What Goes Around Comes Around - It's not what you think

Last year I had planted several zucchini plants and they were doing well.  I knew my neighbor behind was waiting for my zucchini to grow because I asked if she wanted one when they were ready.  I was expecting my plants to do what they usually do, produce like zucchini plants do.  When I got my first one it was big and I handed it over the back fence to her.  I was so excited like I usually am when they start producing fruit.  I can't remember what happened but my zucchini plants died.  That had been the only zucchini I got so I was disappointed.

My neighbor's son and his wife moved in.  He planted a garden and it has been doing very well!  We have been talking over the fence about our gardens.  When he got his first zucchini he told me about it.  He then went into his house and came back and handed his first picked zucchini to me!  He said he had lots more growing that were almost ready to be picked.  He told me that his mom made zucchini bread from the zucchini I gave her last year.  Isn't that so cool!

I got at least four meals out of that zucchini and then he gave me another one!  I was peeking into a female blossom on my zucchini plant to see if there were any bees in it and sure enough there was one in there doing its work and I could tell my zucchini attached to that flower had grown!  I was so excited that soon I would be able to pick my first zucchini for this year.  As I continued to water I looked on the other side of the plant and there was a good size zucchini hiding under the big leaves, ready to pick, so I did!

I haven't eaten it yet because I am still working on the one my neighbor gave me, but I may make zucchini bread from it so I can get to mine!  I was also able to pick a small tomato from my Fourth of July and a cherry tomato.

What a nice, heartwarming story.  Thanks for sharing. 

Wonderful story!

Thank you both!  It is also nice to talk "gardening" over the fence!

Nice story Tricia! I enjoyed it very much.

Nice! I really look forward to giving some of my veggies to neighbors this year. They've given us stuff before, but we've never been able to return the favor until this year(hopefully).

Thank you Llama Momma.

I hope you will be able to share, it's fun.  Just remember they enjoyed the sharing also!

My neighbors gave me two more huge zucchinis.  They are starting to get overwhelmed and a have a second one doing good on the vine.  I am definitely going to have to make zucchini bread!

Triciasgarden wrote:Thank you Llama Momma.

I hope you will be able to share, it's fun.  Just remember they enjoyed the sharing also!

My neighbors gave me two more huge zucchinis.  They are starting to get overwhelmed and a have a second one doing good on the vine.  I am definitely going to have to make zucchini bread!

 
 Your welcome Tricia.  There's so much you can do with zucchini.  I hope to have enough to grate and freeze for months and months. 
 
 And Yes, I look forward to sharing and hopefully gently assist the new neighbor next door transition to sf gardening from his new row garden.  Last time we spoke he wasn't thrilled with the results, you know with typical row garden issues.  Another thing, the garden is so far away from the back door he loads up supplies and travels back and forth by golf cart.

What a wonderful story!  It's just as fulfilling to share, as it is to receive

Triciasgarden wrote:
My neighbor's son and his wife moved in.  He planted a garden and it has been doing very well!  We have been talking over the fence about our gardens.  When he got his first zucchini he told me about it.  He then went into his house and came back and handed his first picked zucchini to me!  He said he had lots more growing that were almost ready to be picked.  He told me that his mom made zucchini bread from the zucchini I gave her last year.  Isn't that so cool!
I was also able to pick a small tomato from my Fourth of July and a cherry tomato.

What a wonderful story about friendly neighbors Tricia.
I've shared with neighbors too, & offered to get the lady on the south side going in her garden, but she said 'Not yet. When I'm ready then you can share some of your best starts'. Too at the grocers, I tell garden-hesitators about the SFG-method & how anybody can do it, even in stages. One man got excited to actually be able to eat organic food homegrown. Also at the YMCA they are starting a garden. It should be fun...

Triciasgarden - sweet story. Food really seems to bring fourth a greater sense of community among neighbors whether it's food carefully prepared over the stove or nurtured on the vine. Hopefully sharing our sfg bounty will remove any possible hesitation about moving into a new neighborhood.

I have some brand new neighbors (young family). Just after they moved in I put a Gable Fan in my attic because the weather was about to get hot and I wanted to keep my house as cool as possible before having to turn on the air conditioning. I didn't think about it at the time, but the musty attic smell blew out between our houses when it turned on. To make matters worse, I added a bit of fish fertilizer to my worm tea. I thought it may smell a bit, but OMG!! When it got hot!! ...nice neighbor I am. I quickly used up the tea. Good thing mom and son are out of the country for a month.

Well, the attic air is improving by the day and I no longer will put ANY fish fertilizer in my tea. I should be able to harvest some zucchini soon to share with them and hopefully remove any possible questions they might have about moving into their "new" house.

Side Note: The worm tea/fish fertilizer made my plants blow up. My zucchinis are finally growing like I thought they should (after reading about others zukes) and my strawberry is even vining out. I'm really stoked about that cuz' they didn't look so good when I first planted them a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully I'll have some quality strawberries to share with them next year.

That's awesome Tricia!  I love sharing!  Now I want to go check out all my squashes!

Llamamomma, I grated zucchini and froze it one year and it sure keeps its color and is so pretty!  Hopefully your neighbor can get started on sfging!  You will do so well in teaching and how fun would it be for them to have their garden almost right outside their back door!

Andrea it sure is!

Littlegardener, it's so nice to share and feels good!  It sounds like your neighbor is smart enough to not rush before she is ready and it always is nice to have someone help get youy started and help along the way, if needed!  Well you are telling people about the best way of gardening!

Grownsunshine, that is such a hilarious story about the musty smell of your attic (which probably wasn't very bad) and the fishy smell!  I am so glad that the worm/fish tea is doing it's job and making your plants do what they should be doing, so at least the smell will make it seem worth it and luckily your neighbors went out of the country at the right time!  My strawberries did the opposite of yours, they started off pretty good but they kicked the bucket.  I will just have to try another time.  Thank you for sharing your great story!  You are so right about food bringing forth a greater sense of community!

Cheyenne, I hope your squashes are doing good!

So far just some pumpkins starting!