Squash Update

So the truth is that I'm kind of in love with squash plants.  I love the way the bees buzz all over them.  I love the flowers, I love the fruit, I love the vines.  They crawl all over the garden and we have to leap frog over a lot of them but I don't care.   They make me happy.

This is winter squash Black Futsu with yesterday's flower, today's flower and tomorrow's from right to left.   It made me laugh. 

This is a baby Queensland Blue [left] and a baby Golden Hubbard [right].   They're a bit bigger than your fist in this pic, but they'll get a LOT bigger before they're done.   The QB will turn a lovely blue gray and the GH will turn a screaming traffic cone orange when they're ripe. 

And as always, I let a couple of  volunteer mystery squash stay this year.   This one is nice and smooth and regular and pretty pale.   Maybe another batch of the little white pumpkins that seem to volunteer so well in the chicken dirt?    I hope so - they make adorable decorations. 

New Squash - Golden Hubbard

I think a vegetable garden should be full of all sorts of colors, not just 40 shades of green.  One of my favorite things this year is my very, very orange hubbard squash.   I've never grown hubbard before.

I tried, but no success until this year.   And this year,  this year!, I managed to get three of them.  I think it was the extra chicken dirt.

The kids call this the traffic cone squash.  That orange is really loud. 

This squash must be really tasty.   When I turned it over, I found a lot of little holes and marks where critters had been going at it.

If you look at these pics close up, you can see the teeth marks. 

Voles?  I find it equally cool and disturbing.  

Seriously, I can't make up my mind if I'm grossed out or jealous.   This must be some great squash. 

Note:  Rumor has it that when you store these, you should make sure the stem is completely off.   All other squashes store better with a couple of inches of stem on. 

New Squash - Queensland Blue

This is a baby Queensland Blue squash. 

I've tried to grow this before and gotten nothing, so I was pretty darned happy when I finally got a big one this year. 

We put extra chicken manure in the bed.   Apparently, it matters. 

I love that awesome shape.  

The big question is whether it is going to actually be blue or not.

A few weeks later, this is what I've got.

It's looking pretty blue.

Now I have to figure out what to do with it, because frankly, I've been so amazed at the transformation, that I forgot to see if we could eat it. 

I got the seed from Baker Creek.   If it's tasty, I'll do more next year because now I have to have blue squash.