The zucchini has now got a new rival: the butternut squash! I planted a Waltham butternut squash, not knowing that it is one of the largest butternut squashes, both in the size of the vine and the size of the fruit. (I feel that nurseries should offer warnings on their baby plants: “Warning: This Plant Will Take Over the Garden and Eat Your House!” It’s rather like seeing an adorable little baby anaconda in the pet store, buying it, and five years later winding up with an 20-foot behemoth that has its own room in the house and is eyeing you with a hungry look.) At any rate, after growing slowly for a few weeks, it has suddenly taken off.
Alien (split into two photos because the zucchini is now too large to capture in just one photo):
Predator:
Fortunately (?) they are on diagonally opposite sides of the garden, so they would essentially have to take over the entire garden in order to meet. However, the butternut squash is already muscling into the beans and eyeing the tomatoes, and the zucchini is rampaging over the cucumbers and threatening the eggplant. So it will be interesting to see what happens.
And, because I have been told that baby pictures are adorable:
One thing many people don’t realize about butternut squash is that if you eat them small and green, they are like zucchini only much, much (much!) better–they have more sweetness and nuttiness, and are less watery. (And to judge from the color, they have more Vitamin A…) And, if you miss any, they grow up to be butternut squash instead of baseball bats. I would almost be tempted to grow only butternut squash and pick half young, leave half on the vine.
Yours are at just the right stage!!