SQUASH IT

Since we have a long growing season in central North Carolina, we can actually get two crops of squash out of a season. Well, that is, except for the squash bugs. One of this year’s experiments involved waiting until the usual squash bug season was over before planting squash. I doubled down by not growing squash at all last year.

Today, I planted crook neck squash and yellow zucchini in the bed that previously held the peas and carrots. (BTW, I ended up with a total of 5.75 pounds of carrots!). I planted winter squash in the nasturtium bed (only 4 nasturtiums came up from last year’s re-seeding experiment so there was plenty of room). I filled three large fabric pots with spaghetti squash and, well, I can’t remember if it was yellow zucchini or more winter squash in two of them. Finally, I planted some kind of squash in the other planter intermingled with the lettuce and green peppers.

I used older seeds, so I doubt I have overplanted. If I’m wrong and everything comes up, guard your porch!

The reason I can’t remember what I put where is because, even though we waited until 6:00 in the evening after the yard is shady to go out, it is still so blazing hot outside that we were rushing to get everything done. The garden was watered, the planting was done, garden soil was transferred from the pile of garden soil to the three fabric pots, and dirty bedding in the tractor coop was scooped out. We worked as fast as we could. Nevertheless, we both were Dripping Wet with sweat by the time we got back in.

There was quite a bit of squealing going on throughout this process. One of the fabric pots apparently had a skink nest in it and every time I touched it another skink jumped out. One skink – one squeal. Next skink – another squeal. Don’t get me wrong, I like skinks. They eat bugs and you know how I feel about bugs, so you know that they are welcome. Oscar had the same issue when he uncovered the pile of soil in the driveway. Apparently, we had unintentionally created a couple of nice habitats on the property for them. I had noticed seeing more of them on the porch this year. Now I know why – the skink population is growing!