A Squash Mystery

Early this spring I noticed a couple of squashes growing along my front sidewalk. I planted flowers there but I also let the little squash plants be. I just didn't have the heart to kill them. I wasn't sure where they had come from but I had a pretty good idea. In the same area last year I had planted a butternut squash and a zucchini. They had ended up taking over the sidewalk so I decided not to plant them there ever again. But when they started growing on their own I just couldn't destroy their small little lives.

As they grew I couldn't figure out what they were. The fruit was perfectly round and green. I picked one and cut it open. It smelled like zucchini so I figured it was because I had planted a hybrid and a plant not true to the mother plant was coming back. It also began to take over my sidewalk so I hacked away at it with abandon. I ended up throwing 1/2 of it away covered with countless little round squash. I never picked any of the squash to eat because we had plenty of zucchini already growing. So I just let it be.

About a week ago I noticed one of the squash was turning orange. The plant I have been hacking at mercilessly is a pumpkin! Oh, the guilt. I love pumpkins. During the fall it is a trying experience to go anywhere with me because I have to point out the piles of pumpkins in front of every fruit stand and grocery store. Something about piles of big orange pumpkins makes me happy. And I have been killing them! With abandon!

I called my mother to tell her my joy and lament. Joy that I was growing pumpkins and lament that I have been killing them. This is how the conversation went:

"Mom, do you know what I am growing out front?"

"Yeah, they're pumpkins."

"You knew they were pumpkins? How long have you known they were pumpkins?"

"Oh, I don't know, about three weeks."

"Well why didn't you tell me? I've been killing them off."

"Um...well... I figured you knew what you had planted."

Well no Mom, I didn't. I had no idea. I still don't even know where they came from. My best guess is they came from our neighbor. They had some pumpkins they had allowed to rot last fall. When they started cleaning up their leaves for the fall I told them they could just dump them in our yard. I would use them for mulch and compost. So I am guessing some seeds got mixed up with the leaves and ta da...surprise pumpkins!