I love this photo although it’s a bit fuzzy. The evening light, the barn next door, the trail head and surrounding forest. The echinacea glowing pink at the left edge and the pile of wood chips at the right edge. Most of all, the happy squash plants.
I really struggled to nurture these plants through serious transplant shock and then countering a squash beetle threat. I tried row covers, but found eggs on the plants that were under cover! So off came the covers. I then inspected the back of each leaf daily for a few weeks, tearing off the part of the leaf where eggs were laid. Not a single beetle on my adult plants. And they are growing like crazy! Some plants didn’t make it of course, but the others are just enjoying the extra room.
Growing squash is always fun because you don’t know what you’ve got under there until the foliage starts to die away. But I know I have at least a few butternut squash and a few pumpkins. I haven’t successfully grown butternut squash for a few years so this crop is especially sweet. On the other hand, my delicata and hubbard squash crops were a miserable failure this year, so there’s always some balance to contemplate.