Last year I bought a few sad, sickly little plants from the local nursery in July. It was late in the season (7/19) and they were clearancing all their annuals. Unfortunately, in the humidity of the greenhouse, their squash plants had gotten sick (powdery mildew). So I picked a few assorted leggy squash babies, and the lady actually gave a couple of them to me for free because she said they weren't going to make it anyway. Thinking back on it, I wished I would have offered to take them all off her hands at that point. I didn't expect much since it was late in the season, but I planted them at the far end of the in-ground garden after I took off almost all of the leaves (all that were affected with powdery mildew). Of the five I planted, only one didn't survive (the spaghetti squash), which is pretty amazing considering how they started. Anyway, the blue hubbard plant produced a single squash, and it was so much fun to watch it grow and then turn from green to blue. Unfortunately, it ended up getting a soft spot before I could use it, and rather than throwing it in the trash, I set it outside over winter where it promptly froze. Today I noticed the sad husk of the squash, still languishing on the top step. The inner flesh rotting in on itself while the hard outer shell remained in the original shape, except for the spot it had gone soft, giving it a strange cave like look. I figured I'd save some seeds from it, so I tore it apart and took the seeds out. I'll finish rinsing them tonight. I thought, why not plant some... So I went and got three of the plastic buckets we've used in years prior. Their dirt had composted down to halfway, so I added a shovel full of rabbit manure to each, before filling each bucket to the top with the soil that came out of the potato towers last year (that was 75-90% manure last year that had composted down). In each bucket I added three fresh seeds. I wish them the best of luck. Technically these will be the first seeds we've planted in soil this year (not counting winter sown or the lettuce seeds we just tossed out). Because they're in buckets, hopefully we will be able to bring them with if/when we move. If last year the single plant gave us a single squash, I figure three seeds to a bucket should give better odds of 1-2 plants coming up, and then we should have 3-6 (with up to 9 possible) squash plants, producing the same number of squash. This year we will process them. Probably into puree for future additions to soups or stews, or to make pumpkin pie or something. If anyone has any really amazing recipes for fresh squash and pumpkins, I would love to hear from you! In the meantime, I plan to can or freeze puree for use throughout the year while we wait for the next crop to grow the following year.
Our little apple seedling is adorable. It already has two true leaves and it's growing quickly. I hope it doesn't outgrow the little plant stand and light before it's warm enough to go outside. This morning we got an email from our real estate lady. The sellers want to counter a few things, but their agent didn't specify any further. We should know more tomorrow. I'm not sure what that means, since I'm pretty sure we didn't make any demands. I mean, outside of the normal "contingent on financing" and "contingent on successful inspection" that I believe are actually required by law when dealing with a bank to get a loan to buy a house... So now I don't know what to expect. What's new right? I feel pretty lost in this whole home buying experience. I'm hoping it's something simple like don't dig up this one spot where our beloved pet is buried, or promise not to cut down the black walnut trees, but life is rarely that easy. I guess we wait for tomorrow to see what their terms are.
Last year I bought a few sad, sickly little plants from the local nursery in July. It was late in the season (7/19) and they were clearancing all their annuals. Unfortunately, in the humidity of the greenhouse, their squash plants had gotten sick (powdery mildew). So I picked a few assorted leggy squash babies, and the lady actually gave a couple of them to me for free because she said they weren't going to make it anyway. Thinking back on it, I wished I would have offered to take them all off her hands at that point. I didn't expect much since it was late in the season, but I planted them at the far end of the in-ground garden after I took off almost all of the leaves (all that were affected with powdery mildew). Of the five I planted, only one didn't survive (the spaghetti squash), which is pretty amazing considering how they started. Anyway, the blue hubbard plant produced a single squash, and it was so much fun to watch it grow and then turn from green to blue. Unfortunately, it ended up getting a soft spot before I could use it, and rather than throwing it in the trash, I set it outside over winter where it promptly froze. Today I noticed the sad husk of the squash, still languishing on the top step. The inner flesh rotting in on itself while the hard outer shell remained in the original shape, except for the spot it had gone soft, giving it a strange cave like look. I figured I'd save some seeds from it, so I tore it apart and took the seeds out. I'll finish rinsing them tonight. I thought, why not plant some... So I went and got three of the plastic buckets we've used in years prior. Their dirt had composted down to halfway, so I added a shovel full of rabbit manure to each, before filling each bucket to the top with the soil that came out of the potato towers last year (that was 75-90% manure last year that had composted down). In each bucket I added three fresh seeds. I wish them the best of luck. Technically these will be the first seeds we've planted in soil this year (not counting winter sown or the lettuce seeds we just tossed out). Because they're in buckets, hopefully we will be able to bring them with if/when we move. If last year the single plant gave us a single squash, I figure three seeds to a bucket should give better odds of 1-2 plants coming up, and then we should have 3-6 (with up to 9 possible) squash plants, producing the same number of squash. This year we will process them. Probably into puree for future additions to soups or stews, or to make pumpkin pie or something. If anyone has any really amazing recipes for fresh squash and pumpkins, I would love to hear from you! In the meantime, I plan to can or freeze puree for use throughout the year while we wait for the next crop to grow the following year. Comments are closed.
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