Finally, the first sign of squash has appeared. It’s good old reliable zucchini, of course. I like that in this picture you can see the seed case still attached.
For squash, I always debate about whether to buy plants or sow seeds. I don’t have any place to start plants at home, and I don’t want to use the greenhouse. (We’d have to stop by every day to keep the seedlings watered.) With our cool springs, the weather isn’t good for winter squash to really take off until June, but given their long growing season, they need to get started as soon as possible. So my current bet-hedging method is to plant seeds in May, and if they don’t sprout, buy plants at the first of June. The last few weeks have been sunnier than normal, but some of the nights have still been chilly, so I don’t know if the two hills are winter squash are going to sprout or not.