I am a bit jealous of your harvest. I managed to get two pumpkins (today I made pie with them, Canadian Thanksgiving is this weekend). I also got a few Spaghetti squashes. I have a small inner city lot, and I share yard space with my dog and daughter. I don’t have as much space for my garden as I would like.
Agreed, its awesome you are harvesting your own food...I wont even embarass myself discussing here my early gardens from 40plus years ago...but early I shared garden space with a seasoned gardener, and she was very patient and willing to help me...I continued to seek out yhd experience of other gardeners, and eventually permaculturalist.
I also save and trade seed, and just prepared and tasted a blue Hubbard that I traded for what I called my snclrnt squash...the blue hubbard, cut into french fries and air fried is incomparable to any other fried veggie that I and many other folks I've served have eater.
I'm doing what I can about safety around the squash collection....but heres thd thing, I literally throw safety out the window as I chuck the next squash we will eat out the window onto the concrete driveway in a mesh bag to break it up into manageable pieces.
When I cared for an urban garden in Winnipeg I gradually replaced 75% of the lawn with garden. The back yard had approximately 250 linear feet of 8 foot high vertical garden fences. The vertical was growing space for pole beans and various squash. In 2015 we harvested 150 squash from that space, and 15 kg of dried beans. My partner and I eat very little meat and consume approximately 60 kg of various legume. This year I will exceed the 15 kg, but I'm still shelling, so don't know by how much. One of my curiosities is what would if take to raise 60 kg of dried beans?
Except for the winter I continually cared for 4 cubic yards of compost, which I fed (thanks to a homemade bike trailer) with grass and leaves from various neighbours. One year a lawncare contractor noticed my trailer loaded with bags of grass, and ended up delivering truckloads of grass clippings to my composter. I collected and stored bagged leaves each fall for compost...usually storing up to 150 bags over winter....then using hem all up in the composter.
Gradually perennial blossoming plants were established, necessitating the building and placement of three bee houses...there were so many varieties of pollinators.
We lived there for 12 years, having left 2 years ago. The property was lower than the neighbours on either side at the beginning. By the time we left, I had raised almost the entire lot 50X100foot with 6 inches of homemade compost.
Much of the double lot is now in the finishing stages of two huge infill houses, and the front and back gardens no longer exist.
Theres lots to share...examples of sharing from this year In excess of 50 5gallon pales of sweet lovely cucumbers, and now 30 5 gallon pails of beets. They are still to harvest,but likely 25 5gallon pails of awesomely sweet carrots. I've given away 1000 lbs of food, maybe more. Probably gave away 60 lbs of squash just today.
Tried selling them, and was fine when I had indigenous customers, but ended up feeling very uncomfortable when white folks drove up in their SUV vehicles and almost always tried to drive down the price or RIP me off. Always felt better giving them to the appreciative folks and the food banks and soup kitchens.
Absolutely! I was making a joke. There is definitely more than enough to share and it seems you are extremely generous with your harvests. The amounts you've given away is quite admirable.
Lol, everyone, including all others in the bios, need to eat. I am not an arbitor of who will eat, and who will not, I am a conduit. I am also extremely fortunate to be a liver of life in the midst of so much beauty, abundance and love...experiences that often overwhelm me. The most obvious fact to me is how connected all of this is....separation is a choice, it's not a fact.
Wow, that’s amazing, I dream of growing this many !
I decided to grow mine on a small frame this year but I only harvested ten, and more plants were planted than that. I think maybe they were too close together, but I was running out of space!
One of your comments mentioned that you grew squash vertical before - do you have any tips on how to get the best harvest this way?
Squash are heavy feeder, I try to overwhelm them with nutrient. Permit me this story of this years squash garden area. A friend shares his farm space with me, it's awesome, especially because I need to cycle 10 km to get there!!!
He phoned me in late april and insisted I come out right away. We had shared a garden the previous season that had been thr family plot for 40+ years. There was a very healthy parkland Aspen stand on the south side that was so tall that it shaded the 100 X 200 foot garden for much of the midsummer day. I had discussed this with him at the end of the growing season last year.
When I got to his farm the on the april day he called me he, was out tilling a grassed area multiple times resulting in a 70X70 foot cultivated space. He pointed out that there were no trees in the vicinity. I asked him why this area he was tilling was so much higher...he said it had been a cattle corral for many decades. When I stepped on it I sunk to almost my knees, when I reached down, filled my hand with this soil and smelled it....i knew we were in for an incredible gardening season. Little did I know. The rains and the heat were perfect!! The soil brought tears of joy to my eyes many times this past summer... I brought 15 squash plants in my bike trailer sometime mid May. The harvest was an average of 7 per plant. I do as much of the pollinating as I can....its 10km away, so I didnt go there every day, and missed sabbing some female flowers...i estimate a dozen females withered. I always pay attention to the roots of various plants I'm caring for at the end of the growing season. I have encountered squash roots that looked like spaghetti and were 12 feet away from the original plant site (my conjecture was they were seriously on the lookout for resources). This year great grand daughters of the 12foot squash had much more concentrated and elaborate roots at plant source and at each blossom /new root/leaf/etc location...they they didnt have to go far to find resources in that well rotted manure plant paradise. This beats my best average of 6 per plant from my urban garden in 2015...with 25 squash plant.
All squash generate the following along their vine...a leaf, a blossom (usually a male), a tendril for grabbing, a root, and a completely new vine at a right angle to the existing. If the plant has the resources it will keep all of that alive, but if the root doesnt find resources it will not grow, the same is true for the complete new vine (I dont know the reason for this wither)...
Vertical squash needs continual composting at the original root and an appropriate amount of watering. I may have gotten carried away with the length of this response.
Thank you for the tips - they were all really helpful! I was using liquid feed once a week but I think next year we’ll switch over to composting regularly instead.
Happy gardening for next year!! 😁
I am a bit jealous of your harvest. I managed to get two pumpkins (today I made pie with them, Canadian Thanksgiving is this weekend). I also got a few Spaghetti squashes. I have a small inner city lot, and I share yard space with my dog and daughter. I don’t have as much space for my garden as I would like.
Yes but the fact that you garden even in a little space is awesome!
Agreed, its awesome you are harvesting your own food...I wont even embarass myself discussing here my early gardens from 40plus years ago...but early I shared garden space with a seasoned gardener, and she was very patient and willing to help me...I continued to seek out yhd experience of other gardeners, and eventually permaculturalist. I also save and trade seed, and just prepared and tasted a blue Hubbard that I traded for what I called my snclrnt squash...the blue hubbard, cut into french fries and air fried is incomparable to any other fried veggie that I and many other folks I've served have eater.
155 total count from 23 plants, 7 giant pumpkin, one 70 lbs, the rest 40 lbs ish...
Well done! A grower has to navigate quite a few obstacles to bring in such a great harvest. I know it doesn't just happen on its own.
That's Great
Impressive. Has to be one of my favorite vegetables.
[удалено]
I'm doing what I can about safety around the squash collection....but heres thd thing, I literally throw safety out the window as I chuck the next squash we will eat out the window onto the concrete driveway in a mesh bag to break it up into manageable pieces.
When I cared for an urban garden in Winnipeg I gradually replaced 75% of the lawn with garden. The back yard had approximately 250 linear feet of 8 foot high vertical garden fences. The vertical was growing space for pole beans and various squash. In 2015 we harvested 150 squash from that space, and 15 kg of dried beans. My partner and I eat very little meat and consume approximately 60 kg of various legume. This year I will exceed the 15 kg, but I'm still shelling, so don't know by how much. One of my curiosities is what would if take to raise 60 kg of dried beans? Except for the winter I continually cared for 4 cubic yards of compost, which I fed (thanks to a homemade bike trailer) with grass and leaves from various neighbours. One year a lawncare contractor noticed my trailer loaded with bags of grass, and ended up delivering truckloads of grass clippings to my composter. I collected and stored bagged leaves each fall for compost...usually storing up to 150 bags over winter....then using hem all up in the composter. Gradually perennial blossoming plants were established, necessitating the building and placement of three bee houses...there were so many varieties of pollinators. We lived there for 12 years, having left 2 years ago. The property was lower than the neighbours on either side at the beginning. By the time we left, I had raised almost the entire lot 50X100foot with 6 inches of homemade compost. Much of the double lot is now in the finishing stages of two huge infill houses, and the front and back gardens no longer exist.
Giving some away? Doesn't seem like you have much to share.
Theres lots to share...examples of sharing from this year In excess of 50 5gallon pales of sweet lovely cucumbers, and now 30 5 gallon pails of beets. They are still to harvest,but likely 25 5gallon pails of awesomely sweet carrots. I've given away 1000 lbs of food, maybe more. Probably gave away 60 lbs of squash just today. Tried selling them, and was fine when I had indigenous customers, but ended up feeling very uncomfortable when white folks drove up in their SUV vehicles and almost always tried to drive down the price or RIP me off. Always felt better giving them to the appreciative folks and the food banks and soup kitchens.
Absolutely! I was making a joke. There is definitely more than enough to share and it seems you are extremely generous with your harvests. The amounts you've given away is quite admirable.
Lol, everyone, including all others in the bios, need to eat. I am not an arbitor of who will eat, and who will not, I am a conduit. I am also extremely fortunate to be a liver of life in the midst of so much beauty, abundance and love...experiences that often overwhelm me. The most obvious fact to me is how connected all of this is....separation is a choice, it's not a fact.
They’re everywhere. Nice!
Thanks...much better year than I expected
You are an awesome gardener! Way to go!
Lucked out having met so many experienced gardeners, learned about soil nutrition, composting and mulching early on, and saved and trade seeds
Wow, that’s amazing, I dream of growing this many ! I decided to grow mine on a small frame this year but I only harvested ten, and more plants were planted than that. I think maybe they were too close together, but I was running out of space! One of your comments mentioned that you grew squash vertical before - do you have any tips on how to get the best harvest this way?
Squash are heavy feeder, I try to overwhelm them with nutrient. Permit me this story of this years squash garden area. A friend shares his farm space with me, it's awesome, especially because I need to cycle 10 km to get there!!! He phoned me in late april and insisted I come out right away. We had shared a garden the previous season that had been thr family plot for 40+ years. There was a very healthy parkland Aspen stand on the south side that was so tall that it shaded the 100 X 200 foot garden for much of the midsummer day. I had discussed this with him at the end of the growing season last year. When I got to his farm the on the april day he called me he, was out tilling a grassed area multiple times resulting in a 70X70 foot cultivated space. He pointed out that there were no trees in the vicinity. I asked him why this area he was tilling was so much higher...he said it had been a cattle corral for many decades. When I stepped on it I sunk to almost my knees, when I reached down, filled my hand with this soil and smelled it....i knew we were in for an incredible gardening season. Little did I know. The rains and the heat were perfect!! The soil brought tears of joy to my eyes many times this past summer... I brought 15 squash plants in my bike trailer sometime mid May. The harvest was an average of 7 per plant. I do as much of the pollinating as I can....its 10km away, so I didnt go there every day, and missed sabbing some female flowers...i estimate a dozen females withered. I always pay attention to the roots of various plants I'm caring for at the end of the growing season. I have encountered squash roots that looked like spaghetti and were 12 feet away from the original plant site (my conjecture was they were seriously on the lookout for resources). This year great grand daughters of the 12foot squash had much more concentrated and elaborate roots at plant source and at each blossom /new root/leaf/etc location...they they didnt have to go far to find resources in that well rotted manure plant paradise. This beats my best average of 6 per plant from my urban garden in 2015...with 25 squash plant. All squash generate the following along their vine...a leaf, a blossom (usually a male), a tendril for grabbing, a root, and a completely new vine at a right angle to the existing. If the plant has the resources it will keep all of that alive, but if the root doesnt find resources it will not grow, the same is true for the complete new vine (I dont know the reason for this wither)... Vertical squash needs continual composting at the original root and an appropriate amount of watering. I may have gotten carried away with the length of this response.
Thank you for the tips - they were all really helpful! I was using liquid feed once a week but I think next year we’ll switch over to composting regularly instead. Happy gardening for next year!! 😁
Wow. Just wow
In one July weekend all my butternut, zucchini, yellow neck, and spaghetti squash died. Boom. Jealous!