Well, there is a downfall to using the row covers on the squash. That downfall is that when the squash grow so fast and get so big that they are pushing on the row cover and breaking their leaves and you take the row covers off to give them the chance to grow without further injury, you discover that they have gotten rather floppy under the cover. I suppose that slightly reduced light, little wind, and only gentle rain could easily result in squash plants that do this:

This is the ‘Honey Bear’ Acorn squash. It is a rather wimpy plant anyway, in my opinion. The ones in the Family of 4 Garden that were unprotected are also a little floppy. Last year this plant keeled over under an onslaught of insects before ripening a single squash. Granted, the insect army was something similar to the Mongolian Horde, between the squash bugs, aphids, spider mites, and squash vine borers.

I know these squash plants will toughen up and figure out which way the sun is shining (if it ever does shine today…), but they do look rather pitiful right now. Those beans on the other hand…wow! We’re going to have some nice beans by next week if it really is as warm as they are predicting for the rest of the week. (Today’s forecast was only…oh…25 degrees off.)