So far my July has been hot and dry-and the garden isn’t really enjoying the weather. We’ve been watering the garden at our house-but the big one we share with Pap and Granny is harder to water-and it desperately needs rain.
We’ve been getting squash, green beans, cucumbers, onions, cabbage, beets, zucchini, peppers, and a few tomatoes from the garden. This is my favorite time of the year to eat.
With the help of these 2-I’ve made 3 runs of Blackberry jelly-and been eaten alive by chiggers along the way.
I’ve gotten a few updates from the Squash Test Participants:
On 6-24 Martina noted: I planted the seeds on the 18th and 19th of May. Two of the bad day ones came up, one of the good day. I’m not holding much hope for success. So far the plants have three dinky leaves and are about 1 in. tall. The tomato plants are just starting to bloom so I think that your growing season starts much sooner than around here.
B. Ruth: I did want to report on the Squash seed plants…..Roy my husband said that the seeds he planted on the good days were (plants) about three times bigger than the seeds (plants) planted on the bad days…..even though the seeds on the good day were planted later than the bad day seeds…..I wasn’t here but he planted them for me and marked the seeds….They are just now getting ready to set fruit so it will be interesting to see the size of the good day plants.
You can go here to see Twisted Fencepost’s first report. And you can go here to see Reddirt Woman’s latest Squash Report.
David Templeton: I’m sure a scientist could think of all kinds of questions to ask to try and assure that the study is being done using the “scientific method” but I have made sure that all conditions have been controlled and each hill of plantings has received the same treatment. The hill on the left is the “Bad” day planting, the one on the right planted the day before on a “Good” day.
Good” came up on schedule, “Bad” was slow to germinate and showed up about a week after the “Good”
The planting was during the last set of “sign” days in May.
In this case, so far, the “Bad” (on the left) is visibly bigger; taller, with larger leaves. Both hills have buds forming and will bloom in just a few days.
I’ll get many squash from each hill and I will try to compare yields (number of pounds per plant, or something).Mainly, I like yellow crookneck squash and that will be the bonus of the fun test.
This was my attempt to show you my ‘bad day’ squash-but my garden has turned into such a jungle-it’s hard to get an individual picture of each of the test plants. So far my ‘good day’ seem to be doing better than the ‘bad’. The ‘good day’ squash were bigger from the beginning and sprouted faster-2 of my ‘bad day’ did not even come up. I’ve gotten a few squash from my ‘good day’-but none from the ‘bad day’-although the ‘bad day’ is setting squash.
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Remember my volunteer Squash plant? Well it was a disappointment-it grew some rock hard small blobs then promptly died. But I found something even better volunteering for me-a watermelon! Last year, Hubert (a past Mountain Folk interviewee) gave me several watermelon seeds-they all came up-but not one made a watermelon-or so I don’t think they did. Anyway-I noticed this one when it was just tiny-now it seems to grow bigger over night. I’m not sure if it came from one of Hubert’s or not. He says if it’s yellow inside-I’ll know it was his. Gardening is funny-last year I tried so hard to grow a watermelon and made a total failure at it-this year I made no effort what so ever-and I’ve got a dandy one growing in my garden.
If any of you are taking part in the Squash Test-please leave a comment and update everyone about how yours are growing.
Tipper
transplanted – not translated!
Our season is so short that we cheat and buy seedlings. I wonder if it would make a difference when we translated them? It’s interesting to see the results that several of you are getting.
Love this, and got caught up- loved the top two posts, and I am tweeting you!
I went to the local farm and picked my blackberries, blues, and squash blossoms for a salad- picked up lamb, pork ‘country’ ribs and other goodies!
I love your watermelon incident! Totally how things usually go for most of us – eh? It was fun reading about the different “results” of good and bad day plantings. I completely lost all control of my good day/bad day business, I was eventually glad to just get a day to plant! Maybe next year eh? I should look and see what day it is today.. but since I am late again with getting some of my fall and winter stuff going I’ll still seed flats today no matter what, but I might save a seed or two back for “testing” the theory here with the cabbage family.
Tipper, although the hill of squash planted “bad” is larger than the “good” there are some other indicators. The “good” came up from seed much sooner than the “bad”. The “good” bloomed much sooner and began to set fruit sooner. I have had squash on the “good” for nearly two weeks while the bad is just now beginning to set fruit. Further, the “good” hill only consists of two plants while the “bad” has four plants, yet the “good” hill has many, many, many squash while the “bad” only has a very few fruit.
Clearly, the “good” hill has been more productive.
Tipper: We have had a funny year for the garden. The late spring was to wet and the early Summer was too dry. We are finally getting some rain this week.
Hey Tipper,
I must have hit preview and then didn’t hit post…
Oh well,
I wanted to tell you that our good day squash had some fruit but it was ordinary in color and size…the bad day bloomed but dropped some fruit but may produce later….
The drought has been hard on our garden….we had some light rain yesterday….
Due to the illness of my Mother and traveling we were not able to care for any of our garden like we usually do…weeding, hoeing and carrying water if necessary…
to the back forty (I wish)….
I want to thank you for all your time, stamps, etc. as well as the company that provided the seeds…
The squash we had sure made a good baked casserole….
Maybe next year we can do it again when we can do a better job of taking care of them and posting the results better…
Thanks again for a fun project and of course just based on these squash seeds we planted…we are convinced that planting by the signs works for us…
I love the way you live life.
planting by the signs.that would be when my neighbor plants a row or two more than last year, i can cut back some. he plants the best sweet corn,and the best tarheel beans,that rascal so helps me with my vacation plans. but i think ill help him by giving him your calander. good picken. k.o.h
I’m enjoying hearing about folks’ gardens. We’re getting lots of cukes and squash but the maters are still green, alas!
Despite our lack of rain my garden has blessed me with an over abundance of everything, so I have no complaints.
Wow! I can’t believe how huge Mr. Templeton’s plants are. Am I the only one that has never seen a squash leaf of that size, they look like elephant ears.
I think it’s safe to say at this point that my seeds have been a bust. I had been looking for them to pop up & when I saw what looked like turnip leaves instead of squash leaves I asked my husband about it. Turns out that he didn’t know that I planted the squash in that particular spot & he rototilled & planted turnips there. I kept hoping that I would see a plant or two pop up but nothing. I can only assume that the squash had started growing before they were rototilled & were exposed. Maybe I’ll get a volunteer squash next year out of it which is about the best I can hope for at this point. I hope this snafu doesn’t disqualify me from future participation. I am eagar to hear how planting by the signs turns out for everyone else.
Stacey
Blackberry jelly sounds real good. I would think that the heat and dry weather lately are effecting a lot of gardens.
I hope you get some rain soon so it will help all them good veggies you got growing.
Whitetail Woods
This weather certainly doesn’t help those who garden, does it??? We have watered our yard/flowers twice this week–and will have to do it again today IF we don’t get rain… Even our Rhododendron leaves are turning yellow with this heat and drought…. NO FUN..
Good luck with your planting.
Hugs,
Betsy
Tipper,
Although I didn’t participate in
the good day, bad day thing, I did
plant my entire garden by your signs calendar and everything has
just been great. ( including the
“rich weeds” ) Thanks for posting
the monthly calendars. Hope your
watermelon tastes great. Haven’t
had those chiggers in years. Ken
Fresh garden vegetables are the best! The Deer Hunter called me last night to tell me what you all had for supper AND for desert. Fresh Blackberry Cobbler with ice cream….it doesn’t get any better than that!!
The veggies from the garden sounded wonderful as he listed them. Squash cakes/fritters, the Deer Hunter didn’t know what to call them but said they were out of this world. Doesn’t it make you feel good to serve a complete meal from your garden?
I think it’s about time for me to come visit. lol!
My squash plants are growing like mad. So far I’ve received one squash from each (the good and the bad). They have bloomed profusely and I have many small squash growing.
So right at the moment they are running neck in neck to eachother.
I enjoyed seeing the updates on the squash. I planted mine on a ‘good’ day and it’s doing pretty well. They are lemon squash and have about 6 little round squash on them right now. We are in a rainy spell, so we may get to pick them soon.
Up to recently, we’ve been in a very dry spell and some of the plants are burnt from the hot wind.
I’m sure one summer, the weather will be perfect for gardening:)
all these veggies are making me miss my daddy and mama and all those fresh veggies they used to grow and can. i loved summer to and have been known to grab a tomato off and eat like an apple, also the cucumbers same thing, wash them off and eat them slightly warm from the sun. Salt of course. yellow squash is my most favorite veggie. thanks again for stiring up my memories
By the way, your watermelon looks great! I hope it’s bright red inside.
I only wish I knew how to grow plants – I guess it’s kind of difficult when living in a flat. But I know this is not an excuse since some of my friends who live in flats grow mint, basil and other herbs whose names I forget even in Greek!
~ps~ I guess your girls did a great job!