Then some of the plants suffered sunburn, one pot just went completely yellow (anaemic zucchini??) and I think some other plants somehow got a white powdery mildew situation happening. I don't know what that means exactly, but that's what somebody told me it was. Growing zucchinis is hard them having kids I think!
On top of all of this NO bees would visit my balcony so I was out on the balcony each morning cross-pollinating the fruit with an old make up brush. The first lesson in this was learning how to tell the boys from the girls...which is actually very simple. The boys don't have fruit attached to the base of their flowers, and the girls do.
Despite my best efforts at zucchini sex the majority of the fruit just wouldn't turn into a fully fledged zucchini - I won't give up my day job to become a zucchini pimp that's for sure! Some of the fruits stayed teeny tiny and turned yellow on the plant...and then died. Others gave their best attempt at become a real live zucchini, but ended up firm and green on the bottom but yellowish and spongy on top. I have to tell you I really have no idea what was going wrong...
It wasn't all doom and gloom though - some zucchinis did their very best and turned into proper zucchinis. This particular zucchini was nearly 30cms long! WOW!
This zucchini was earmarked for a pesto pasta salad that I've been whipping up for years (recipe stolen form an old flatmate back in the 90s). The zucchinis get fried up in some olive oil and then mixed with fresh cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, pesto and pasta. You can eat this warm, but I prefer to have it as a salad.
Watch this space as soon I'm going to make my own pesto using basil and rocket from my balcony garden...once they're ready to pick that is.
You can see more Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions.
