When my neighbors come calling

This spring my neighbor cleverly terraced the ditch the borders both our backyards and used it to plant a vegetable garden for her family.  This was even more impressive to me because this young Salvadoran woman is the mother of six adorable children.  I wondered how well her ambitious attempt at using every available tillable space would pan out. 

Her terraced, ditch garden was so successful that not only is she feeding her own family, she is feeding mine too.  These squash-like vines have filled the ditch and came calling in my backyard.  The photos do not demonstrate the size of the vines and their leaves, which have come running 15 feet through the chain link fence, through my garden and out across the lawn.

With the help of Yolanda's daughters, we enjoy discussing the successes and failures of our respective gardening ideas.  This squash is called a pipian (plural is pipianes).   Although they look similar to our traditional yellow squash, they have the firmness and a similar flavor to zucchini. 

I no longer attempt to grow yellow squash or zucchini in my gardens because my gardens are invested with squash vine borers.  I don't know whether  the borers avoid the ditch or pipian vines are resistant but I'm delighted to host these delicious neighbors in my backyard.