I put my winter squash, Taybelle acorn and Hi Jinx pumpkin in on June 11th. My garlic harvest was about a month early for all varieties and I have already harvested the pumpkin and am waiting for the acorns as they took longer to put out female flowers and set fruit. I did find, however, that both the acorn and the pumpkin dropped polinated and un-developed female flowers when they had set as many fruit as they could carry. For the pumpkins that was three per vine, one of the acorns has three good sized ones and the others have 4 or 5 each which I expect won't be overly large. Some are very dark green with hard skin and others are still a lighter green and soft. I did break off two of the acorns accidentally and am glad that I can go ahead and eat them. One of the summer squashes I planted, Heirloom Yellow straight neck, did not taste good if harvested too early. Thanks for all the good information. I am anxious to get the squash harvested so I can begin to prepare the soil for the main event, garlic.

Depending on the variety, white spagetti squash is not yet ripe. Here is a link to the same question from earlier in the week. It also includes a great link to some off-site info on squash in general. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: When to pick spagetti squash?

Not growing them this year - since I think they take up too much real estate for the yield. I grew them last year - and only ended up with 2 squash on the 1 vine. You are supposed to harvest when (1) the skin has hardened and can't be pierced with your fingernail (2) the spot on the squash where it is sitting on the ground turns yellow.

In my experience you don't need to plant in hills, just plant in the ground. The trellis should be perpendicular to the ground. I use 6 ft tall cattle fencing stretched between steel posts in the ground. It just looks like I'm planting next to a fence. In my experience you don't need to tie the plants to the trellis, just weave them in and out as they are growing, although I guess that depends on what your trellis material is. (If it has really big openings or small openings maybe you will need to tie your plant up.) Also, acorn squash, zucchini and cucumbers are small enough fruit that you won't need to make nylon slings for them. They can just hang and they won't break the plant. I've never grown butternut so I'm not sure if that is big enough to require a sling, but it might. Anyway, it all seems complicated at first, but after you've done it all once, it will all seem very simple. Good luck!!!