Wet wet wet

[muckefuck]

I have nicknamed the volunteer squash plant in our garden "Audrey II". If anything, its growth surge over the past couple of weeks puts the Mean Green Mother from Outer Space to shame. It's shot completely across our plot, invaded the abandoned plot next door, and will soon thrust into the one on the corner if it isn't turned back. I've been snipping off selected leaves just to keep it from shading out and killing the dill, thyme, and the basil. Now it's in bloom and they're coming up thick and large. I hope this means we can look forward to a good harvest. The next-door neighbour (whose squash plant is taking advantage of the loss of the clematis to grow up OVER THE FENCE) voiced concern recently that she only has male blossoms on hers. I didn't realise there was a difference.

We were actually talking about having to break out the watering can last week but then another well-timed rainshower took care of things for us. It's still not really hot, but Sunday's downpours made last night super humid. The weather has turned Floridian, with moisture building throughout the day and then occasionally precipitating out sometime in the afternoon or early evening in a scattered fashion that soaks one neighbourhood and ignores the one next door. (Our top-floor neighbours who biked to Evanston yesterday said they didn't encountre a drop of rain.) And yet, somehow we haven't once needed to run the air conditioning. It was stuffy in the house on Saturday evening--there wasn't a breath of wind--but once I hustled the guests out onto the porch everyone was fine.

Comments

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

this has a good photo of male vs female
http://forum.earthbox.com/index.php?topic=9801.0
the proportion of male to female flowers is moderated by weather (mostly heat) and age of the plant.

You can hand-pollinate squash very easily since the parts are large and easily handled.

Don't be disappointed if your volunteers are not that great. Squash interbreed freely and random hybrids are mostly not-that-good. Mushy and/or bitter.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I seem to have all males and no females. (Which comes as a surprise to no one, I'm sure.)

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

That's when you start picking the buds to eat.

[nitouche.livejournal.com]

Do you need my elderly Italian neighbour's recipe for squash blossom fritters? They're amazing :)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

No doubt, but monshu's not a big fan of deep-fat frying, alas.