Growing Heirloom Summer Squash

My husband brings in “the daily harvest” of our Curcurbita pepo, Heirloom Summer Squash

In an earlier post, I mentioned how this season we are trying our hand at growing veggies in a small raised bed we plopped right in our driveway. One of the crops we had a lot of success with is this heirloom squash variety, Curcurbita pepo, purchased from Botanical Interests. I started these from seed back in April and shared some of the seedlings with my mother, who is also growing a bumper crop (so many that she is leaving them at the curb with a “free” sign).

It’s hard to believe these tiny seedlings grow up to be such large, productive plants.

This particular variety of squash is ready to harvest in about 45 days, so it was perfect for our shorter growing season. An All America Selection winner in 1938, it produces heavily with fruits growing to enormous size very quickly, so much so that it even says on the seed packet, “If left on the vine, will grow so big that it will affect the orbital spin of the Earth.” I think they mean that.

Believe it or not, there are squash vines buried behind all these other plants! Our driveway garden has become my favorite place to visit. If you’re interested in trying the raised bed we used, click HERE

Seeds should be placed outside when soil temps have risen above 60 degrees, but as I said, I started mine in a little greenhouse in the spring. This variety takes about 5-10 days to emerge and should be things to about 1 plant every 12″ in soil rich with organic material. We’ve had very little rain these past few weeks so I’ve been outside every day watering our squash vines with the hose and spending time on a search and destroy mission for squash bugs. I’ve hardly seen any, though, and that might be attributed to the fact this variety is resistant to the little pests. My husband and I agree this squash is a winner and might be planted again next summer!