The Squash Are On The Way

I was walking around the garden yesterday and I was amazed by how quickly the squash went from being a tiny little helpless seedling to being a monstrous plant just bursting with flower buds.  It was only last week that the squash started showing any real progress in their growth.  The very first flower bloomed only a couple days ago, but already you can see the fruit forming below it.

This is the yellow squash plant.  From the looks of things we will be inundated with them in about a week or two.  The busiest part of the season is just beginning and I will have to make a point to check my plants daily if I want to stay on top of the harvest.  Zucchini and yellow squash have a tendency to hide in the stalks of the leaves until they are enormous.  I would like to stay away from the baseball bat sized ones because the smaller ones are more tender and flavorful.  The small ones also preserve better when they are dehydrated.  I plan on giving away alot of my surplus to friends, and dehydrating the rest for feeding to the chickens or adding to soups and breads.

 

The winter squash have also started putting out their first flowers.  The first to go so far are the pumpkins.  I am sure the rest will follow shortly.

 

 

I am a little curious to see what comes out of the other squash plants.  I have long since forgotten which variety I planted where, so I guess I will just have to wait and see what grows.  The plants are also growing so fast that I have no doubt that they will be taking over that end of the garden in a few short weeks.  Lucky for me I planned on that, so the plants will have plenty of room to roam.  There is nothing tall growing in the beds around them and if they grow into the pathways that is fine because they will help to shade out the weeds.