My Cash Machine zucchini plant has begun flowering—large blossoms, bold in color and delicate in texture. There is something unexpectedly tropical about them opening in the Mid-Atlantic morning.
Zucchini pollination depends on timing: male flowers open first, and pollen must meet a receptive female flower, usually with help from bees.
And every year in the early season, without fail, there is a brief, almost tantalizing stretch where the flowers start blooming, but the timing still doesn’t quite align. I delight in the first male buds forming, but the female flowers never seem to arrive in time.
This year, I’m experimenting hand pollination, trying to bridge that timing gap myself.
But as reliably as zucchini begins in this mismatch (and it is every year), it is equally reliable in what comes next: an overwhelming abundance of summer squash that no one gardener can reasonably keep up with.
What seasonal garden frustration makes you laugh once the harvest finally arrives?
