Planting Cucumbers and Squash/Hilling Potatoes

Welcome back my fellow gardeners.

After a very dry spring through May, June is turning out to be a wet month thus far.  So far we've received 4.5 inches of rain in June.  Additional rain at this point may start to do more harm to the garden than good.

A few weeks ago I planted cucumbers and squash.  In years past I almost always started these from seed.  This year in an effort to enjoy yields sooner, I purchased plants.  One disadvantage of purchasing plants is that you may not be able to find the exact varieties you prefer.  For example, I purchased picking and burpless cucumbers, but they were not labelled as to the specific variety.

In addition to the pickling and burpless varieties mentioned above , I also purchased Marketmore, which is a well known slicing variety.  I planted both the cucumbers and squash in hills of composted manure.

Regarding squash, I planted yellow, zucchini, and "Eight Ball" round green squash.  The Eight Ball squash can be used for stuffing, baking, etc.  In addition, I also planted butternut squash in my "auxiliary" garden down behind the pond. This is a small garden I use an an overflow to add a few items that won't fit in the main gardens.

I plant pumpkins using the same technique.  I will show the progress of the pumpkins and gourds in future posts.  They were also planted about 2 weeks ago and are growing nicely.

Mixing in Composted Manure With Squash Plants

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Cucumbers and Squash

Butternut Squash in the Auxiliary Garden

In my post on May 21, 2015 (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2015/05/planting-potatoes.html), I discussed planting potatoes.  In addition to the varieties listed in that post, I also recently planted a few hills of red potatoes.  Reds are always good in the fall to use in soups and stews as they are a good boiling variety.

The potatoes are growing quite nicely thus far this season, with one slight problem common to most gardeners.  Weeds.  For some reason the weeds sprouted quickly in the potato patch and had to be controlled.  My solution is two step process.

First of all, potatoes need to be "hilled" once they are established and are about 4 to 6 inches high. Hilling is simply the process of "piling" up dirt around the the vines to give the potatoes plenty of cultivated soil to develop without being exposed to sunlight.  Potatoes need to stay underground, otherwise they will turn green.

The second step is to add mulch to prevent weeds from re-growing, and also to help keep the moisture in during the entire season.  I normally use either chopped hay or grass clippings.

Hilling Potatoes

Grass Clippings For Mulching

Mulching the Potato Plants

Stay tuned for more garden updates.  With this warm weather and plenty of moisture, all the plants are growing quickly.  I will try to keep up to dates with my posts.

Thanks for reading and happy gardening.

Planting Heirloom Tomatoes, Peppers, Brussels Sprouts

Welcome back, and thanks as always for reading.

On Memorial Day and the day following I got a chance to plant my heirloom tomatoes that I started from seed.  For more information on the varieties,etc., see my post of April 3, 2015 (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2015/04/starting-heirloom-tomatoesfirst-robins.html).  The weather was ideal, as these days were very summer like.

This year I didn't start peppers from seed, so I purchased some nice plants.  I bought them at a flea market that we visited while staying in Vermont for the weekend.  I also picked up three nice grape tomato plants and Brussels sprouts plants also.

Normally I start many varieties of tomatoes and hot and sweet peppers.  I was trying to keep things a little simpler this year.   I did of course start onions, scallions, and leeks from seed this Spring as well as some vegetables using the winter sowing technique.  If you didn't get a chance to see my post on winter sowing, it was published on February 20, 2015 (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2015/02/its-seed-buying-timewinter-sowing.html).  There are also additional posts showing the results of the winter sowing and also the tending of the tomato plants.  Winter sowing is a very interesting technique and I have had good results over the last two years.

Heirloom Tomato Plants

Planting tomatoes in the garden is fairly simple.  Of course, I had already prepared the garden soil by rototilling.  For information on soil preparation, see my post of May 5, 2015 (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2015/05/transplanting-heirloom-tomatoesplanting.html) .  I recommend mixing in some composted manure or home made compost to give the plants a boost.  Of course you can always add a fertilizer such as Miracle-Gro also.


Since the tomato plants were in peat pots, I removed the bottom of the pot to allow the roots to be exposed.  Even if this step isn't done, the peat pots will break down fairly quickly.  Removing the bottom just helps them to get a faster start.

Planting Heirloom Tomatoes

Planting Heirloom Tomatoes

Planting Grape Tomato

Tomato Plants Protected With Cages/Wood Shingles 

Next I planted the pepper plants.  I purchased Portugal Hot peppers, Jalepeno (hot), Cubanelle (sweet), and Red Bell Peppers (sweet).  I also used wood shingles as I did with the tomatoes to protect the plants from wind and sun at least for a week or so.  This will help the plants during the hardening off phase after being transplanted into the garden.

Pepper Plants

Finally, I planted the Brussels Sprouts plants I purchased.  Each one of these plants provide an amazing yield, so 6 plants will be more than enough for our family.

Brussels Sprouts

Upper Garden

Thanks again for visiting my blog.  Stay tuned for more garden updates.  My next post will involve the planting of pumpkins, gourds, cucumbers and squash.