spring and disposable baking trays, we’re still having issues with deer and rabbits getting into one of our garden beds. I’ll start with the deer. While we haven’t seen the deer, we have seen hoof prints in the soil that have appeared since the fence went up. I think it’s only one deer based on the number of hoof prints, and thankfully, it doesn’t look like it’s done any damage, but the fact that it’s the bed where we’re growing corn is concerning. I knew that our fence only being four feet tall could be problematic, but because we planted the corn inside a border of bean plants, I thought perhaps it would keep deer away. If you’ve been a reader of the blog since last summer, you’ll remember that we had deer destroy our fence and eat corn that was on the verge of being picked. Before the corn puts on ears, we need to address the issue. Our neighbor suggested adding a string or something small, about two feet above the fence. Anything that can deter them from jumping over the fence would likely succeed.

Rabbits have been even more difficult. There have been several times this summer where we’ll walk off our back porch and see one or two rabbits hopping through the same garden bed that the deer is getting into. Unfortunately, the rabbits are simply chewing through the fence to gain access, and once they’ve breached security, they’re finding the corn stalks irresistible. However, they quickly learn that they don’t like the corn stalks and don’t eat them. They only chew them enough to knock them over. It’s quite annoying, but the rabbits are so cute that it’s hard to actually be mad. Getting them out of the garden is quite an ordeal, though. It usually requires Magz and me to both go into the bed, keep the gate open, and calmly guide them toward the opening. Sometimes, they try to run into the fence, which isn’t rigid, thankfully, so they don’t get hurt. To address this, we’ve started zip-tying scraps of pressure-treated lumber across the opening they bit into the fence.

Tomato Plants Are (Mostly) Holding On

Last week, I wrote about how sad our tomato plants have been looking since we received a torrential rainstorm on July 5. All of the plants were drooping, the leaves were wilted, and they looked unhealthy in general. In the days that have passed, the majority of those plants have made drastic improvements, putting on more blossoms and fruit and looking stronger. There are still two plants that look unhealthy and may not survive, but that’s an incredible blessing compared to where we were last week at this time.

Up Next

We’re going to continue to harvest summer squash as they ripen, which I’ll report on next week. We also have some beans that will be ready to pick as well as our first cucumbers. How are your gardens doing? Happy gardening.