It's best to harvest zucchini before it gets too big

The squash is growing like mad—one of the frustrating things about living over 50 kilometres away from the trial garden at West Creek Farms. Lately a few Gaia college students from the Growing Food in the City course have been coming to harvest and share it amongst their friends.

The beautiful yellow zucchini pictured above is butterstick F1, seed from Renee's Garden. This one has gotten too big. Though not always easy, it's best to harvest zucchini when they are under 7". If you let them get too big, seeds form in the cavity, the taste changes from sweet to mealy, with a watery texture, and the plant will stop producing flowers and fruit since its mandate is to reproduce itself. Pick 'em small.

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Have too many zucchini on hand? Here's a great recipe to use them up quick

It's best to harvest zucchini when they are under 7". If you let them get too big, seeds form in the cavity, the taste changes from sweet to mealy, with a watery texture, and the plant will stop producing flowers and fruit since its mandate is to reproduce itself. Pick 'em small.

If the inevitable happens and you end up with overgrown zukes, though, here's a recipe to use up lots of zucchini. If they really get out of hand (baseball bat size), just compost them—they have little flavour and a mealy texture.

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Have a story to share about a day of canning with friends, making jam for the first time, Grandma's secret recipe?

To coincide with the Museum of Vancouver's new Home Grown exhibit, featuring gorgeous photography by Brian Harris of backyard farmers and Vancouver's local food systems, demonstrated across four seasons, GardenWise and Granville Online are running a story contest!

Submit your 250-word story about canning, preserving, pickling, etc. to win a Museum of Vancouver prize pack, including two museum memberships (giving access to all exhibits and opening nights for 1 year), a personalized tour of the museum collection and a $20 gift voucher for a bottle from distributors of Artisan Wines.

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The Turk's Turban

The joy of squash

This fall is going to be a celebration of squash at West Creek Farms. We have them growing in giant hills, perhaps a couple of yards of soil in each. They were slow to start but as soon as the weather warmed (and General Manager Frederick Munn put a watering system into the hills!), they began to ramble all over. Above is the Turk's Turban, photographed August 7, 2010.

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Finally, an update on what's been going on out in Fort Langley at West Creek Farms, now with 42 raised beds

Those boys just won't stop building 'em!

In the photo above are the savoy and purple cabbage transplants on June 3, 2010.

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Our almost daily harvest from our greenhouse (often picked by my six-year-old niece) includes a selection of heirloom tomatoes including ‘Galina Yellow’ cherry, ‘Red Grape’, ‘Memorial’ Polish paste, ‘Black Russian’, ‘Black Krim’, ‘Valencia’ and ‘Tigerella’, plus some ‘Sweet Banana’ peppers, tomatilloes, basil, eggplants and more!

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Carol leaps to culinary action when her beets start to bolt

When my beets started to bolt in the August heat, it was out with them! We quickly picked them all and put them to good use.

The beets—a collection of many colours as we grew them from West Coast Seeds’ “Beet Blend” mix—were beautiful steamed and served with dinner. Meanwhile, all the fresh organic tops were chopped and served raw with a honey-mustard dressing, with any that looked a little rough being tossed into the soup stock pot.

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Carol discovers a floating garden of Eden docked in Gibsons

Sometimes people tell me with regret that they just don’t have the space for a good garden, and I encourage them to remember that even a small patio or the tiniest of lots can become an inviting retreat with the addition of container plantings and vertical growing.

And one very fine example of that has to be this floating-home garden in Gibsons, where there is literally not a speck of land to be had.

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Not yours to munch, deer!

All gardeners in deer country know to never say “deer-proof” – we always use the more cautionary deer-resistant because just when you make the promise to another gardener that a plant is definitely deer-proof, chances are you will wake up the next morning to find it eaten to the ground.

But I am going to be cocky and say that here is a quick container combo that is definitely deer-proof. In my 20 years of growing gardens in deer country, the sage, rosemary and bronze carex in my beds and containers – including varying cultivars of each – has had nary a nibble.

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Attend a full day of gardening workshops with permaculturist and author Robin Wheeler in Kitsilano on July 13, 2010

Founder of the Sustainable Living Arts School and author of Food Security for the Faint of Heart, Robin Wheeler is an experienced teacher in helping city dwellers learn the fine and practical art of growing food for healthy sustenance.

This summer, for one day only, she will be in Vancouver to impart her wisdom in a series of gardening classes offered through Village Vancouver.

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