A Zealot for Zucchini!

Are you zealous for zucchini?  Did you know that zucchini is a member of the cucumber family or cucurbits? 

It’s late into zucchini season when everyone is trying to share their overabundance of zucchini with their neighbor.  You quietly leave behemoth zucchinis at the door of your neighbor and tip-toe away before they can reach the door and stop you!!

Zucchini is such an attractive plant you can use it as an edible landscape.

I like to incorporate them along the side of a house making sure to give them plenty of room to spread out.

Most summer squashes, pumpkins, winter squashes and gourds are as promiscuous as an alley cat: meaning they will cross-pollinate with any other squash in the garden.  Unless you have sufficient space to experiment with strange offspring, it’s best to not try to save seeds from cross-breeds and stick to buying new seeds each year from Buchheit.

The squash bore has attacked my zucchini as you can see but I decided not to treat that one with chemicals so that you could see what the results of a bore looked like.  The other plants I dusted with diatomaceous earth lasted longer but still succumbed to squash beetles.  Too much rain washed away this amazing organic pesticide and I choose not to dust again with the threat of more rain.  I like to use a food grade diatomaceous earth that assures me that even if I miss some as I clean what I’ve harvested, it’s still safe to consume.

One way to combat these demon-bugs is to plant later in the season when the threat from these predators has peaked.  I am starting an early maturing variety indoors since it is very hot here in July to aid in germination.  I will plant it under a row-cover to provide shade during the heat of August and I should have an additional harvest of summer squash this fall.

What to do with all that squash?  A true zealot will think of amazing ways to cook, steam, grill, pickle, dehydrate and bake with this versatile vegetable.  I would love to hear your suggestions.  Annie May; your fellow Zucchini Zealot signing off!