Mystery squash

I have many garden updates, but the most puzzling is about a discovery I made this morning while I was out saying hello to the chickens.  In the run-in, underneath/intertwined with the chicken wire that failed to protect more-dead giant pumpkin from its untimely demise, is a squash plant - a pretty healthy looking one, at that.  Is this the return of more dead giant pumpkin?  Or a holdover from the squash crop that our neighbor planted in roughly the same area last year?  I have no idea, but many questions.  Also, how did I not notice this plant until today?  It's fairly sizeable.

I suppose I'll find out what it is eventually if it bears fruit, and it is awfully exciting for me to have a bonus squash plant, regardless of what kind it turns out to be.

Last night, we harvested our first lemon cucumber.  Bullet was very excited about it - maybe he thinks it's a tennis ball?  Sadly for Bullet, Mike and I ate it ourselves, and it was a delicious cucumber, with no bitterness.

The eggplants are also beginning to produce more, and I was able to pick four different kinds last night.  I think the mix is lovely, and I sent my mom home with all but the apple green eggplant. 

From top left:  Calliope, apple green, swallow (purple), and gretel (white)

I used the apple green eggplant for our dinner, and pan fried slices of the eggplant with green beans.  I made my own pizza dough (you wouldn't believe the time you have for cooking when you're 75% unemployed), and topped it with pizza sauce, cooked lentils, soy sausage, and the veggies.  So delicious!

Mike helped me mulch several of the beds last night, which I'm hoping will keep moisture in, weeds out, and potentially confuse the bugs away from my plants (I'm skeptical of this last hope, but a book I read said that it's a possibility).  We mulched the tomatoes, leeks, eggplant, and potatoes.  The rest of the beds looked like they didn't need it, to my expert eye, so we left them alone.  We also mulched the squash field, and discovered that our little Uncle David's Dakota Winter Squash, a plant that has been severely damaged by cucumber beetles, is still trying to hang on.  At this point, I can't see how it will have time to bear fruit, but I do appreciate its determination.

Mulched squash field 8-1-2011

Uncle David's Dakota

Peppers and tomatoes 8-1-2011

eggplant and leeks 8-1-2011

The lima bean plants have begun to set pods, and the purple bell peppers are beginning to turn purple.  Even better, for some reason they grow upside down, so the bottom of the pepper is facing the sky.

Lima beans 8-1-2011

Purple bell pepper 8-1-2011

Lastly, no post is complete without a chicken picture for Taperman, so here they are as I found them this morning.  The girls love to hang out in the shade of the crab apple tree in their yard when it's hot.  As usual, the bravest aracauna is coming right up to the fence to say hello to me.  I rewarded her and the rest of the girls with a broccoli plant.