The Mystery Garden

I planted a garden this year.  It looks like this.  This is the tame side anyway where the rambling squash vines are hidden.  But this is my garden.  It's awesome.  The only bad part is that I'm not going to be here to harvest most of it.

But today, I'd like to tell you about my "other" garden.  It contains my first ever cantaloupe.  About the size of a softball. 

And that is also what I presume these are.

And this, I can only guess, is a spaghetti squash.

Below that is an old shriveled lemon.  Confused?  Well, if you don't recognize it, these aren't in my garden and I don't know what these are because they're volunteers growing in my compost bin.  It's true.  My most productive plants are growing in the fertile soil of my compost.  I didn't plant the seeds.  But in a way, I did.

The garden proper is also starting to produce.  I give you the peppers.  This is a red bell variety.

And what garden would be complete without jalapenos?

Can't forget the green bells.

The tomatoes are doing fine.  Just still a bit green.

The squash, on the other hand, are taking off.  This first one is a cushaw.  I'm very excited about this.  They are often used to make pie.  They taste like pumpkin but are sweeter even than pie pumpkins.  Each fruit will get between 10-20 lbs. and grow about 2 feet in length.  I've never grown them before.  I bought the seed and planted it as a mother's day gift to my mom.  This is what she wanted.  She drools over the thought of a cushaw pie for Thanksgiving.  She may get more than she bargained for.  I planted 14 plants in 7 hills and each one appears to be a prolific fruiter.  I may be selling these at the Farmer's Market this fall.

Here's a cushaw with the very large flower still attached.  Ooops.  Make that TWO cushaw.

Can't forget the butternut squash.

Crookneck squash?  Yellow, I think.

It's going to be a great garden year.  Damn shame I'm moving before things really get interesting.  This is probably my best garden yet.  And I was so looking forward to it after not getting to have a garden at all last year....what with all of my research travel.  C'est la vie.