March 16 - Spring is here for good (so I hope!)

Its a beautiful day, with temperatures warming into the 80's today,  after a nice week of 60s and 70s.  Next week should be in the 60s and lower 70s all week, with lows around 50. Just awesome weather!  Maybe we've had our last freeze?!?  We'll see...

First Squash and Pumpkins go in

A couple weeks ago, I planted a few Blue Hubbard squash, Cinderella pumpkin (rouge vif d'etampes) and some Table Queen acorn squash seeds (all hierloom varieties I got from Sustainable Seed Co.) in some pots, to see if I could get a real early start on some of them.  Well 2 Hubbards came out, and 1 acorn squash, but the Cindarella pumpkins didn't germinate.  I started bringing the pots outside last week during the day once the seeds sprouted.

With the great weather and no freezes in the forecast, I decided to go ahead and plant them in, and have a tarp ready in case we do get real cold.  But being that April is a few weeks away, I think they will be fine.

Here is a pic of the freshly transplanted Blue Hubbard seedlings

I read about putting an old milk jug with holes, so I can deeply water the plants without getting the leaves wet. (to help prevent the dreaded powdery mildew), so I am giving it a try with these plants.   I put a lot of compost in the mound I made for them, so I hope they take off and have a good start.
In a few weeks, I will probably start putting some tulle netting over these plants, to keep out the Squash vine borers.  I'm not sure when they will arrive, but am expecting them to start showing up mid-April, especially if it stays warm.  Once the plants get real big, we'll see...  I'm still drawing up a battle plan, which I will detail later, but will involve a combination of tulle netting early, neem oil, and heavily mulching and covering the vines as they spread out.

Here is the Table Queen Acorn squash.

   Since only one plant has come out, I soaked a few more seeds overnight, and planted a couple more.  One in this same hill, and the rest in another hill.  
The reason I choose Table Queen this year for Acorn squash is because I really liked how my Sugar Pie Pumpkin last year were so good at putting down roots. That helped a lot in getting the plants more resistant to bug damage.  The hybrid acorn squash plants I grew last year were semi-vining, and were not very good at putting down secondary roots, so when the main vines got some borer damage, they would not recover very well.  Table Queen is a full vining variety, so I hope it produces good strong plants.


I also soaked some Rouge Vif D'Etampes (Cindarella) seeds overnight, so I could plant them today.
I made a couple mounds towards the other side of the plot, and put them in, among the cabbage,collards, and spinach I have growing.

You can see the 2 small mounds I created there at the bottom of the picture.  My plan is that they both grow up towards the top of the pic, and spill out onto the back of the yard. By that time, the peas, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, and everything else back there would already be done, and the pumpkin vines would have free reign.   I have read how big C. Maxima vines get (both the Hubbard and Cindarella are C. Maxima) so I am anticipating this, and will have to steer the plants as they grow.  I will have the Hubbard spill out towards the other end. (bottom of this picture)

Cool Weather Crops Still Going Strong

My cool weather crops are still doing very well.  This past fall/winter was really good for cabbage.  We've picked many heads already, and have eaten quite a bit of home grown cabbage.  

About a month ago, I started the last batch of cabbage and collards.  I put them in, and they have been growing pretty well.  You can see some of them below, along with the peas that we planted about a month ago too. Those are taking off pretty good too.

Interestingly, much of the collards we planted in the fall have bolted.  I'm not sure if that means I should pull them out, or just cut off the flower heads, and keep them going... That's what I am doing currently. I guess when we cook them we can see if they still taste good.   The brocolli has all bolted, and I've cut down much of it, except one plant that has a lot of seed pods. I intend to save some of the seeds.


Flowers too

Joshua, my son, is in Boy Scouts,and is trying to earn his Gardening Merit Badge. He's met many of his requirements, including vegetable ( he planted spinach, lettuce, radish, turnips from seed, and cabbage transplants) but still has to get flowers.  So I helped him make a plot, and he planted some German Chamomile,  and California Poppy seeds that I had.  They have also come up, and are doing real well too.  (upper right part of the picture.)