19 Gardeners Proud of Their Harvest — One Grew a Potato in Space and Named It Spudnik

A good harvest is hard to keep to yourself. Whether it’s a full basket or one odd-looking vegetable, gardeners can’t wait to show it off. These 19 gardening photos and stories are all about the pride of a harvest and the people who share it.

I’m an astronaut, and I grew this purple potato in space. It was growing in my research greenhouse under special lighting. I call it “Spudnik.”

Spudnik is a reference to the potato costume with antennas worn by Ross Geller in the TV show Friends.

Invisible

These guys were so proud of their giant pumpkins that they held a race in them. Participants had to carve a boat out of a pumpkin and, dressed as anyone from Clint Eastwood to Shrek, set out across the water in their “vessel.”

This is the harvest from 2 seeds. And about 15 more are on the way. In the beginning, I was even upset that half of the seeds didn’t sprout.

This fruit is called ficifolia, or figleaf gourd. These gourds taste bland, like zucchini, with a light watermelon scent. And they’re slightly astringent. But the chickens are happy.

Invisible

I’ve been worried about this butternut because it grew with a vine attached but it thrived and has been one of my favorite harvests this season!

When you wanted a flower bed, but things turned out the way they did

• I inherited a house in the country from my grandmother. In the basement, I found a jar labeled, “Do not throw away.” Inside were cuttings from some kind of plant.
  I’m no gardener, but I figured they were flowers and decided to plant them. Besides, I just couldn’t bring myself to toss out my grandmother’s supplies. I stuck them in the ground by the fence, thinking, “There, now I’ll have a flower bed.”
  But a year later, these huge leafy plants started growing like crazy. I asked my neighbor about them, and she laughed: “That’s horseradish! Your grandma used to make a sauce from it. The whole village kept asking her for the recipe.”
  We grabbed a shovel and dug one up, and there was a root as thick as my arm. I had to pull out Grandma’s cookbook and look for the recipe for her signature sauce. I also shared the extra harvest with the neighbors.

Bright Side

And look what we got: kiwano. It grew in our greenhouse.

Kiwano, also known as horned melon or African cucumber, is a herbaceous vine native to Africa. Its fruits taste like a blend of cucumber and banana and can be enjoyed sweet or savory — as either a fruit or a vegetable.

This lemon has only one yellow slice.

My daikon last year. For scale, my shoe size is 10.

Grew this bad boy from a top started in 2020. He spent some time as a coffee table plant. But now, 5 years later, in a much bigger pot, I got a fruit that’s actually grocery-store size!

Have you ever seen corn like this?

Grandma clearly knew how to grow a great crop.

• When Grandma was in charge of the cabin, she spent just 2 or 3 hours a day there after work. She fertilized with ash from burned weeds, compost from the pile, and eggshells. And every year, she filled the root cellar with home-canned jars, potatoes, zucchini, and all kinds of berries. There were so many apples that they ended up as fertilizer.
  Now my aunt runs the place, and she lives there all summer. The cabin now has running water and internet. She buys fertilizer by the sack and got the family to buy her an electric lawn mower, a garden pump, a tiller, and a new greenhouse. And yet nothing grows. Every year she complains about the terrible harvest and says she has to go to the farmers market for vegetables. Go figure.

Gentlemen.Udach / Pikabuhttps://pikabu.ru/story/kupite__i__14241351?cid=401544580

I just harvested around 150 pounds of green vanilla beans! Divide that by 5 and it will be an approximate amount of the cured vanilla bean yield! I am located in Indonesia and we work with vanilla farmers and buy their harvest to cure the vanilla beans.

These are beans, and they’re edible. How beautiful!

I grew a zucchini as big as my cat.

My son enjoys gardening. I opened the fridge and found his bountiful harvest of raspberries.

I wasn’t feeling well, and I told my husband the only thing that I regret is that I can’t harvest the huge patch of lavender I’ve grown for years... And here is where I found this amazing man today.

Best carrot year ever!

Just my tomatoes

First mango from a tree that was grown from seed!

Bonus from the author: a recent story

• It was September and cold, and the landlord hadn’t turned on the heat yet. One evening, I was frying zucchini in my rental. I had to do something with all the produce from my mom’s garden. Then my landlord called, sounding annoyed: “Tessa, the lady downstairs says water’s coming through her ceiling from your place.”
  Just a month or two earlier, he’d had plumbers replace the main pipes. There was always some kind of problem with that old lady downstairs, and she’d never tell you anything directly. I checked: nothing was leaking on my end, so I told him to come see for himself. He came over, looked around, made sure everything was dry, and went downstairs to talk to her.
  Then it turned out the old lady was no fool: she pushed a bag of zucchini on him. So now I’m wondering: either her apartment has ventilation problems and moisture builds up on the ceiling, or she made up the whole story just to unload her zucchini.

Bright Side

Some of the best harvests here came from the simplest methods. A garden tends to reward patience more than gadgets, and the people who grow things usually know it. What’s the best thing you’ve ever grown? Tell us in the comments.

Dark09