It’s that time of year.

We’ve reached the point in the growing season when peeking beneath your zucchini plant’s leaves becomes less anticipatory and more of a wince and a grimace.

You just know there will be more of them in there, even though you picked two yesterday.

And you might even find a green Louisville Slugger that’s been hiding out, biding its time before reaching proportions that finally make hiding impossible.

If your neighbors tacked a Cease and Desist order to your front door after your last generous zucchini drop on their front porch, it’s probably time to figure out how to preserve some of these abundant squash.

Even if it doesn’t feel like it now, you will reach a point this winter where you’ll miss eating zucchini. 
 

(That would not be a tasty zucchini boat, by the way.) 

My poor zucchini bit the dust, eaten alive by an army of squash bugs.

It’s okay; I got my revenge. I yanked the plant up and tossed it into the chicken run, where a half dozen chickens ate an army of squash bugs in a matter of seconds.

Maybe your zucchini died, too, and you wish you had a neighbor who would leave armfuls of them on your porch. If so, now is a great time to plan how you’ll do things differently next year - while the sting of defeat is fresh.

So, this What’s Up Wednesday is the zucchini edition. Of course, this information applies to other summer squash as well.