As soon as it started getting just a tad cooler, my friend and I planted beets, chard, lettuce, carrots, spinach, cabbage and I don’t remember what else. As soon as it emerged, even after I had covered it with the protective cloth, the grasshoppers came along and ate everything except 1 chard plant.
Rainbow Chard
From a whole seed packet, I ended up with one chard plant.
Lots of plants came up volunteer and even though the grasshoppers have been munching on them, there are lots of things growing out there that I didn’t plant for this garden.
There’s so much yellow squash growing that we’re eating it every night, giving it away and there’s so much left that I don’t even see it all and some of it grows too big to eat.
Squash
Using my boots (with the grass burrs in the laces), you can see how big that squash is. I missed it and if I don’t pick them every day, any I miss will be too big to eat by the next day.
Squash Blooms
The squash is still blooming and it will produce til frost. It grows so fast and we’ve eaten so much, I’ll kinda be happy to see it gone.
Connected Squash
These two are growing together! It isn’t terribly unusual but I haven’t seen it in my garden in a while.
Black Beans
These are all black beans. Depending on how much longer before we get a frost, I may get to pick enough beans for a meal or two.
Black Beans
Not much chance of the watermelons getting ripe but there are lots of them growing.
Watermelons
This is the largest one and it’s nowhere near being ready to pick. I suggested to Vince that we build a little greenhouse around the watermelons and he said NO!
Watermelon
There are several tomatillo plants growing and covered in fruit so I’ll be able to pick some of those before the frost.
Tomatillo
Even with the cooler weather, we still have grasshoppers. My hand is in there for reference . . you can see how big these things are.
Grasshoppers
Not only is he eating my plants, he’s pooping on them too! 🙁
This one won’t be eating anything else.
Soon to be Squished Grasshopper
There’s never a shortage of plant eating bugs around here.
Bugs
I guess since none of this stuff was planted, I can’t complain too much about the bugs enjoying it but I can complain that they ate all the other things I planted!
Tomorrow I’m going to re-plant the lettuce and spinach and hope there aren’t enough grasshoppers to do much damage. Wish me luck!
Terri S. says
When we had a garden and the zucchini and summer squash got too big, or there was too much for us to eat, I grated them up, drained some of the moisture from them and put it in the freezer in bags and used it for making zucchini bread during the winter. You can also slice the small ones up and freeze them, and use them to saute in a little olive oil, with some onion, tomato, some Italian sausage and a little basil and oregano and you have a meal!! We like the vegetables alone as a side dish too.
Tracy Cox says
Last year I had an abundance of yellow and green squash too. I sliced it all up into 1/4 inch rounds and dehydrated them. Then I added them to soups and veggie mixes, they still had nice texture and flavor, over the winter.