Gardening | wordsfromanneli

“Have a look at the picture below me,” says Millie Mouse.

“Do you see the part that has been circled in black? Well that’s the end of the first raised bed in the garden, and on the corner of the ‘bed’ is a triangle of wood that holds the raised bed together but mainly it keeps the rain out of my nest.

“So along comes that woman with her long-handled claw tool and she starts cleaning house for me, pulling out all the nice weeds I had growing around my nest to keep it hidden. Finally, she took a swipe at the part under my roof and it was just too close for comfort. I was outta there!

“She was shocked to see how fast I ran. I dove under the rhubarb leaves and held my breath. I nearly died when she pulled out my nest. There lay my babies strewn on the ground like three little bird treats.

“They shivered and shook but I couldn’t help them. ‘SHE’ still held that awful long-handled claw.

“But then she dropped it and ran. I guess I was tougher than I thought, scaring her off like that.

“I should’ve known it was too good to be true. Here she came again, out of the house with a ginormous camera in her hand. She put my babies together and pushed buttons on her camera over and over and over – and all the while, my babies were shivering.

“Finally, she found some common sense – although, if it’s so common, why is it so hard to find? – and she put the babes closer together and curled the nest around them. She pushed the nest back under the corner roof and found some more dried leaf bits to put over the babies.

“I guess she’s not all bad. As soon as she was gone I scampered back home to check on the wee ones. They were so scared. And cold! No coats yet. And of course they couldn’t see where they were going because they didn’t have their eyes open yet. Talk about ‘Three Blind Mice’.

“My heart is still pounding like a snare drum, but as soon as SHE is gone, we can all have a nap and pretend it never happened. I’m so glad the kids didn’t see a thing.”

It’s that time of year when the leaves of squashes die and the squashes are lying around waiting to be picked.

I think this one is called a green egg squash.

A friend gave us several varieties of squash last autumn when he harvested his garden. They were so good that I decided to try growing some myself the next growing season. I saved the seeds of the gift squashes and planted them this spring.

I was thrilled to see the seeds sprout and turn into little squash plants. It wasn’t long before they were big squash plants. Then squashes grew where yellow flowers had attracted some bees. I was so happy to see the babies of the gift squashes growing in my garden.

It was time to harvest them and I saved the seeds of the second generation. Next spring I’ll plant those and hope to grow a third generation of these green egg squashes.

They are so tasty. I like to cook them two different ways. One way is to cut the squashes in half and peel them. Then I slice them into one-inch pieces that look like a crescent moon. I put all the pieces in the microwave for three or four minutes while I sautee some chopped onions in butter in a frying pan. Then I place the crescent-shaped pieces of squash in the pan with the onion bits and fry them to a golden brown colour.

The other way is more traditional. No peeling necessary, but I give the squash a good wash. Cut the squash in half lengthwise, clean the seeds out of the center, and cut each half crosswise. Paint the inside surfaces with melted butter, sprinkle on salt and pepper, and bake at 350, peel side down, until the squash is tender. Depending on the size of the squash, it may take 45 minutes to an hour. I cover mine with tin foil for the first half hour. If they need more baking time, just keep the heat to them until they are tender.

I’m looking forward to planting the next generation of these squashes.

I have another kind of squash that a friend in Montana gave us in 2015. I saved those seeds and have kept them going year after year ever since. That was a buttercup squash. Here is a picture of one of its descendants.

Not only is it fun to watch continuing generations of plants growing, but saving seeds is a good habit to get into. You never know when we may have hard times ahead.