Gardening In Urban Areas (lessons on yellow squash)

Gardening in urban areas can be a challenge. Space limitation is one of the greatest obstacles. BUT, if you have a flower bed, a back yard, a side yard or even a patio...you can grow yourself some food! My husband and I have been working on our gardening skills for about 4 years. He gardened with his mother as a child, and I was new to gardening. The first time we grew tomatoes at our house 4 years ago I was thrilled. They got about 5 and a half feet tall and were covered with whiteflies, but we got so many tomatoes from them, I was AMAZED! Next we grew a garden and included squash and cucumber, eggplant and okra. Our garden was lovely, but it was flooded by our neighbors swimming pool overflow and it died. We were so disappointed that for the next two years we did not even think of planting a garden.

But I guess we have garden fever because we are back at it again. I am going to briefly go over what we have done this year. I consider this garden, so far...(knock on wood!) to be successful! A full 6 hour sun spot is difficult to find in our yard, but we located the best areas and dug up our grass and planted. We tilled up some patches and added some compost we bought at the nursury. In some areas we attempted a type of garden called lasagna gardening...another word for sheet composting. So we have two rectangular patches that were sheet composted with peat moss, newspaper, crushed leaves, wood ash, a manure store bought soil and compost. Two other spots are just tilled soil with added compost. Here is a box my husband made. It has three sections. It's a bit small for what we have in here, but we are learning! You would be surprised at how large a squash plant can grow. When this was planted as a seed, the seedling was tiny and it looked like there would be plenty of room! Nope! But for now, it is getting along fine. In the squash section, there are three squash plants. One was grown from seed directly in the box. The two others were transplanted from another area where they sprouted but were too close together. Here, they are also too close together, but seem to be doing ok. NOTE: It is best not to plant cucumber around other plants. Cucumber likes to climb and sends out twines to attach to any and everything around it. It will squeeze the life out of anything it is close to if you let it. In the second section of this box were supposed to be 4 okra plants. One was cucumber that I was unaware of. Soon, the cucumber was growing four times the size of the others and we could see that it was not looking like an okra plant. You can see the cucumber vine peeking out under the squash leaves. It is running all over the small trellis I gave it and out into the lawn. The third section is Lima beans which you cannot see in this picture and we can talk about those another day.

It is hot and dry here lately, so I water in the evening with a sprinkler about every two days for 2 hours. I have put two applications of fish emulsion on the plants. The only pesticide I have used is Safer which is a soap. I spray it directly on the bugs when I see them. The box was made of fencing found thrown away on the side of the road (my husbands GREAT idea!). As you can see, you can grow a decent amount of food in a pretty small area. I think these plants are so beautiful that they would look great in a flower bed. Why waste a spot growing ornamentals when you can grow something beautiful and eat it? The brilliant lemon yellow flowers are about 3-4 inches long and wide when opened. The leaves are large and lush. Be sure to give it plenty of room to spread out. It needs full sun for at least 6 hours a day and plenty of water.



These are male flowers. They are supposed to be very good to eat, but I have not eaten any yet. Notice their stems are slim. A female flower will have a thick bulb-like base (the future squash fruit) and you shouldn't pick those blossoms.



Yellow squash bounty



My favorite way to enjoy yellow crook neck or straight neck squash:

Slice squash into quarter inch circle slices. Slice a sweet vidalia onion. Prepare a large skillet by melting butter in it. Use as much as you like. I use a stick of butter per 4-5 pieces of large squash. I put the squash and onion in the pan with melted butter, sprinkle with a little sea salt and black pepper, put the lid on and let simmer on medium low until the squash is tender. (about 35-40 minutes) You can taste the squash at various stages of doneness for your preference. Some people like vegetables a little crunchy and some like them mushy. Taste here and there to find your preference and adjust the cooking time.