The Year of the Squash!

[huskamute]

Hi everyone, I introduced myself re permaculture - this is a wonderful resource for us far-flung gardeners I'm glad to have found it.
I was wondering if anyone's garden has been overtaken by squash, as mine has this year? I know to leave plenty of space between the plants to allow for spreading, etc. but this year they have gone wild! Taken over everything else, and have so many blossoms, and No Bugs! Not a single cucumber or squash beetle to be seen! Bees are everywhere, it's amazing!

Lesley

[opabinia51]

Yes, my squash plants have gone nuts this year as well. In fact, I had to pull one out yesterday so that my winter greens would not be smothered. And I've already harvested one huge pumpkin, a baby hubbard and I have several sugar dumpling squash that are ready to be harvested. It's been a great year for squash alright.

Incidentally, with the pumpkin I made pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread (a yeast bread), I froze a bunch of pumpkin and there was a still a little left for the compost pile. Oh, and I roasted the seeds.

[huskamute]

Useful veg, the pumpkin! Now - what would you suggest for trailer-sized zucchini?! They were hidden under the jungle of leaves....

[opabinia51]

Last year, I made zucchini bread (baking powder bread), zucchini tarts, Zucchini pancakes and..... (let me see).................oh yeah, I grated 112 cups of zucchini and gave 56 of them to the local food bank and froze the other 56 cups for myself and have been adding it to soups ever since.


(Zucchini kind of took over my garden last year! This year, I didn't plant any for that exact reason)

Oh yeah, with the larger zucchinis you can save the seeds to trade with others and you can plant them next year. (I saved and traded mine) I was going to plant a few but, with all the varieties of squash that I planted, summer squash fell by the wayside. Plus, I didn't want them taking over my winter squash again.