Another front came through last night.  Since this is the second significant front to come through in November I realize that the end of growing season is at hand for a lot of things in my garden.  The last front actually brought a little freezing weather with it so I had to cover up the tomatoes.  I also had a few winter squash that were not quite ready so I covered them too.    I also harvested the winter squash that were ready.

The last of the winter squash. Top wrung – Red Warty Thing, Black Futsu and the unidentified squash. Second wrung – Turk’s Turban. Third wrung – another unidentifed squash. Photo by Chris Rue

I planted five varieties of winter squash back in August.  I bought the seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (rareseeds.com).   Even though I planted five varieties of squash, I wound up only harvesting three of the varieties I ordered.  This was due to a couple of strange things that I have never happened to me before. 

The cucmber beetles ate everything – leaves and flowers included!

The first were the cucumber beetles.  OMG!  They were terrible.  In addition to being a general menace they completely destroyed all of the vines of the Lakota winter squash.  I really wanted this variety so that was pretty disappointing.  However, that is nature.   Bugs happen.  Since I have never had cucumber beetles before, and since they COMPLETELY ate all of the Lakota vines, I can only assume that the Lakota squash brought the bugs to me.  I will never plant this variety again.

This image of Galeux d’ Eysines is from rareseeds.com. This what I wanted to grow. The green and orange squash in the first picture is what I got.

The next thing that happened was truly strange.  I am convinced that Baker Creek somehow messed up their packaging.  I ordered a variety called Galeux d’ Eysines.  As the season progressed it became clear that I had none of this variety growing in my squash patch.  Instead, I had a large, oblong squash that was mostly green but stripped with a little orange.  To this day I have no idea what variety this squash is.  I have gone through all of the pictures on their website and I can find nothing that resembles the squash I grew.  Very strange.  I know accidents happen but I have never bought a package of seeds and then had them turn out to be something other than what was advertised.

This lovely Tatume’ was grown by MOH reader Sherry Westphal in Michigan.

On another note, I recently got an e-mail and pictures from Sherry Westphal of Michigan.  She grew Tatume’ on a trellis in her garden.  Tatume’ is my favorite squash of all time.  Tatume’ is the rare squash that can be grown as either a summer or winter squash.  I grow it in the spring and eat it when it is young.  However, if you leave it on the vine it will turn into a mild winter squash.    So glad Sherry enjoyed her Tatume’ and took the time to send pictures and tell me about it. 

All of this cold means the end of what I consider prime gardening time.  The tomatoes are done and the last of my winter squash will soon be on the porch.  However, thanks to my mild climate, I have enough greens and brassicas growing  in the garden to keep my hands dirty until February.