Don't normally post here, but I made a gardening mistake...

[greencrayon]

We've had a compost bin for about two years, but we weren't diligent in making sure everything was decomposing properly... This year, we used it when we were layering dirt in our raised vegetable bed. After we did that, our dogs decided to dig up the garden (before we planted anything) so we put planting on hold until we got more dirt. We're procrastinators, so by the time we did that we had "weeds" growing. In a few weeks, we realized they were some sort of gourd/melon because of the leaves and flowers so we decide to leave them. Today we find out they're spaghetti squash! Now we have a bazillion baby spaghetti squashes, and we don't know anything about growing them. They're expanding like crazy (way outside of the 4x4 garden bed, lol.) So what can we do here? Can we trim them without damaging the plant? Also, what do I do with all the squash?! Anyone have recipes? How long do you have to wait after you pick it until you can eat? TIA! 

[mrs.jacinthe]

Personally, I'd thin them. If you feel bad killing the plants, put them in little plastic disposable cups, set them in a box by the road, and label it "free plants" ... people will take them.

ETA: WAIT, you already have small squash? How close together are the plants? How many plants are we talking about here?

[ktzmoh]

thin out the little squashes - i think (im not sure) that if you thin the baby squashes , then the ones you leave on the vine will do better.

[greencrayon]

Jun 28, 2013 18:13:49 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

Personally, I'd thin them. If you feel bad killing the plants, put them in little plastic disposable cups, set them in a box by the road, and label it "free plants" ... people will take them.

ETA: WAIT, you already have small squash? How close together are the plants? How many plants are we talking about here?

It's like a thicket of squash. Lol. I can't tell the plants apart. It takes up maybe 20 square feet at the moment. 

[greencrayon]

Jun 28, 2013 18:13:49 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

Personally, I'd thin them. If you feel bad killing the plants, put them in little plastic disposable cups, set them in a box by the road, and label it "free plants" ... people will take them.

ETA: WAIT, you already have small squash? How close together are the plants? How many plants are we talking about here?

Attachment Deleted

This is our largest. 

[treedimensional]

It's great with butter and parmesan. Have friends over.

[pamela]

I'd try to thin out the plants. The problem with pruning squash plants is that they have hollow branches so when you cut or break one open, it's really easy for bugs to invade the entire rest of the plant.

And I love volunteer plants. One year we had volunteer tomato plants all over the yard (that we dug up and transplanted to the garden). Free plants!

[adhdfashion]

This isn't a gardening mistake! This is a gift from the garden gods.

Sent from my SCH-S720C using proboards

[SusanBAnthony]

This is hilarious.

Growing up we had a mystery pumpkin plant that our dog pooped the seed out. It grew to take up like a 20x20 ft area, and produced tons of pumpkins. Hilarious.

Surprise plants are the best, enjoy!