One new thing

More surprises are coming from the garden. I posted earlier about my "volunteer" squash that came up as a result of my lazy composting.
Well, squash needs a LOT of room in a garden and mine is running out toward the back yard. Since I had to mow today, I pulled up the squash runners so I would not mow them and much to my surprise I saw some juvenile butternut squash coming along.

Butternut squash

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More squash on the way

 I am glad that I have this squash coming along, because my eggplant is not producing at all. That is a disappointment.
Every year, I try one new thing in the garden. Sometimes that works out well, and sometimes, not so much. Arugula has been a success and I grow that now every spring. The spinach I tried this year was OK, but I won't grow it again.
I had tried Japanese (or Chinese) eggplant for the past couple of years, but it hasn't produced that well. This year I could not find that variety at my local nursery so I tried traditional "Black Beauty" eggplant, but so far lots of blooms and no fruit. Boo!
If I get some butternut squash this fall I will feel like I came out even.
I will have tried one new thing in the garden, even if it was by accident.

Mystery revealed

Earlier this spring, after I had planted my summer garden of tomatoes, cucumber, eggplant and other store bought seedlings, I had a "surprise" vegetable come up. It certainly looked like squash leaves, but since I had not planted any squash, I could only guess what seeds I had thrown onto the garden over the winter in my lazy way of composting some vegetable scraps.
Well, mystery revealed. I guessed right. Butternut squash.

Butternut squash

I am hoping I will get some this fall, but my squash leaves look like they have some fungus and are starting to die. It's more pronounced on my cucumber plants. In fact, other than this one cuke, I may not get any others at all, even though the plant is loaded with little ones.

First cucumber

I know it doesn't look all that pretty, but it sure was good in my salad over the weekend. I'm starting to get a lot of cherry tomatoes, too, which made the salad that much better. ;)