Squash

It looks like will we get at least one zucchini this year. The urban legends about zucchini that multiply like tribbles haven't usually been born out in our experience. Generally, we have more luck with yellow squash than zucchini.

No fruit yet on the pattypan or acorn squashes, although the plants seem healthy. I'm seeing an abundance of female flowers and a deficit of male flowers on all the squash plants so far, and it takes two to tango, or to make squash. Thanks to zinnias, alyssum, and other heat-tolerant flowering plants we have plenty of bees and other pollinators. So, if the female:male ratio improves before it gets too hot, we ought to see more in the way of squash.

I spent a few minutes clearing out mint and Mexican primrose that was encroaching on the pattypan squash's access to water and sunlight. I do believe if a giant asteroid were to wipe out most life on earth, mint and Mexican primrose would survive, along with cockroaches. While doing so, I found a surprise in the way of a pepper plant I didn't know was there. I had pepper plants in that spot last year, so I assume this one either self-seeded or came up from the roots of a plant that appeared to be dead. I often just cut away dead or spent-looking plants, rather than uprooting them, so I don't disturb the roots of other things growing in the same area.