We bought one pot of squash at the store to find out it had 6 plants in it. We started late, but I'm prepared to be drowning in squash later this summer. And I love squash, so it is not an issue for me.
Drowning in summer squash
Mine have lots of male blooms. Just waiting with anticipation. :)
My summer squash was starting to produce before I left for the beach so I brought 1.5 large ones with me. It's been only 24 hours into vacation and already I had broiled squash with homemade pesto smeared on it for dinner last night and leftover squash on my egg bagel for breakfast/brunch.
I love when I bring my garden abundance on vacation, I miss the garden when I'm not home. Have a friend stopping by to pick beans and look for some red tomatoes; it will take away some of the end of vacation blahs to look forward to coming back to the garden's plenty.
Just a thought... some churches do anonymous baskets to needy parishoners and others in the community. I happen to live near a few, so I regularly leave bags of excess veggies on a Sunday morning with a sign that says FREE!. Or in the south, many Baptists attend on Wednesday evenings. Different faiths like Krishnas & Sikhs to name a couple have a group vegetarian meal together usually after worship.
When I give to any of these places, I try to stress that they are doing ME a favor by taking it, rather than the other way around.
Anyhoo, just an idea.
I do donate it to the local church, and have finally gotten on top of it I think... whew!
scarletbean, such wonderful idea to donate to our favorite charity organization. I also like to 'teach' the joy of gardening to others, so they can have the skills for a lifetime. A gift that keeps on giving....kinda thing.
Lily_love- I am always going on & on about the fun of gardening. Especially kids in the 7-14 yr ages. They are young enough to have fun without being embarassed and old enough not to be tearing things up. I pull them in by talking about a cool bug, or a pretty butterfly. Kids seem amazed that their food starts out somewhere besides the supermarket. Well, grown ups are, too.
The boy (8yrs) next door was hooked when I told him I was making 'poop soup' to water the garden. (manure tea) That was last year, and he had a pea patch and has some pumpkins and a few green beans growing this year. He is so excited by the Zucchini, it grows so fast, he wants to try for some baseball bat size ones next year. He eats all the veggies from the garden, since he either grew it himself, or 'helped' me. He also turned his little brother and sister onto it by showing them how to dip mint leaves in sugar and "it tastes like doublemint gum!" Or, that dill tastes like a pickle.
I also meant to suggest using shredded squash for an ingredient in meatloaves or burgers. It adds moisture and stretches your ground meats. you can also addit to veggie burger mixes and i have put it into salmon patties. I just keep it in the freezer already shredded. It mixes in well with chili or taco filling.
One other thought.. I know a wildlife rehabilitator and I some times give her extra produce for her rescued animals. Rabbits, Opossums,raccoons,birds,turtles,squirrels and/or chipmunks, bats, skunks, groundhogs and whatever else she has that will eat veggies.
Wishful thinking: Invent a cat litter made from zucchini that would be biodegradeable.
More wishful thinking: zucchini gasoline.
scarletbean,
I love all of your ideas and,being most fond of wildlife, am particularly fond of the idea of providing extra produce to wildlife rehabbers who often have to bear the full cost of food for the animals in their care. That said, if you can perfect that last one, the world will surely beat a wide path to your door!
I think goldfish and koi will nibble on Summer Squash if you slice it to help them get started. They won't eat enough to control your excess, though. Hermit crabs, too?
Dream, If i manage to invent either the cat litter or the zucchini gasoline, I will send each person at my door home with not only my invention, but with a zucchini.! haha.
I think my crazy production is from the 2 year old horse manure i got from my neighbor. She moved the horses to another location, and never cleaned the barn. She let me have all i could shovel. It has made a big difference in all my veggies.
I have no doubt that nutrient rich, black gold has made all the difference for you, scarletbean. Great score.
My yard man managed to cut down most of my struggling squash, and some climbing beans!
A stray dog has adopted us, but now we're not keeping her. A woman from LabRescue was here to see the dog, and it turns out she lives about 15 miles from here and has horses. I may get some black gold soon too. :)
darius,
Are you sure you didn't hire my yard man? He pruned my very expensive set of rose 'trees' to stumps just above the 1st grafts, pulled up a number of clematis 'weeds', killed a couple of very healthy camellias, and somehow even managed to kill an incredibly healthy small tree which was an essential part of the front yard design and w/o which the front yard will now be unbalanced. He made up for these errors by taking exceptional care of a nice clump of weeds near the front door and coddling a number of sweet gum, tree of heaven, and ginko seedling volunteers that cropped up in my backyard and grew to 7ft or more in his charge.
Glad to hear about your compost find!
Darius, if by black gold you mean horse manure, be careful because horses are often dosed pretty heavily with chemicals which end up in their droppings. I heard of a person whose garden was also ruined because there were sufficient traces in the manure of an herbicide from the hay the horses were eating to affect his vegetable plants.
Leslie, this woman is very organic and they put up their own hay. The thing that concerns me is grass seeds in the manure unless it's quite well hot-composted.
I could get horse manure down the road from here less than a mile, but I know they buy hay and grain.
I wish I could find someone who raises rabbits but doesn't garden.
DoS,
Don't you mean your EX-yard man?
LOL, Gymgirl,
No. While I'm doing my own yard work right now and am not retaining his services currently, I will likely do so again at some point. He did have a lot of very good qualities, and it's virtually impossible, in my area at least, to find a yard guy with excellent knowledge of ornamental plants. We are positively inundated here with people who want to mow & edge lawns. Very few of these people have any real knowledge of plants/gardening and few are even willing to undertake jobs which require anything more than mowing, edging, and minor pruning.
My yard guy was one of the few willing to even do the more complex and time-consuming tasks my garden requires, to mow and trim, prune and weed around all those ornamental plants. Despite his foibles, he was conscientious, hard working, and he really tried. He was better than the alternatives. If I need someone again to help out, I would hire him again, imperfect though he was.
Once I went outside and broke it to him that the plants by the front door were weeds, he cut them down. He thought they were a type of ornamental grass, and I could see how they did resemble that sort of thing at that stage in their growth. Likewise, once I painted a ring on the trunks of the seedlings I wanted removed, he cut them down. He had simply been unable to discern between desirable plants like my Rose of Sharon and undesirable sweet gum seedlings about the same size. Those matching rose trees with the tiny pink roses raining down from high pedestals will never be the same again, but mistakes happen. Some of the clematis survived. Others didn't. He is learning. I think he may have killed some trees and shrubs by getting too close with the string trimmer. I'll need to discuss that with him.
I told you the bad things he did. Just to be fair, I probably should also tell you at least one of the good things. I feed the raccoons and other wildlife in my backyard (and maintain a thread series on the subject). Over the years the raccoons have gotten to know me and have become like pets. In summer they bring their babies here. I provide small (dog & cat) toys for the kits to play with plus a wading pool. My backyard is like a raccoon McDonalds. The kids play while the moms eat. Over the course of the year, the raccoons carry the toys all around the yard leaving them here and there in favorite play spots.
I explained the toys to the yard guy the 1st time he came here (I was unable to pick the toys up due to an injury). Now, every summer when he arrives to start work, he 1st goes all around the yard, picks up the toys, and puts them in a large bucket on the patio (where the raccoons find them and redistribute them around the yard slowly). I never asked him to pick up the toys. I would probably have mowed over them myself. This is indicative of his work ethic and why, despite his foibles, I do like his work and would hire him again if I needed a yard guy (and had any money).
Okay still on vacation and not able to get to my garden notes but it just came to me: cavilli squash! It is parthenocarpic and will produce well regardless of pollination conditions. Light green/lime green in color. Tastes great too!
I tried cavilli under netting but the squash bugs still did them in. I don't think I even got any to taste!
I love the "McDonald's" analogy.
I saw my first squash vine borer on the wing yesterday, and went after it with a ton of effort, but not sure i got it. I haven't seen it since, but the weather has been cloudy/rainy.
I've to one big cushaw growing on the vine that I hand-pollinated, and a couple more babies coming along.
No netting, but I am vigilant about killing squash bugs. Also I rotate my plants and do lasagna gardening so I think I smother the larvae. Also patrol the undersides of leaves and scrape off eggs; both squash bugs and vine borer eggs. Cavilli are very strong plants, I've grown them for five seasons and they are able to withstand normal amount of bugs. Only time they struggle is when it's hot and dry. Sine this summer is so rainy they are thriving
This will be the first bloom on my Cavilli. Started myself from seed and I grow all my squash in pots.
This message was edited Jul 5, 2013 4:37 PM
Beautiful squash Rita! I grow mine from seed also good to know you can do them in pots. My deck is full sun so I grow birds eye peppers, several kinds of basil, lavender and other her w in pots. Herbs and edibles thrive in the direct sun Nd I have to take my sun where I cn find it.
Cavilli is a big plant. I hadn't realised it would be so big. Those pots I have the Cavilli's in are way too small. Oh well, next time I will know. Bigger pot needed.
LOL, Racoon McDonalds!!!
Ok. If he's like that, he can be my yard man, too....
First squash from my cushaw - which is now about 30' in each direction. I plucked it even though it was a bit young because it was hanging too high and breaking the vine.
It's almost a foot long after only a few weeks. Yep, the flowers are THAT ginormous.
This message was edited Jul 9, 2013 1:35 PM
wow!
OOOoo! I want to try this next year! anything with such big flowers will be pretty darn neat-o! I have not eaten this type, but have read it is tasty.
Cavilli is a big plant that makes big fat very pale green fruits.
Newyorkrita,
How big is that squash container?
That's the coolest veggie! Rita, have some recipe to share please? Hi Linda, Rita is doing well with the vegs. in containers indeed. My next question for Rita is; what fertilizer and how often do you feed these plants in pots please.
The container is 17 1/2 inches accoss. I have already learned it should be bigger as those Cavillis are BIG plants! I have 23 inch pots already for next year.
But I am growing lots of veggies in containers set up on my very sunny driveway. Mostly squash and eggplants.
No receipes. I usually just cut the zucs in half lengthwise, drizzel with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder. Then grill or broil them till tender. Yummy! You can also slice up and stir fry or bread and fry them.
I feed them weekly, sometimes more often. I use AlgroFlash. Wonderful stuff. I have also used Neptunes Fish and Seaweed Liquid fertilizer. Like that one also.
More Cavilli fruits comming along!
How are your cavilli holding up to SVB? You mentioned on other thread that some squash was recovering,was it cavilli?
Cavilli is supposed to be somewhat resistant but I don't see that to be true as those SVB like all the different types of zucchini and squash that I have.
I didn't even know what a Squash Vine Borer looked like till I saw one in my yard. And in spite of very carefully checking the plants twice each day (morning and evening) I never did see any eggs. First thing I knew I had SVB was frass and wilted plants. It was quite the shock.
All my 5 original plants of squash which I bought as seedlings ended up with borers. Then at least one of the Cavillis and one of the Elite zucchini also which I had put in the garden much later.
The younger plants look good, I am hoping I got rid of the borers. Of the 5 first plants the two yellow squash look pretty good, I think they are recovering. But the three original zucs look the worst as the stems are really bad and sickly looking.
I injected ALL my squash and zucchini with Spinosad. I think that it worked but we will see.
Rita,
Try bunching up some cheap tulle (think bridal veil....) fabric around the base of the squash, down in the pots on the dirt. The squash moth won't be able to get to the dirt or land on the stem near the dirt (where they like to go) to lay eggs.
I haven't gotten around to planting squash seeds, but my plan was to start a couple Tatume seeds in two large 24" planters and put pvc hoops covered with the tulle over the containers. I may plant some seeds tomorrow, since I'm pulling up spent planting areas.
Squash growers over on the veggie gardens forum are reporting increased yields since they covered their seedlings with the tulle. The moth can't land on the dirt or the stems to lay eggs...
Linda
I have not tried the cover them method but don't think it would work for me. I have to keep spraying these plants with Neem to stop/control the powdery mildew, means I would have to take everything off and put it back on each spraying. Also then need to hand pollinate.
I am hoping I have the SVB problem managed. The Neem should kill any eggs, in fact it does kill any eggs so one only has to worry that you might have missed spraying an egg. The Spinosad injected into the stems seems to be doing the trick of killing the borers that had made it into the stems. So far so good, no new damage. Time will tell.
Golden egg plant and baby fruits and blossoms comming.
Those SVB' s are really the worst! I lost 2 of 4 or 5 zuke plants this past week. I finally just pulled them out of the bed and when the stems broke, there were SO many awful larvae about 1 inch long and some a little bigger. I sliced the stems (plant autopsy) to see how bad it was and it was bad. I still have 2 more zukes and a yellow squash which I can see evidence of svb's on. However, I have done nothing to fight them, and the plants are all very robust, so I got quite a lot of squash. Too much, really. So, next year I may try the tulle on 1 or 2 plants and see how it does.
Golden Egg again. See how nice they are. I just love these as they are so pretty. Golden Egg is a very good name for them.
