Gardening

[veejer]

I was going to transplant my tomato seedlings this weekend, but the lows are supposed to be in the mid-30s and I didn't want to risk it, or go to the trouble of covering them in the garden. Hopefully later this week.......

[canuckinchile]

A wind storm took down part of a 60 foot Maple out front. The tree belongs to the city, so they'll be here today or tomorrow to clean it up. Unfortunately, it has squashed the garden at the front of my house Luckily it missed the roof, and cars, which was a miracle. The main thing is that no one was hurt. When the big chunk came down, it took out part of the neighbour's city tree as well. I have a little ornamental tree in the front that I fear may not have survived the crash.

[inthegarden]

The little squash I was talking about on the last post are now about to give me my first 'mess' of the years, and I have dozens of pea sized tomatoes--and one the size of a golf ball on the tomatoes I put out early. My broccoli should be ready next week; I was afrain it would get too hot for it, but no. I had to cover the plants at night a couple of times at night, but I will be doing this again next year. Everything I planted a bit later is growing fast, but isn't big enough to talk about yet. Inthegarden, a yellow squash has absolutely no chance of getting big enough for the seeds to be a problem in my yard . They just taste too good when they are little!

Our squash, don't have big seeds either
Won't be long and you can have fried green tomatoes. yummmm

The flood washed out our garden, but we've replanted. We will have to wait a little longer for fresh veggies, but it will be worth it. Our tomatoes made it, water logged, but have dried out now and, whisper ... I can't believe I'm saying this but we need a little rain (not 12 inches) just a nice garden rain.

[coltnlasma]

We just replanted, too. As a newbie gardener I was a little worried about being late, but now I feel in good company.

[Critical]

I just got my first veggies and herbs of the season! I am nearly flat broke and all I had was a Home Depot gift card for $25 and another one with maybe 40 cents on it. My total was $25.13! I was pretty impressed with my math!

I ended up with Romas and some yellow cherry tomatoes (for salads), Rosemary, sage and pineapple sage, tarragon and some crookneck squash. I also bought a big Basil plant the other day. I'll get them all planted in the morning.

I'm a little annoyed that someone seems to have made off with one of my large containers, which if what the cherry tomatoes were going to be in. Luckily, it wasn't too expensive and I do have another container that should work. Still, I''m annoyed. It was sitting on the side of my house and, unfortunately, anyone and everyone had access. I'll be able to buy another one probably next week, but it drives me crazy to have to buy something I already had.

In a few weeks, I'll pick up at least one more variety of tomato and maybe some more squash. Home Depot has some really nice herb gardens for about $10 - I'll probably end up with one of those too. I love summer! (<---- in a few months, when it's hotter than the hinges in Hades, I'll have to come back and look at that sentence to remind myself! )

[queenb]

I HATE summer; the veggies are one of the few things I DO like about it. Critical, to save money on the squash, just buy the sees; they get as big as the plants they sell in less than a week; it's only been the past few years I recall even seeing the plants and are so easy to grow that I would never buy one started plant for more than the price of a pack of seeds.
I've gotten a couple of meal's worth of squash already and cut some broccoli today--I stir fried the two together with just a little Pam and they were yummy!

[hepcat]

Yes, squash comes up very easily from seeds like beans do. I had some extras come up I had to take out, I wish I could have passed them along to you! You might keep your eyes open on Freecycle because I see planters get offered now and then.

The only thing I'm harvesting so far is lettuce but I've been getting enough for 3 every night, much better than last year. I don't have any dirt for planting but I got my husband to build me a raised planter this year with some extra wood he had around, and everything is really thriving in it. My tomatoes and peppers are all in the flowering stage - now I need bees!

[Critical]

So what kind of planter should I do the squash in? I have several options as far as planters go. I did buy a plant, but it was only 98 cents, so it wasn't a big deal.

[queenb]

Whatever you have the tomatoes in will do for squash--if you don't know already, squash plants do get big and take up some room!. Mine is in a really big plastic planter. Actually, I'm so happy with my container squash (the usual squash bugs and vine borers don't seem to know it's 'up there') that I bought several of those big laundry tubs with the plastic rope handles and drilled drainage holes in the bottom, for the rest of my squash.

[inthegarden]

So what kind of planter should I do the squash in? I have several options as far as planters go. I did buy a plant, but it was only 98 cents, so it wasn't a big deal.

I would use a large round planter to help support the stems and squash, no shallower than 12", and make sure it has holes in the bottom for good drainage.
Look around for other cheaper not traditional things that could be used for a planter, small hard plastic kiddie swimming pool, etc.
Ask a local nursery/garden center that also does landscaping, if they have any empty 5 or 7 gallon plastic containers (that plant materials come in) that you could puchase. Most of the time they will just give them to you. We used to have tons of them, and were glad to give them to people that asked for them.