So in the great expanse of our garden great strategy is made to fill without overfilling the garden with plants. So, when Bonnie Bell, via Wally-World said that certain plants were yellow squash and other plants were zucchini squash, I believed them. Why (oh why!) didn’t I get them from Mr. Exley as I should have? Well Bonnie Bell at Wally-World sold them individually and Mr. Exley has them in packs of 6. And I didn’t want 6 of any one kind and I didn’t know who else was gardening that might want some. Lesson learned. Go to Mr. Exley’s next time.

I bought 1 each of supposed yellow and zucchini squashes. Containers were loaded with plants so I separated them. No problem.

Nope. Big problem. We now have 4 thriving, threatening-to-take-over-the-garden yellow squash plants and NO zucchinis.

We like yellow squash to a degree, but one of us here at this household doesn’t care for traditional squash casserole (and it ain’t me). So, an alternate recipe that she (luckily) found will satisfy us both.

Who else but Paula Deen, y’all? Y’all think we ain’t got nothing better to down here in the south but to cook delicious buttery food, y’all?

But it’s okay. She is a good cook. She just ain’t your doctor, as the t-shirts the waiters/resses say in her restaurant. Which isn’t really that far from us y’all!

Anyway, here is the stash I brought in this week.

We have some bloom rot that we have to work with so I pickes some that were very small but kind of ripe. And then, we had the perfect combination of hot sun and someone-left-the-sprinkler-on-way-longer-than-they-intended plus rain. Such as, sister said she emptied 5 inches out of the rain gauge in the garden after the sprinkler and rain.

Ooops!

Enter monster squash.

And that is how many squash I had left after I made the recipe that calls for 3 cups cooked squash and is supposed to feed 6.

I see a lot of squash and onions, squash casserole and other squash delights in our future. Along with giving away a lot of squash. Unless bloom rot takes over. Which it had better not do. Because we do not know how to fight it.

And the variation mentioned of adding red potatoes to it, that’s good as well!

Not to change the subject or anything but we over at Mama and Daddy’s for supper tonight since a brother and nephew from out of town were in town for the evening.

I had to check on Mama’s supply of flowers and we’re down to a few right now.

Magnolias:

And Hydrangeas:

Back to mis-labeled plants, we have been awaiting the first blooms from the twin crepe myrtle trees in our front flower beds. Because we have a green house, a green yard, white trim, nearly black roof & black shutters we wanted some color. So last year we bought red crepe myrtles, the deep red variety.

So we thought. The plants were amazingly hearty and the plant farm told us we should be able to divide the 2 trees that were growing in the same pot. Lois whacked through them with a machete and they never winced or dropped their leaves. Well, they did wait until this year to bloom and low and behold, they are white. Not the deep red that we both wanted.

But we are not the kind to rip them out because they weren’t quite what we wanted. No, we take in things that people rip out because they don’t want. We have a whole stack of them, in fact. Two pallets of free pavers that were too hot for the pool they surrounded. It gets hot in the south, y’all. So if you come to visit us and want to sit on our future patio, don’t forget your flop-flips.