Squash

Squash

Some of the greatest variety in the garden comes from the cucurbit family. The squash themselves are varied; but the family also includes pumpkins, cucumber and melons. One of my favorite things about squash are the volunteers. The leaves are pretty unmistakable; but you never know what the fruit will be. I found my first volunteer of the season yesterday. It was not in the garden. It was beside a little redbud tree planted in the front yard that was fertilized with compost. It looks like a cucumber. We will see.

The first yellow crookneck squash was picked on Monday. It was very small. The yellow crooknecks, zucchini and patty-pan squash all have tiny squashes on them. The time to pick them is when the blossom falls off. After that they just get tough.

Squash plants require a lot of space. Most plants fit in a 3’ wide row, and each row holds 2 or three rows of plants. Not squash, they get a 4’ wide row and the hills are 4’ on center. The hills start out as a post hole about 1’ deep. This is filled with compost. The loose dirt from digging the hole and whatever is around the hole is raked into a hill about 6” high. Three holes, like the finger holes in a bowling ball,are poked in the top of the hill. These holes each get 3 seeds and are filled up with loose dirt. After the plants come up, a mulch of compost is placed around the plants. This is topped up every week and expanded to cover all of the area under the plants. Squash plants put new roots down as they grow and these new roots need sustenance.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.