By Denise Crane

I keep trying squash. Not yellow squash because no one in the family particularly likes it, and I learned my lesson about that from planting okra no one wanted. I tried spaghetti squash and butternut squash in particular. I saved a bunch of seeds from store bought versions that I thought were particularly good. I washed them and dried them and carefully marked them and stored them for the appropriate planting time. 

I remembered another gardening lesson I had learned along the way.

If you plant things that grow on vines, give them space or a structure to grow on so they don’t overwhelm the garden. I planned to be sure that I planted the first seeds in a way that would provide for both space and structure. I had gotten one of those fabric containers for growing from my son and his fiancé for Christmas. They were encouraging my attempts at growing things so I appreciated their thoughtfulness. I filled the container with fresh soil. I positioned it where it would get water from the sprinklers and be accessible with the hose once water restrictions started. There were supports available to help the vines climb. I started the seeds in my Aerogarden. I had already learned that when you start things in an Aerogarden that you intend to transplant, you need to move them out of the garden once the first leaves are established well, but are still very small. The root structure of plants grown in water is different than the structure of the same plant grown in soil, so the transition has to be made early in the plant’s life. 

It looked really promising. My seeds sprouted in the Aerogarden and I moved them outside. I watered them a little bit every day to assist in the root transition from water to soil. I also confirmed that when the sprinklers ran, the squash did get their share of the bounty. I fed them.

Plants grew, vines spread, and flowers bloomed, and I believed we were on the way to success. 

I got distracted with some travel and some activities and stopped checking them as regularly.

I went out one day and both plants were dead. I never did figure out what happened. Was it the start in water? Was the eco-friendly container not deep enough? Did some bug eat the roots? Did I give it the wrong kind of food? Do I really just have a “black thumb?” 

I was not ready to concede defeat. So I stuck a couple of seeds in the garden, as far from the tomatoes as possible, and hoped for the best. Within a week, seeds had sprouted. The vines spread, flowers bloomed, and little squash appeared. Those vines were so happy and the big leaves of the squash sheltered the green pepper plants I was growing that summer and helped protect them from the hot summer sun. I watched for more little squash to appear. And some did. A couple small ones got invaded by bugs before they were big enough to harvest, but I did, however, harvest two full grown lovely butternut squash before the vines succumbed to a combination of some other ailment and the heat and slowly stopped thriving. I was so very proud of those two squash and learned another important thing. 

Sometimes we just need to plant the seed and not overthink it.