Zucchini Growing

New vegetable gardener, Emily, sent me a few pictures with a note of concern about zucchini shading out her onions and beans.  This will happen, and it’s time to prune.  Pruning allows for air circulation, helping prevent mildew, a common issue with squash.  The plant can be cut back 1/3 to it’s main vine.  This should allow for larger individual fruits, but maybe not as many.  If that’s not appealing to you, you can train your squash vines to run in between plants and act as a living mulch, keeping the soil cool.   With this method, you may need to trim larger leaves at times if too much shading occurs.  Either way, don’t worry.  Squash will make squash, it’s a very rewarding and easy to grow vegetable.