Thursday, August 27, 2009

It's a squash takeover!



Look at this monstrous plant! This is just one winter squash plant that I decided to allow to roam through the garden instead of up the trellis. It was supposed to be a 3 sisters thing. But the corn is only a few inches high (or not growing at all) and the bean, well I had to add a tiki torch for it to climb because there was no corn to hold onto (note to self, plant the corn earlier next time). I planted this squash on August 1st I think. I saw one female flower on it, but it turned yellow and shriveled before the flower even opened.

I must have killed about 100 worms on my summer squash yesterday. Squish, squish, squish. My fingers were pretty green LOL, but I have no coordination with gloves on. I'm going to try to bag the fruit the moment I see the flower open (i'll help pollinate to be sure). We'll see how that works.

The other 2 winter squash are doing well growing up their trellis. They are reaching out to grab anything they can. My peppers are doing well. I have 3 more growing - yay! I'm going to start seedlings for more this week because it is almost the official time for peppers here. I think I'll keep the shade curtains up for a while because last year even in Sept I had problems with the flowers dropping.

And look at this beauty who dropped by this morning. I'm not sure what it is. I'm Googling it right now. Oh, it's a polka dot wasp moth. We have chrysallis' all over the front of the house of them.



4 comments:

  1. Ouch! That plant has completely engulfed the bed. Those winter squash are certainly aggressive plants, and if it weren't for my trellises - i'd have a problem too! No winter squash for me next year, because I want more tomatoes....

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  2. Oh, I'm loving my butternut, even though it's vining out about 30 feet in length...and I keep chopping off the end growth! I will grow it again next year, but on one side of the garden all by itself.

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  3. Those leaves look huge! What have you been feeding it? Whatever it is, the squash must love it!

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  4. thomas - i put about 6" of composted horse manure in there a month or so before I planted it. Everything in the garden is taking off since I added that, whoohoo!

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