My first "crop"!

I have not had much experience (or luck) with veggies, especially squash (squash borers!). This year, I decided to plant a couple in my flower beds, and the yelow crooknecks are starting to produce!

I also have one zucchini, nearly 2" long, although it looks larger in the photo.

I've spent more trying to grow squash than if I bought them from the farmer's market, LOL!

They look so good I can almost taste 'em. Yes, you could have bought some but there's no satisfaction in that. :-)

I can see the future..."darius, the squash magnate"! You're gonna get the fever now darius! Growing em, then selling them, writing a recipe book, starting a farmers mkt!

Yep, she's hooked folks!

'Shoe, you're too funny, LOL!

I remember my grandma couldn't give away enough squash, she had so many. I do hope in my next house to have a veggie garden and I want to try to grow some of the more exotic squash. I love 'em (all kinds) marinated in olive oil and garlic and cooked on the grill.

Yummy! My favorite is the "patty pan" types, preferably the white. So good, and doesn't seem to attract as many bugs as other kinds. Plus they can be easily cooked and serve as their own bowl! Ain't nuttin' like 'em!

Yes, the patty pan's are easily my favorites, but I like the very young ones that are colored like a cross between a zucchini and a yellow summer squash.

Hi darius

Nice looking squash.

Made my first picking June 26, which maybe makes sense being that my planting zone may be a week or two ahead of yours.

http://davesgarden.com/t/386944/

I can't get enough squash, both crook-neck, and zucchini, picked more yesterday morning and DW made a fine casserole.

Started some seeds in pots, 10 days ago, they are just now sprouting, and will transplant later this summer.

BTW, sighted my first Roma tomato yesterday, turning red.

Great looking garden, gardengym. Question: How will you get large tomatoes out of those cages? Are you tall enough to reach over and down?

DW has asked me the same question.

Actually, the cages are the result of having a left-over roll of wire which I used to secure backfill behind a rock wall.

I cut the wire into sections, secured the ends, drove two wooden stakes into the ground at 180 degree intervals, and zip-tied the stakes to the wire.

The wire is 36" high so I can pick inside, then I'm tying the loose branches on the outside.

This is the first year I have tried the cages, having previously used tomato stakes.

We'll see.

Also, take a gander at the sunflowers to the left of the tomato cages. This is one end of the patch, some of which are already 6 to 7' tall. A few are blooming.

This is the mix http://www.wildseedfarms.com/sunflowers.htm

Darius,

I think Shoe is right. Looks like you are in deep. LOL

I have never marinated my zucs but I do shread them, saute them in some xv olive oil with some garlic out of the garden. I do a quick saute when I want to freeze them like this. Try using this mixture adding cream and your fav spices and throw in some homemade pasta, you will think you went to Heaven!!!

Try some zuchinni pickles. Sweet ones with red chilis to give it some zip. You can add any kind of summer squash, cuks, onions and the like. If you want the receipe, let me know. This is a tried and true receipe and a big hit. My dad and step mom perfected it. I can't get enough of them.

I am growing Trombocino squash again this year. All I do with that is saute in olive oil (or butter if you have to) with cloves of garlic. Then finish cooking in the oven. The garlic comes out like candy and the trombocino squash is really good. It is an italian summer squash.

Any one out there with more yummy ways to fix squash?

gardengym...
I use wire very similar to your cages, 2" by 4" mesh. I prefer it over concrete wire cuz it doesn't rust (like concrete re-wire does).
I even buy the 4 and 5 ft heights. In the following pic, if you look just above the lowest green mater, you'll see that by cutting two of the vertical wires that will give you a hand-hole big enuff to pull out the maters. Note that mine are cut in the center of the wire then bent back. If you cut the wire pieces where they meet the horizontal wires, it always leaves a nubbin to scratch your arms on. By bending the pieces back you end up with a smooth edge.

uh huh, a portal to the inner sanctum;

and Hillsborough say ya, DW is a Carolina girl;

thanks for the tip re. clipping the sections in the middle, I clipped mine next to the rectangular openings, then bent-back the free ends to complete the circle.

Shoe, if those tomatoes get any bigger, you won't be able to get them out of there. LOL

I gots skinny hands, jul! :>) (Course I reckon I can always make the holes larger, too!)

That, by the way, is my fave mater, Abe Lincoln. Can't go wrong with it!
g-gym...western piedmont, eh? You must be near G'boro/High Point? Not sure if I said it yet but, Welcome to the famous DG!

Darius I'm getting tired of this!

All you do is keep apologizing for not being a vegetable grower, and then you show us pix of the great job you are doing: squashes here, 'maters on the tomato forum, etc. etc. etc. And everything in containers to boot.

Come on. Fess up. You been doing this for years and have just been pulling our collective chain, right?

No, Brook... I'm pulling no one's chain, LOL. I really have been trying for 4 out of the 5 years in this house to grow squash (and twice with gourds) with no luck. Either the squash borers get them or the rabbits do. This is the first time I might actually harvest a squash! (The squash, BTW, are in the ground in the flower beds, not in containers.)

As to tomatoes, my housemate usually grows them every year. I love the tomatoes but her beds always look so messy, and they are in the front yard which gets the best sun. This year I decided to try some myself, but in containers in case the house sells before the tomatoes mature. I planted lots of glads in the old tomato bed so it looks less like a jungle, improving the curb appeal.

That'll teach me to enlarge the pix before putting my foot in my mouth. If you look at the small image, there's a vine crossing horizontally that looks like the top edge of a container.

:) I hadn't even noticed that, Brook. I can see now how you thought it was in a container!

Update: Well, I have picked THREE squash, all yellow crookneck. One plant is dead, another dying. The zucchini, in another area, is almost toast, and NO edible fruit from it at all. Guess I wasn't meant to be a veggie gardener, at least not at this house.