Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 8 JuneA young cucurbit on 11 June, six or seven leaves held flat and quilted between veins that fan from a notched base, three of them already chewed through with small round holes, its stout stalks bristling in the flash and everything beaded with water.Week of 29 JuneA Zephyr squash on 29 June, butter-yellow to the waist and abruptly green below it where the two colors meet in a clean band, its shriveled flower still pleated at the tip and resting on ground that shines wet in the early low sun.Week of 29 JuneSeveral broad lobed leaves marbled with silver spreading flat from a single crown over black woven ground fabric, a yellow flower opening at the centre beside a white label.Week of 29 JuneA Zephyr squash on 1 July with three bells open at once, their fused orange-yellow petals thin enough to show the veins through and recurved at the tips, a fourth already collapsed to brown paper at the crown under flat overcast.Week of 6 JulyZephyr squash on 7 July, four or five short fruit crowded at the crown, each buttery yellow at the stem end and breaking abruptly to green at the nose, one still wearing its shriveled flower and a spent bloom collapsed just below them.Week of 6 JulyA Zephyr squash on 9 July, one young fruit buttery yellow at the stem end and breaking abruptly to pale green at the tip with its spent flower still stuck there — the ridged prickled stalks radiating out around it like spokes under strong low side light.Week of 13 JulyA Zephyr squash on 17 July seen straight down into its crown, thick ridged hollow stalks radiating from one woody center, two golden trumpets open with the petals heavily pleated, and one butter-yellow fruit lying along the ground behind.Week of 13 JulyA cucurbit on 17 July, all crown and no runners, huge leaves radiating from one short stem with a broad silvery band along every vein, and one deep orange trumpet half-hidden behind a leaf with two small dark insects sitting on its petals.Week of 20 JulyA Zephyr squash on 23 July, buttery yellow over the stem half and grading through a mottled band into plain green at the tip, a spent trumpet flower crumpling apricot in its folds just beyond it, everything still wet under flat light.Week of 20 JulyA Zephyr squash on 23 July, its color break running lengthwise rather than around it, egg-yolk yellow for two thirds and then over one blurred band into cream-mottled celery green, laid S-curved across a laptop keyboard under warm indoor light.Week of 24 AugustTwo Zephyr squash on 27 August lying where they grew, each banded sharply from butter yellow at the stem end to pale green at the blossom end and lightly bristled, with a third smaller one and one orange-throated flower open behind.Week of 28 SeptemberA long-spent vine held overhead on 29 September, brown and papery, kinked at every node and hung with dozens of tight corkscrew tendrils; below it a few broad lobed leaves still fade green to yellow under flat evening light.
