W. Dundee man doesn't mind sharing bounty, but not with deer

Paul Obuchowski likes to joke that folks who know him run scared during the growing season.

"You run out of friends and neighbors before you run out of zucchini," the West Dundee man said.

Not everyone needs to be afraid, however. Obuchowski's discovered this summer there are many people who look forward to eating zucchini, and he's happy to provide them with all they want.

So far, he's delivered at least 50 pounds of squash, cucumbers and beans to the Giving Garden drop-off site at Wheeling Township's food pantry in Arlington Heights, which is on his route to work.

He's participating in the Daily Herald program that urges gardeners to plant a little extra and take the surplus to more than 40 participating food pantries and soup kitchens.

With a garden that's about 500 square feet in size, Obuchowski should easily be able to keep up his donation pace all summer.

The biggest threat to his productivity isn't the lack of rain or the heat but the ravenous deer who like the wide variety of plants he grows.

"They started to nibble on the tomato plants, then they branched out onto the pepper plants," he said.

Last year, it was a full-scale assault.

"I had 50-some pepper plants and I only brought in two peppers," Obuchowski said.

This summer he got wise to their tactics and blocked their access to the garden with 5 1/2-foot-tall black netting placed all around the border. Once they discovered they didn't have a round-the-clock smorgasbord, they moved on.

"Once you break their behavior you're good to go," he said.

With renewed confidence that his bounty would actually make it through this year, the gardener planted green, red and yellow peppers, snow peas, carrots, green and wax beans, zucchini and cucumbers.

The lingering drought isn't causing him any problems because he's designed his own irrigation system over the past 15 years with a network of soaker hoses and directional valves.

For many years, when he had too much for his family to eat, he passed out the extras to anyone willing to accept them - and sometimes those who weren't so willing, he jokes.

This year he read about the Giving Garden program and decided to take his surplus to one of the food pantries.

While making a delivery, he asked one of the staff members what happens to the produce and was surprised to learn just how many families are dependent on food assistance to make ends meet. It was the information Obuchowski needed to make sure he was a repeat donor.

"Growing stuff like this is a gift," he said, "and gifts should be shared."