DiggIn’ – Gardening, Unemployment and the Quest that is Life

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I got both the summer squash and winter squash in the ground. I planted 3 hills of summer squash (two were crookneck, one was zucchini) and 7 hills of winter squash (one hill each of pumpkin and hubbard, two hills each of butternut and delicata.)

My observation of other gardeners is they grow only summer squash with one hill of zucchini usually being more than enough. Often people complain mightily about how much yield they get from zucchini with many orphan zucchini ending up in office kitchens with a sign “FREE” taped to the box. I usually don’t have this problem because I grow my squashes in the parts of my garden with the poorest soil. Squash helps to develop the soil and can actually be grown on a compost pile with good results. Because I grow it in poorer soil, I guess my squashes aren’t as productive. There are also other reasons, but more on that as the gardening season progresses.

Here are my descriptions of the squash I planted this year:

Zucchini – the classic summer squash. I planted these in a very sunny part of the garden in some very marginal, gravely soil. Germination should take one to two weeks with a possible first harvest date in mid-July. We love zucchinis on the grill and eat them that way all summer long.

Yellow Crookneck – a very easy to grow summer squash that produces plentifully. I find these tenderer than zucchini. Germination should take one to two weeks with a possible first harvest date around July 4th. These are great on the grill, too!

Delicata - this is our favorite winter squash. It is also known as sweet potato squash because of its flavor. Tomato Man loves sweet potatoes but they don’t grow well here in the Northwest so this squash became a viable substitute. Germination is one to two weeks. It needs 100 days to mature, so we won’t have a first harvest until late August. That’s fine as these store well throughout the winter.

Butternut - This winter squash proved a bit finicky about growing last year. The results we did get were tasty. Germination is one to two weeks with a possible first harvest in late August.

Pumpkin – This winter squash I put in the mailbox bed in the front yard with the hope that maybe it will produce a pumpkin for a “still on the vine” jack-o-lantern at Halloween. Germination is one to two weeks with a possible first harvest date of mid-September.

Acorn – A winter squash that I continue to struggle to grow. I believe last year I got all of three fairly small squash out of the plants. I may experiment with location in the garden to use up the seeds as this squash is not a favorite in our household. Germination is one to two weeks with a possible first harvest date around mid-August.

Hubbard – This winter squash is HUGE. It produced the largest squashes and was almost as productive as the delicata. I was very impressed by this squash. I baked these big guys in the dead of winter. They were quite tasty with a bit of butter. Germination is one to two weeks with a possible first harvest in mid-September.