Front vegetable beds

I didn't expect to have sugar snap peas coming in at the end of May, delaying the planting of beans, but the cool mild spring has kept them growing.

With a forecast of mild days and afternoon thundershowers ahead, I went ahead and sowed climbing squash seeds on the front trellises, with some trepidation. 

They're mildew-resistent varieties, so I'm hoping they'll look decent (unlike a few years ago, when I had huge squash leaves to "edit" constantly in the front, as they were so unsightly....)  They're also unusual varieties -- an Indian C. moschata cultivar called Tinda and another C. moschata cultivar from Mexico called 'Tatume'--hopefully both will resist the squash vine borers!

I'm also going to plant tromboncino squash later on-- it's another good alternative for traditional summer squash (which ALWAYS succumbs to borers here, at least without exceptional coddling and row covers, in my experience).   

Here's a selection of tromboncino (and other) squash musings from previous posts.  It's always revealing to look back on what happened in previous years.  Hmm, it was the tromboncino that I had to keep editing the old ratty mildewed leaves, and vowed never again....

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Rampant squash

I've had such poor luck in recent seasons with squash (even the squash vine-borer resistant varieties like Tromboncino) -- uh, woodchucks love it -- that I overplanted this year in the mountains.

What was I thinking?

The vines are rambling everywhere, down the slope, up trellises, through tomatoes, etc.  Yikes!

Tromboncino squash rambling down the slope, along with Butternut and Delicata

Tatume on the right; Tromboncino on the left

But we've had some tasty squashes for a change -- Tatume, Tromboncino, young Butternut and Delicata, and a couple of Eight-Ball (Ronde de Nice) before the plants succumbed to borers.

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Mystery squash, easy basil, and fall vegetables

I've been down in the Piedmont for a couple of days -- for an evening hike at the Garden with a bunch of fabulous Summer Science Research high school students and a vet check-up for Woody (his partially-torn crucial ligament is being monitored -- happily, he's improving again).

Thankfully, we've had enough periodic rain that everything looks good, even though the lakes nearby (Lake Hartwell) and the ponds at the Garden are way down.

Interestingly, there's a mystery squash in the satellite garden.

I'd pretty much given up on squash in the Piedmont because of woodchucks in the back woodlot, but perhaps they've gone elsewhere now.  This "mystery" vine (quite healthy) is producing small butternut-shaped squash that have outer markings like young tromboncino squash, and were totally delicious as part of my dinner tonight, along with some young leeks and a red 'Pizza' pepper.  Yum.

I'm planning on planting long-season fall vegetables later in the month, continuing through August.  It's SO hard to think about sowing seeds and planting when the temperatures are in the upper 90's.

Young basil in flats up in the mountains have already yielded some exceptionally- tasty pesto. I hope they'll have been well-watered in last night's thunderstorms.  It's a great way to grow basil.  I've been doing this for awhile and it's totally superior to trying to coax edible leaves out of older basil plants in the garden.

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The first beans, tomatoes, and squash

I was a bit late in planting some of the summer vegetables, but they've flourished in the initially cool late spring and now hot early summer temperatures.

Remarkably, I've harvested peppers and tomatilllos, usually a no-show until late summer.

There are LOTS of tomatoes developing and the first ones close to harvesting.  Woo-hoo!  And the various vining squashes are looking good, too -- no sign of squash vine borer moths or larvae (maybe they were confused by the strange winter and spring weather and somehow my plants will escape???)

This year, I do have mostly C. moschata squash varieties (trombocino & tatume) as well as butternut, and delicata), which are resistant to the borers, anyway, so maybe we'll have some squash this year!

Supposedly most winter squash like butternut and delicate are tasty enough as immature squash.  We'll see.  Apparently almost all squash aside from ornamental gourds (which are bitter) are at least decent-tasting, based on my limited Google search.

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I Have a Problem

Ok, I don't know if you have any problems with your garden, but I do! Here recently I have been having the largest problem with cucumber beetles, which means that I was pulling my hair out by the hands full...I eventually stopped since I was afraid I might go prematurely bald! Cucumber beetles are about 1/4 in. long with three black stripes on there backs filled with yellow in between. I had dueled with these menacing creatures before when I had planted green beens, lets just say I have never planted them since, I lost! The cucumber beetles had just come and eaten then all the leaves and all of the green beens where wasted since they could not be eaten due to the fact that they had little brown dots all over them from where they had bitten them. To this day green beens have not graced my garden since. Maybe someday I will be brave enough to plant them again.
Thank God that I have a mother who knows so many things that it would blow the mind of any person on the face of this earth, and she had read that NEEM OIL is the cure all for ant critter, bug, or anything that you do not in your garden to live. Since I am an organic gardener I was not going to use Seven on my plants, so instead I mixed some neem oil into a container with some water, and into that I added some tobacco (this is the only reason it is in our house to begin with!) WOW! If that wont kill something I don't know what will! At first I didn't think anything would happen to those beetles since I was seeing their eggs all over the leaves of the squash!
You see I had planted some squash, some spaghetti squash, and I just love home made spaghetti squash spaghetti...YUM!!! I was really looking forward to eating that spaghetti and knowing that it came right form the garden; I had even gone so far as to start my seeds from scratch, nurturing them all the way, and now come to find out that they were infested with these tiny beetles! Eventually ( 2 weeks) later I start to notice that there are not as many of them on my squash blossoms! I was ecstatic, all my dreams and aspirations had come true, it was a miracle!
After my battle with the beetles, I had come to find out that the reason not a single squash was growing was because my plants were not producing any female flowers, only male flowers were being produced! So all this time I was pollinating my plants was for nothing! I was considering buying a toupe so that I could resume pulling my hair out.
I had decided to go to canoing camp and leave all my troubles behind for the moment, ignorance is bliss, right! Well, it was until I came back, when I returned all of my spaghetti squash had wilt! I was so upset that I pulled out ever squash plant that even had a name that sounded like Italian cuisine.
When all of this was said and done I took some scrap plant material (not from the squash mind you) and threw it into the compost pile, only to find a squash plant growing, no, flourishing from a tiny seed that had been thrown away last year to be composted! On this miracle of a plant was once little baby female flower! So at least all my time and effort has not been wasted for nothing. Maybe next year I will just throw all of my seeds into the compost pile and see if they grow instead, well you cant blame me for thinking about it!

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