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The Accidental Vegetable Garden

657 views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  EnviroBecca 
#1 ·
I do not plant vegetables in my garden. We have a tiny city garden and although it is sunnier than any garden I have had before, is still in the shade of the house for much of the afternoon. There is an enormous vegetable garden at my in-laws so I put in allot of time there and reap the rewards. I do, however, make compost so last year I noticed a number of what I was pretty sure were pumpkins coming up in my flower beds. I was continually plucking them out. I was impressed by their stubbornness and since I was pretty sure they were children of my recently deceased father-in-law's pumpkins, I let one live. It romped through my beds, looping across the lawn, through the fence into the neighbours and back again. It had big beautiful orangie flowers and was a welcome sight in a waining late summer garden. It even produced two pumpkins: one in my neighbours yard which she really appreciated and one in ours. So this year same thing started to happen so I let a couple of them live. WELL, I've got two butternut squash vines, a watermelon vine and a renegade tomato plant! I can't wait to see what comes up next year.
 
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#3 ·
Well, we ate one of the butternut squashes and YUCK! I knew it wouldn't be true to the original but I thought it would be edible. The texture was gross, really dry and kind of potatoe-y. I roasted and pureed it into a soup and could still feel the texture.

So next year I am going to plant squash and pull the rogues (good word!). It's such a satisfying thing to grow.
 
#6 ·
Several years ago, my housemate's parents sent her a decorative pumpkin with Pooh painted on it. She kept it around until it got squishy, then cut off the painted side and put the rest in the compost. The following spring, we spread the compost in the yard...and a pumpkin vine grew obligingly straight up the retaining wall, out of the way! It produced 3 pumpkins that looked just like the original, only unpainted. We made a pie.
 
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