Zucchini, squash, and gourds, oh my!
One of my favorite plants to grow in a vegetable garden has to be pumpkins and squash (even if they aren’t my favorite thing to eat). You plant one or two little pumpkin seeds, let them grow all through summer- watching the vines double in size on certain days- and then by Fall, you have a wonderful harvest of many, many pounds of produce! Not to mention, very hardy produce that can be stored for months on end or make the perfect fall decorations!
First; a mini lesson on the differences between zucchini, squash, gourds, and pumpkins. All pumpkins and gourds are squash, but not all squash are pumpkins or gourds. All of these plants (also including cucumbers and melons) are in the Cucurbitaceae family. Often called Cucurbits. And they are all, botanically speaking, fruits! So when someone argues that a tomato is a fruit, you can tell them that guess what? Pumpkins, cucumbers, and zucchini are all fruits too! Zucchini are sort of the odd ones out (in my mind, anyway) when it comes to “squash” but yellow zucchini are sometimes referred to as Summer Squash and they are still closely related (pictured above).
Some of the fun varieties we grew this year include; Turk’s Turban Squash, Goldilocks Acorn Squash, Gentry Hybrid Squash, Sweet Jade Squash, Bon Bon Squash, Jarrahdale Pumpkin, Wee B Little Pumpkin, Shiver Pumpkin, Scarface Pumpkin, and the Autumn Wings gourd seed blend.
I like to refer to the pumpkins and squash in two categories: ‘eating squash’ and ‘decorative squash’. ‘Eating squash’ are just what they sound like- varieties bred to be sweeter and cook up well. Our varieties that fall in this category are the Bon Bon (top middle), Goldilocks, Sweet Jade (top left), Gentry, and Jarrahdale (top right).
The ‘decorative squash’ include things like the gourds (above), that are small and come in a wide variety of shapes and colors, and pumpkins that are large enough for Jack O’ Lanterns or have unusual colors to display. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t eat them- they are still quite edible. The ones we have for this category include the Wee B Little, Shiver, and Scarface pumpkins.
One squash, the Turk’s Turban (below), fits into both categories- it’s visually stunning but also has a sweet, nutty flavor and firm flesh for cooking.
If you’re afraid of growing squash- please don’t be! They are one of the easiest things to grow in my experience. They just need lots of room because the vines like to spread out. Even though I gave adequate spacing, our plot still became pretty overgrown. However, now that the weather has cooled, it’s the perfect time to harvest because I can see past all the leaves and vines that were hiding away these beauties!
Written by Cora Borgens, Horticulture Manager
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