People in the jungle often carry machetes to hack away overgrown brush and clear a path for themselves.
Well, my garden, which resembles a very, very small jungle, looks like someone took a machete to the squash plant and cleared the path that runs alongside it. In fact, that someone was my boyfriend, and he was wielding nothing more than a pair of scissors, but the effect was the same.
After his plant surgery, he came in and told me, “I’m not sure the squash is going to make it.” He didn’t seem at all repentant.
But that’s OK, because we’ve got a grocery bag full of giant squash that we need to give away. And, it turns out, some gourd-like plant was growing under the crookneck, so now we get to see what that is, although I’m sure I’ll soon be lamenting the abundance of gourds in my back yard. I’m hoping it’s a pumpkin, although I don’t remember if I planted one. I have no idea what else it might be, so I’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.
Despite the major hacking, the squash plant still has some squash growing on it, and I have a feeling that the chopping back won’t actually stop it altogether – maybe slow it down a bit, but that plant is unstoppable, it seems.
It is nice to have the garden path back – at least a portion of it. After hacking back the squash, my boyfriend rearranged the honeydew, so it’s now growing over some other plants instead of the path. So it’s smooth walking until you get to the tomatoes, which we can’t bear to hack back, and which are so tangled and thick that we’ve really just given up on them. Besides, they’re at the end of the path, so there’s no need to clear them.
By cutting back the squash, our peppers have been freed from the shade, where they were languishing under the squash plant’s large leaves. And our basil, currently struggling to reach the light from under the tomatoes, now has an opening to receive some light.
But all this sunshine reaching the ground has made it easier for the weeds to pop up. In fact, I’ve already pulled some of the dreaded nasturtiums, my garden nemesis. This time, however, I shall prevail. Those nasturtiums, which are just as bad as squash for growing over things, will remain under control, as will the rest of the garden. I hope.
