Squash is a seasonal vegetable. It is very susceptible to frost and heat damage, but with proper care it will produce a bumper crop with very few plants.Squash come in two main types: summer squash and winter squash.

While there s not much difference among the tastes and textures of summer squashes, winter squashes offer a wide array of flavours.Summer squash (Cucurbita pepo) produces prolifically from early summer until the first frost. This group includes both green and yellow zucchini, most yellow crookneck and straightneck squash, and scallop (or pattypan) squash. Most summer squash are ready to pick 60 to 70 days after planting, but some reach harvestable size in 50 days. You can use them raw for salads and dips or cook them in a wide variety of ways, including squash “french fries” and such classics as zucchini bread.Summer squash blossoms, picked just before they open, are delicious in soups and stews, or try them sautéed, stuffed, or dipped in batter and fried. (You ll want to use mostly male flowers for this purpose, though, and leave the female flowers to produce fruit.) Summer squash keep for only a week or so in the refrigerator, so you ll probably want to freeze most of the crop.Winter squash (C. maxima, C. mixta, C. moschata, and C. pepo) is a broad category that includes butternut, acorn, delicious, hubbard, banana, buttercup (or turban), and spaghetti squash. Pumpkins are also in this group, but their flesh is often less sweet than other winter squash. Most winter squash take 75 to 120 days to mature.Steam the young fruits, or harvest and bake the squash when they re fully mature. Dry and roast the seeds. Winter squash are even more nutritious than their summer kin, but the sprawling vines, which can grow 10 to 20 feet long, require more space. If you have only a small garden, try one of the bush or semi-bush cultivars.