Unexpected

I didn't plant squash this year. My small veggie garden just doesn't have the room for it. I did plant butternut squash one year and it essentially covered the entire fenced area of my veggie beds. I got great squash but couldn't grow anything else. So I haven't planted it again since then.

It turns out that I was growing squash this year though. A volunteer butternut squash plant grew outside the fence this year and added a fair amount of beauty to this part of the garden. I let it grow because of this and to test if the deer and other herbivores took advantage of it. They didn't as far as I can tell -- maybe a couple of nibbles but nothing significant.

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Since this plant seemed to grow very slowly during the hottest part of summer and didn't really take off until late summer,  I didn't expect it to set any fruit -- that wasn't my goal with it.

It turns out that there were a few squash growing under all of that foliage!

Since we've had a few strong frosts by now, the leaves have all disappeared:

This let me clearly see the squash:

If you're familiar with butternut squash, you can probably see that these are not yet ripe:

It looks like they got some freeze damage too:

So I doubt that they'll be edible. I'll keep them in the garage for a week or two and see what they look like.

I may slice into them anyway, just to give them a try.

If I don't find a way to eat these (or if they're inedible) that's fine. This plant has showed me that it is possible to grow butternut squash again in my deer-visited garden, and if all goes to plan I'll have plenty of these delicious fruits to eat next winter.

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