In “De-fence” of Acorn Squash…

Johnny-on-the-Spot …by John Foster …

This week’s blog starts with the photo of an acorn squash I planted last spring that decided to grow between two slats of a decorative fence panel.

It’s the latest in a series of “different” gardening adventures I’ve experienced in my life.

This little dark green squash was one of many we picked after the growing season but this one came with this section of fence.

Sorta takes me back to the year I grew radishes in my childhood garden.

I didn’t personally like radishes but they were easy and fun to grow and my parents humored me by eating some of my produce.

Somehow I missed this this one radish in the fall.

I turned over the soil to prep the garden for the next spring planting and there I found this grotesque, wormy vegetable.

It was about the size of a softball and it smelled like a radish on steroids.

Needless to say, it was far from edible after having survived a cold Ohio winter.

My parents not only gave me a portion of the backyard as a Tonka Toy playground, I was also able to put in a small garden.

I liked plants that grew easily.

Thus the radishes made an appearance.

I grew enough parsley to provide garnish for every restaurant in New York City.

My Mom could have made parsley potatoes for every meal we ate in a year, and it barely would have dented my crop.

Green onions were another favorite for me.

Again, they grew quickly but we actually ate some of those with our meals.

I had a thing for gourds, too.

They were so colorful but unless you were creating fall centerpieces or starting a Mariachi band, they weren’t very practical or useful.

I grew a mean crop of Indian corn one summer.

I think I was drawn to the colorful ears.

But again, how many fall centerpieces can one agriculturally-adventuresome kid supply?

Sunflowers can be fun and I’ve always liked zinnias, portulacca and marigolds.

One year I even planted alfalfa so I could turn it over in my garden area to make the soil better.

After my wife and I married and we bought our first house, a sizeable garden was a must for me.

We dabbled in tomatoes and various squash and soon discovered that zucchini will almost grow and produce anywhere.

I liked to grow carrots but our clay-based soil in northern Ohio was best suited to produce the fat, stubby ones.

One year, we planted potatoes and our daughters liked digging them up in the fall, surprised that something that edible would grow underground.

We did watermelons and cantaloupes and met with partial success.

After moving to southern Indiana, we built a raised-bed garden area toward the back of our property.

It did well until the trees (which I also planted) did too well and started shading the garden area.

So, now we’ve resorted to stand-alone plant containers made with treated 2X4 frames and galvanized steel contained to hold the soil.

Since I also compost, that soil is quite rich and plants have done pretty well.

But this past summer’s weather presented some challenges.

Our tomatoes were sketchy as best.

We had a nice crop of cherry tomatoes until mid July when Indiana became very hot and humid.

Neav and I liked visiting our cherry tomato plant and picking fresh fruit right off the plant.

We never took any indoors to eat.

We grew eggplant because that purple fruit adds a lot of color to any garden

But how much eggplant parmesan can one family eat?

I’ll let you know.

The squash adventure this spring included zucchini, acorn and butternut.

Neav made enough zucchini bread to feed the entire Western world but it freezes well.

The acorn squash took over and crowded out most of our butternut while taking over the yard by the garage.

Fortunately, acorn squash will keep into the winter or longer of stored properly.

Next year, I’ll sacrifice my yield by planting “bush-variety” squash plants.

I guess I garden and compost because I have a “dirt gene” in me.

I am reminded of the sage advise that my USAF roomie in Greenland, Chuck Venable offered me years ago.

One day we were discussing plants after the military and “Neck” told me, “Bully, don’t matter what profession a guy chooses, it’s good if he gets a little dirt under his fingernails from time to time.”

Chuck Venable, you were so right!