Always Pleasing to Reap What You Sow!

Our first summer and zucchini squash of the season!  The plants eaten by the deer survived and are doing just fine.  Fortunately, the deer have not returned, to the squash anyway...

this plant - 

and this plant - 

produced these -

Our Squash Has Come To An End

These are the last Summer and Zucchini squash from our garden this season.  Picked them this past weekend.  The Summer squash is a Siamese twin of sorts.

It was a very good and delicious year for our Summer and Zucchini!

Reaping What We Sow'd, Literally!

We have squash; Zucchini and Summer, as well as Cucumbers coming out of our ears!  They're all doing terrific this season and taste scrumptious! Friends and neighbors are enjoying the bounty too - a tradition I learned from my dad and one I now truly understand and appreciate.

As always, if you're in the area stop in!

Bumper Squash Crop 2014

Zucchini -

 Summer -

Planting this seasons Zucchini and Summer squash in a different location than years past is turning out to be a terrific idea!  The plants, although slow to take off, are BIG, full and beautiful with oodles and oodles of squash on each.

The Squash Has Arrived!

Picked our first two squash of the season yesterday, a zucchini and a double-summer!

I planted the squash in a different location this season and the plants look fantastic, so I'm guessing they approve.  However, the proof is in their output but early indications are positive.

Their A Bloom'n!

The Zucchini and Summer squash plants look fantastic, with BIG beautiful blossoms!

There's baby squash started, as you can see in one of the pictures above, so hopefully it won't be too long before we have a couple to enjoy, yum!

The Little Zucchini That Could

 

I didn't have the heart to pull our last zucchini squash plant out of the ground, especially with there being a BIG, open-for-business female flower on it!

 

Sadly, I'm afraid that it's days are numbered and it won't be very long now until we get hit with a hard frost.  I guess I'll wait for that to take place, then pull and add it to the compost pile.

 

Who knows the little zucchini growing just might grow an inch or two more...

The Garden Pests Are Endless...

So, this little %ucker -

 

 

Is the cause of this -

 

 

I removed this 1" Squash Vine Borer from one of our zucchini squash plants: one of our severally wilted squash plants.

 

This pests are devastating to squash plants.  Sadly, there really isn't too much you can do about it (from what I've been able to dig up).  By the time you notice the problem (wilting plants), it's too late. The borer(s) are already inside the plants stems eating it alive from the inside out.

 

One of the things I will try next year is planting our zucchini and summer squash in another garden location all together and as far away from the garden I have been planting them in.  Time will tell how that goes. In the meantime one of the chickens enjoyed this borer!

Circle of "Compost" Life

 

Finally got around to planting our extra summer and zucchini squash plants.  The 6-packs, for each variety, I bought in early summer had SO many more that six plants.  I planted what I thought we could handle and the extras I potted up.

 

They really weren't doing too well in the small pots with all this heat, not to mention that we're tired of watering them, so  I was prepared to add them to the compost pile in a composting way.  However, I thought I had nothing to lose by sticking them in the dirt and giving them a drink of water.

 

Let's see how they do.  If they live and produce it's a WIN for us, and if they don't no harm no foul.  either way they're gonna be compost.

First Zucchini of 2013!

 

First zucchini squash of the season!!

First Squash of 2012

Behold, our first Summer and Zucchini squash of the season!

We picked them back on 7/1 and have picked oodles since.

We could use some much needed rain...

Halloween Turban Squash

Emilie's grandmother bought her the above Turban squash, at Emilie's request of course, for a Halloween decoration. At the request of my farmer friend in Marshfield, who saw it during his last visit up, I brought it to him today. His plans - to save the seeds for the 2012 gardening season, and to eat the rest! He claims it's very tasty. I'll just take his word on that but it's certainly unusual looking...

1st Squash Picking 2011

Here's JoAnne, head down and getting into it, picking squash, yummy!



Three perfectly sized summer squash -


A mountain of zucchini, with an odd ball adorning the top -

Summer and Zucchini Squash, Yum!

OK, folks I learned me something new once again this gardening year, not that I proclaim to know everything mind you. Plus learning good!

Can you identify the above worm, hmmm?

Well, before I reveal the answer let me start this here posting by recounting some of the events leading up to the discovery -

I was a perdy July afternoon and I just finished building our new veggie bed to grow our summer and zucchini squash, see below, and getting the plants in the ground.



Well, about a month later (mid August-ish), after we'd picked some wonderful, tasty squash, the plants started to wilt and didn't look too good. We also noticed that some of the smaller, yet ripe squash was rotting from the ends, hmmmm. I thought perhaps that it was due to and a result of the crazy hot and humid weather we were having at the time and that I wasn't watering them enough, nope.

We did get some additional squash but something was wrong and it wasn't the weather or lack of watering. It wasn't until the end of the month when I made the decision to yank the plants that the mystery was solved.

When I pulled the first plant out, of course I grabbed it by the stem at the base of the plant, it was rotted and well yucky. Upon closer inspection when I slit the stem along the rotted, yucky area with a knife (keep in mind squash plants, pumpkin plants, etc are somewhat hollow), and WHA-LA the above worm and several others were inside.

Turns out this little guy is known as a Squash Vine Borer. Interestingly, often the first symptom of a borer attack is the wilting of affected plants. Wilting may occur only in strong sun at first. This is exactly what we were seeing. These pests were in most of the plants I pulled. I gathered as many of the worms as I could find and feed them to the chickens and as always they devoured them. I then bagged the plants and disposed of in our trash. I didn't want to take any chances and risk mixing these plants in the compost for fear of having missed some of the worm and having them hang around. Not quite sure how to handle this problem next year, as it sounds like these pests are difficult to deal with and rid but I have all winter to ponder my approach.

Till next year, happy tilling...

1st Summer Squash of the Season!

Here is our first summer squash of the season, yippie!

Unless the woodchucks stage an uprising, we're looking at many, many more summer AND zucchini squashes. There's loads of little ones our there now. These dudes are loving this hot and humid weather. Of course the daily hand watering doesn't bother them either.