The garden is doing amazing stuff. I had posted before that I had a garden mystery: squash coming up where my cucumbers (only!) were supposed to be, squash that I didn’t plant, and never even had seeds for. https://sarasinart.net/2016/06/18/gardening-adventures/  Then I also have several kinds of squash that I DID plant, spaghetti squash and zucchini and pattipans, in my 3 Sisters area.

Well all the squash have now gone crazy, and are all producing and the spaghetti squash have taken over areas of the garden that they were not supposed to go into, lol! Here’s 3 Sisters now: corn, beans and  3 types of squash that I did plant.

I had to lower the pH value of the soil in the squash area.  I live in a limestone belt and figured my pH was high but had never tested it before cos everything I ever grew didn’t mind whatever it was, and did well. (I had never grown squash before.)   But squash of several varieties (since I have lots of varieties, thank you squash faerie!) were forming and then dropping off, like they had blossom end rot. So I got a test kit and discovered my pH was very high, and then got an organic acidifier and added it to the soil in that area. Within 2 days squash that were forming were no longer dropping off.  You can learn a lot on the internet, like that squash can’t set their fruits unless the pH is lower than 7, and mine was 7.5.

Then the yellow straight neck squash above became our first edible squash and my DIL Eliza got to have that the other day and she said it was delicious.

So, now we have lots of spaghetti squash forming, plus more yellow ones like above, and then the other variety, which I think are acorns. (Those were some I didn’t plant, or didn’t know I was planting, or oh what a mystery.) Squash seeds are different from cucumbers and I think I would have noticed that, but anyway, here they are, growing, including two kinds I never meant to have.

Now not to be forgotten are the cucumbers that I actually did plant at this tee pee and wanted here.  They will not be intimidated by large volunteer squash leaves, so they have decided to rise above the intruders, and I’m helping them find their way up the bamboo tee pee.

And, they’re setting cucumbers, which is, of course, exactly what I wanted in that area.

Then there are lots of tomatoes coming along, tomatoes on every one of  15 plants now.  I’m excited about that! And lots of beans starting to either climb their poles or flower, and I love to grow beans. And peppers, several different kinds of them, including green and purple jalapenos, both with peppers on.  Eliza wanted these purple ones last year and they are so neat, and so are the flowers.

So, more later about the garden which is now going crazy, and after a really disturbing and depressing spring for gardening here, I’m enjoying every crazy minute.  Needing to tie tomatoes up to their supports, again…..taking vines of spaghetti squash out of the walkway and back from being headed out into the lawn to get cut off with the lawn mower….. The earth blesses us with good things if we treat it right and learn how to treat the plants right.  Sometimes it even blesses us with plants we never planted! I will never know where those other 2 kinds of squash came from.  It’s all good.