Libby Payne’s volunteer squash becomes a keeper
Libby Payne left her volunteer squash vine alone after she planted it and it has performed well, producing numerous squash. | Clif Knight
Under ordinary circumstances a garden seed that is accidentally dropped on shallow soil will sprout, grow for a short time and shrivel up and die.
But the volunteer squash vine that’s growing at the back door of Libby Payne’s house at 181 Sanders Road is a different story.
It has grown to a size far greater than what you’d expect to find in a lush garden in spite of the fact that it hasn’t been fertilized, cultivated or watered by hand. Now covering an area as large as a full-size truck bed, it continues to produce delicious crooked-neck squash and shows no sign that it has reached maturity.
“I have no idea how the seed got there and I’m just as puzzled about how it has grown to be such a large vine and produced so many squash all on its own,” Payne stated. “I just spotted it there one day, next to my back door steps, and didn’t give it a second thought. But it caught my eye when it started growing, blooming and producing squash. “I have probably picked more squash from it than I have from any two or three of the vines growing in my garden.
“Mother Nature gets all of the credit,” she added. “I call it my miracle squash.
