Summer squash and zucchini varieties are space-efficient, fast- maturing, and one of the easiest crops to grow. In fact, they’re too easy. First-timers find out in a hurry that you don’t have to plant much summer squash to get a big yield.
I’ve heard the suggestion that gardeners should practice “ZPC”—zucchini population control. I’ll bet that if only one out of three gardeners planted zucchini, there would still be plenty for everyone, and with much less waste. Read the rest of this entry »
Our Thanksgiving meal is not complete without a serving of home-grown winter squash. We store Blue Hubbard, Gold Nuggets, Butternut, Acorn, and Buttercup in the root cellar. For Thanksgiving, we choose our favorite, Blue Hubbard. I have yet to taste as flavorful a squash.
Winter squash is getting more popular with gardeners. Perhaps it’s because they require very little work, yield well, and keep for months in a cool place. You don’t even need a root cellar.
If you have a small garden, try the Gold Nugget. This winter squash takes up as much space as a zucchini plant and yields a bundle of small, delicious squash. We cut them in half and bake them— they’re wonderful. Read the rest of this entry »
If you fertilize pumpkins they’ll get very big and take up a lot of garden space—but they’re worth every inch I give them.
We grow a lot of pumpkins for our grandchildren—they like them big—plus plenty for making pumpkin pies. The smaller varieties have better flavor than the big ones, so we use them for pies.
The bigger jack-o’-lantern types, such as Big Max, can be used for pies but I don’t think they’re as good.
There’s no secret to growing a super-sized pumpkin that might win a ribbon at the fair. Here are the steps: Read the rest of this entry »
I have a new technique for coaxing my horseradish bed to produce the straightest roots I’ve ever seen. Straight roots are the easiest to clean and process.
First, let me explain that I harvest most of my horseradish roots quite early in the spring.
The taste is real hot in spring and I like hot horseradish.
I fertilize after the harvest and let the plants get about 6 inches tall. Then I till half the bed as deeply as I can. This chops up the roots and mixes the pieces into the soil. Many of the pieces are near the surface where they will quickly sprout and grow again. The important thing is that my roto-tiller leaves the soil so soft and fluffy that the roots have an easy, unobstructed path down into it. Read the rest of this entry »
