Two things I've learned

It's been a while!

The garden  has produced well. Zucchini in the right amount; beans late, but abundant. Spinach a disappointment. Green lettuce very good. Haven't bought lettuce all summer. Long eggplant abundant from a plant I bought--maybe ten fruits so far. And the ones from my seeds coming along well.

Tomatoes are coming along and we have eaten some. All are beginning to blush, and the vines are loaded:

But more interestingly, I observed two things.

First, I accidentally cut the vine on which two butternut squash were growing. I lay them on the kitchen counter and later found a large puddle under them, which eventually I determined was liquid oozing from the stem. I wiped the puddle and replaced the squash on the counter. The next day the squash was still oozing liquid, as shown here. Lesson learned: don't harvest the squash too early.

Another lesson. As always, my garden is full of volunteer plants, and I had a squash growing in one of my raised beds. It does not look like any of the squash I had seeds of, nor did my compost bins have any seeds but what came from my garden. So, look at this oversize thing:

Two tomato plants on each side of the squash had stopped growing and the fruit had shriveled. Lesson learned, the squash will such all the nutrients and starve its neighbors.

It has been a summer.