getting them processed and in the fridge or freezer instead of out in the garage where it now gets too cold to store them.
it can make for a long day when i try to get too many done all at once and this time i was waking up early to get the squash mashed and packaged but at least it did get done.
fun to try new things and to have some new cross-breeds turn up. i always learn a lot plus i try different methods to see if it goes faster or not.
for the first time this year i took pictures of squash and innards. i'll eventually get some posted to the website. not today... :)
yes, we have plenty of bees around so we get some strange squash. i have now about six different kinds of squash and i enjoy the variety. i won't be repeating the planting of dumpling squash next year though as they are one i don't much like. i'm not really a big acorn squash fan. the rest i have a Kabochas and cross breeds that have happened to them (likely from a local pumpkin grower someplace but the results are good eating so we keep replanting a few each year, but they don't store well). also some Baby Blue Hubbards and now the new cross which may be related to the BBH. i also like to plant Buttercups but these have not kept going very well so i need to somehow get a more reliable strain of those.
i don't treat for bugs of any kind here so if the vines can't survive squash borers or squash bugs or powdery mildew they won't survive.
everything else that does survive often holds on by mere threads of stems sometimes the borers do such good work on them. but i figure that is one way to get resist- ant plants is to just keep growing and seeing what happens.
i grow hundreds of different varieties of beans here. :) this past year i grew out a new cross breed that showed up from the year before and it is edible but i'm not sure how good. so we'll grow it again next season and i'll cook up more of them. i'm also including the beans in my mix of seeds to give away to other people which will have seeds of five or six green and wax beans in there for people to grow.
the best bean i grow here for green beans is a variety called Purple Dove. love the flower color the plant growth habit and productivity. the dry beans are also good and have a mild pinto flavor and a creamy texture and cook up fast. the only downside i've found to this plant is that the Japanese Beetles love it, but they will still produce even after being munched on. the deer and groundhogs will also eat the tops off and it will survive and give pods. i'm trying to get this bean to cross with all my other varieties that i grow and so far not much luck with that so this is fun and a challenge. :)
haha, it keeps me out of trouble. i've not been at this long enough. i've always loved growing plants and learned a lot as a kid, but when i went away to college i mostly left gardening behind. i did always have a few houseplants and even managed to get a moss garden going at one apartment but that was pretty much it. one place i rented showed me the futility of trying to garden where others could come along and mow down your raspberry plants (out of ignorance or on-purpose i don't know).
i did enjoy aquarium keeping for years that was a kind of gardening.
in this recent times i've only been gardening here about
14 years. before that i'd help out when i was visiting but not here that often.
now it is my primary occupation when the weather cooperates.
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