Our Steps Towards Self-Sufficiency Through Squash

I haven’t written much about the garden of late and since I’ve got nothing else on a Sunday, I figured some pictures were in order.

This first one is the view of our garden which has been quite a success this year, particularly if you like yellow squash and zucchini. In the far background, there are three tomato plants, one roma, one BHN 444 and one heirloom black tomato. They are all over 6 feet tall and with the exception of the heirloom, are all loaded with tomatoes. There is a row of jalapeno peppers on the other side of the tomatoes, out of view that are just starting to produce. The two rows are black eye peas, one #5 Cowpea and one Crowder of unknown origin. Between the peas and the tomatoes is a row of extremely disappointing peppers, all but one of which was useless this year. The serrano is the only plant out of 5 that produced anything.

Off to the left is a mish mash including Mexican oregano, winter thyme (both of which are getting transplanted next year), spaghetti squash and the aforementioned yellow squash. One thing I’ve learned is that I don’t like yellow squash enough to grow it. Next year, we’ll replace it with cucumbers. At the extreme left is a very productive zucchini plant and a black berry bush. At the right, along the rabbit fence and growing on the trellis is luffa, or chinese okra. It’s exactly what it sounds like, the gourd that produces luffa sponges. When it’s young, you can slice it and fry it though we didn’t try that last year. We still have a luffa sponge from last year that’s holding up pretty well.

In the foreground, we have the next crop coming up, watermelons. I’ve never grown watermelons and in reality, don’t have the room but I didn’t want to leave the ground fallow after the onions and garlic came up so I decided to give the melons a chance. We already have 5, one of which you can see below.

At our next house, I’d like to have a plot about 4 times this big and work towards supplying enough fruits and veggies to last 3 seasons. I’m learning a lot with this little trial garden and for the most part, it’s been pretty successful this year.