Giant squash and other oddities

Young small squash are absolutely delicious, and not shippable at all. From home gardens and farmer's markets, they're a summer highlight. I like to enjoy as many different summer squash as I can, and for some reason, am hopeful this season to avoid the dreaded squash vine borers that allow me to harvest one or two from my vines, before causing collapse of the entire plant.

Who knows why I think my pattypan, flying saucer, eight ball (Ronde di Nice), cocozelle, butterstick, etc. C. pepo squashes might avoid them this year? Extra cold weather this winter? Late planting? Unusual optimism? We'll see. I'm sure my reliable tromboncino squash (a C. moschata variety) and perhaps the mystery summer squash mix (AKA small young gourds) will provide nice fruits regardless (uh, unless the woodchuck(s) are extra hungry).

But I always pick my squash when they're young and tender, knowing that that's when they're the best.

But I was a bit dismayed to see giant patty pan and zucchini offered up at our student farm's market this afternoon; maybe I missed the small ones earlier in the market, but why would anyone buy giant patty pan squash? They're really only good as a source of (uninteresting) fiber.

Clearly, we're missing the farm to table connection with some of these young students.

But maybe I need to get over and help them harvest earlier, too.

Read more...

Late spring gardening

It was a good day in the garden.

I've harvested most of the garlic and onions, and have started to plant replacement squash, basil, and leeks. Tomorrow, I'll plant another round of yard-long beans, purple pole beans, tromboncino squash, and scarlet runner beans. (The woodchuck(s) have been nibbling on the squash, hrrrmph).

I planted a couple of different summer squash varieties
in this square (maybe they'll avoid squash vine borers this year?)

We'll eat all of the onions fresh - they're delicious when small and young, and aren't big enough to warrant storing (many were planted in the main vegetable garden that's quite shady until summer is in full swing).

The late afternoons and evenings have been so pleasant lately - relatively low humidity (for us) with beautiful light. My garden shed smells of curing garlic, but nonetheless is a delightful place to work, and view the garden.

Read more...

Succession planting of squash, beans, and tomatoes

As I'm harvesting garlic and the final bit of lettuce in the main beds, I'm thinking about what to plant next. The peas are just about finished, too, and one of the pea trellises will need underplanting with beans or a climbing cucumber or squash. (The other already has tromboncino squash ready to replace the peas). I suppose if I were more orderly and less into having fun in my vegetable garden, I'd had have already planned out my rotations.

And I really should think about preserving the harvest, too (wait, I'm still determined to enjoy the process) -- Barbara Damrosch in her revised Garden Primer talks about freezing whole tomatoes, then rinsing off the skins in hot water before using them in sauces in the winter. That's my idea of a great approach.

We've had a nice bit of rain today, after some unusually hot weather that's now moderated, so it's a good time to put out more summer squash, beans, and a few new heirloom tomato transplants that I acquired last weekend.

I also thought I'd experiment sowing some more seeds of specialty peppers (Corno di Toro, Ashe County Pimento, Numex, Sweet Red Cherry) and tomatoes (Black Russian and Super Marzano hybrid) to transplant later on. Peppers do their best in the warm days of fall here, especially if summer turns out to be especially hot. And tomatoes will keep growing until whenever frost comes.

I'll have the potato beds to swap out, too, probably in the next couple of weeks. I've already harvested some new potatoes around the edges, but will wait until the shoots start dying back to harvest the rest.

The soil in my vegetable beds work hard, so I'm trying to add LOTS of homemade compost (rather than commercial) at each rotation, as clearly I'm not replenishing my beds as much as they might need. A Thai eggplant planted in a container filled with this compost is huge, the biggest eggplant I've ever grown, witness to the power of nutrients! I'll have to see if the plant produces many fruits. I did see a tomato-sized eggplant last fall (the plant), growing in a large container in a Portland urban garden -- whoa! I'm not sure any of mine will get that big.

Read more...

Mystery seed

My mystery summer squash is probably an interloper, based on the composition of the Summer Squash mix packet from Gourmet Seeds that I recently received (from a second order).

Even though the packet is labeled C. moschata, the variety list (Di Napoli, Romanesco, Rondi de Nice, Golden, and Bianco di Trieste) are largely C. pepo, I think. I recognize all of these, except for the 'Golden' in my satellite garden plants. But I think 'Golden' was replaced by a gourd, which is quite tasty when young, but is not happy in our summer heat (the leaves wilt dreadfully in the afternoon).

Happily, I've been harvesting the other squash varieties, too, having the best summer squash harvest I've ever had (aside from the tromboncino squash, which is flourishing).

Read more...