Zucchini: A Cautionary Tale

I seldom plant my zucchini, squash, melon or cucumbers from seed, preferring to buy the bedding plants and see the green leaves looking friendly from the beginning. These plants usually come in 4-packs. I knew I wanted more than four zucchini plants, so that meant a second 4-pack for a grand total of eight zucchini plants.

When I planted those eight plants in mid-May, I looked at the row of plants (Who has an entire ROW of zucchini??!) and wondered if I'd be sorry. Then we had a late frost in Northern Indiana and my dad watched the edges of my zucchini leaves turn black.

"We're going to lose 'em," he grumped. So he planted more. The sun shone, the chill faded, my black zucchini leaves grew green, broad and fuzzy.

Friends, I have ten healthy zucchini plants in my garden. Tonight a friend and I went to the garden to pick green beans. As she finished her row, I trotted over to the "zucchini row" to see what there was to pick. Dad had just picked them clean two days ago. I took a market bag with me, expecting to fill it. From the very first of the ten plants, I picked six medium- to large-sized squash. By the third plant, I was sending Sophia to the van for another bag.

I filled three bags to overflowing. Expect zucchini recipes. I'm like the Bubba Gump scene from Forrest Gump here...."zucchini bread, zucchini brownies, zucchini relish, grilled, stuffed, kabobs, fried zucchini sauteed zucchini..."

Lord help.