Hanging Cucumbers - HA!

Somewhere there's a bad joke lurking. I planted some little bush cucumbers in hanging pots just for fun. It never occurred to me that they'd mature, and technically, I'm still not sure for don't know if you'd call this "mature."


It's worth a giggle to keep them growing a bit more.

The fortex beans are just at maturity, but the bean problems earlier this year are going to make it difficult to get more than a serving at a time out of them. I'd say by Monday we'll also be picking green bush beans. I planted heavyweight II bush beans and they seem to be full of pods. I'll start picking those tomorrow, however I'm starting to get a little wary of digging through the bush beans and cucumbers now that they're so thick you can't see your way thought them, and to add to that it's while inspecting the beans today that I met my match in the bug department.

As I was separating the beans to peer through them, I was attacked at lightening speed by a mint green grasshopper bigger than my palm. After the initial sniper attack, the grasshopper returned to his perch and sat there with his Predator-like sideways jaws of death masticating ever so methodically slow. He gave me stink-eye, stared me down and issued his challenge: Catch me if you can.

The hunt ensued complete with Adam West Batman theme music and word flashes all through the bushy, broad leaves of the beans and cucumbers. Seriously, he couldn't have picked the peppers or tomatoes for this one? I caught him by the leg once, but he retaliated like a prize fighter and beat at my hand with his unrestrained legs freaking me slap out and causing me to drop him in the process. It was time to bring out the big guns. The cups I was knocking the other bugs into were initially no match for the grasshopper's prowess, but they were all that was available. Coming up behind him, I edged him slowly into a cup with the bottom of the other making him feel like the whole thing was his idea from the start and slid the cups slowly together to stack. When I went to snap a picture of him later, he was almost dead for no other reason than having a heart attack or the like, but if he wasn't dead then, he sure was when he fell from the cup as the boy tipped it out of my hand to see the wee devil. The girl yelled, "Bee!" and stepped on it.

I guess that was the end of that, but I did catch a spotted cucumber beetle and found out the "ladybugs" I had been admiring were Mexican bean beetles. Lovely. One more squash bug has also been added to my body count.

We picked one more zucchini today, so the boy and I made our first zucchini bread. I have a feeling we'll be baking and freezing a lot of these this year. The boy and the girl both don't like "crunchies" in their bread so I have to swap out almond flavoring for actual nut pieces, but it works out well. This one wasn't my best looking, but it still tastes great.

The beans in the new corner yard's front left box are starting to sprout, yet the squirrels seem too interested in them for my comfort. I wonder if they'll get the chance to mature. We're in the pattern of heavy humidity through the days and passing thundershowers in the afternoon. It will at least cut down on the watering, but also keep them from flowering. Maybe they'll perk up in late August/September.

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.