Back in May, I planted 2 rows of spaghetti squash and 3 of butternut, expecting not every seed to thrive. The Boy had 5 birdhouse gourds planted around his tee-pee, where they could climb the posts and the string wound between them. He also planted 2 giant pumpkins. We had 2 volunteer something-or-others that could have been melons or squash based on how they looked back when we were planting.
Everything has survived. I had to thin my winter squashes down to 2 spaghetti and 3 butternut plants total, since every seed I'd planted had sprouted. I had to spend about an hour today untangling the 5 squashes, and intervening in their attacks on marigolds, nasturtiums, the 2 zucchini plants, all the tomatoes, and the cucumbers across the aisle in the next bed. The birdhouse gourds were spreading out rather than up, so had to be trained up. The pumpkins know no borders, and had spread into the grass. The 2 volunteers whatevers have been identified as yellow squash (also called crookneck) They are attaching to mulch, birdhouse gourds, popcorn cornstalks, and anything that doesn't move fast enough to escape.
Oh. I forgot. A volunteer squash has devoured the compost heap.
In the meantime, I have about 80 pounds of zucchini that must be eaten or stored. I am gonna be able to get the guys to eat the zucchini if I make it Parmesan, along with some kind of meat. Venison and Zucchini Parmesan? But that is only gonna go so far. I intended to make a huge batch of ratatouille to freeze...except for one small problem. While my tomato plants are now taller than me, are growing thickly enough that they are great shade, and have tons of fruit ripening... they are not ripe yet. So, I'll have to either try to save the zukes for another week and gamble that I'll have enough tomatoes to make ratatouille... Or I'm gonna have to buy some. Sigh.
On the plus side, I saw fresh zukes at the grocery store selling at $1.99 a pound! Take that! Never mind that I would never choose to buy 80 pounds of zucchini.
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