A couple weeks ago we were visiting our friends Bernie & Jacqui (pronounced Jackie) in Pensacola and she was proudly showing me her dirt filled seed-starter trays that had seedlings sprouting. She said she'd planted pole beans in them. I looked over the collection of sprouts thoughtfully, but saw only one single bean. The other dozen sprouts clearly had the fan-shaped leaves of some kind of squash. I pointed them out, saying, "This is a squash, this is a squash, this is a squash and this is a squash." Then I pointed at the only pole bean. " That is a pole bean." "Are you sure?" Jacqui asked, her expression completely surprised that she had squash she hadn't planted. "Yup," I replied. I pointed out a pole bean stem in another tray that had been eaten down to the dirt. "Snails or something have been eating your pole beans." However--the reason Jacqui had uninvited squash sprouts is because she mixed compost from ...
