It was very scary. And then my mother put a bunch of the excess ones on the compost heap, and - MORE zucchinis sprouted. Everywhere. (Also pumpkins, which was odd, because she hadn't planted or composted any. And the thing is - we had fewer pumpkins, although still way too many, because there's not much you can do with a pumpkin. We ate a lot of roasted pumpkin seeds, which I think my mother did mostly to make sure the seeds couldn't creep out and start new pumpkins.) I was lucky, because I really liked zucchini and have never required a lot of variety in what I eat, but my sister resents zucchini to this day.

And I keep thinking - maybe I could plant a zucchini plant. Just one. Surely if I can keep any plant alive, it would be a zucchini, and maybe I could build from there to other successes!

...Hmmm. This is the right time of year to plant a zucchini, isn't it? I wonder if one would be happy amongst our roses.