New to the group and gardening

[lizziegrace]

I live on 3 1/2 acres in a rural part of Central Ohio. I've had perennial and annual beds for years, but this year is my first time with a vegetable garden since my 4H days.

The house I'm lucky to live in was built on 1846. Between the chemicals on the surrounding farm fields and the fact that whatever couldn't be burned was probably buried on the property, I went with raised beds using the "Lasagna Garden" book as a guide.

I was very sick for a month at the beginning of the season and was very late getting everything planted since the beds had to be created.

So, now that I've bored you with the background, my question: I planted 2 kinds of squash seeds. Neither has sprouted. I have a 5' x 6' bed with nothing growing. Any suggestions? I was REALLY looking forward to squash...

Thanks!

[hippywife]

1. Hi there, sweetpea.

I got your email and now here you are. LOL I understand your decision. There's lots of good info to be had in the small forums and lots of help.

Anywhoooo, with regard to your little empty space, our squash has nearly totally succumbed to squash beetles. We put some coffee grounds around the surviving plants to see if that will help but I'm not sure if it will or not. You might want to look at what seeds you have and see what's there that will grow and bear quickly in the mid-summer heat. I'm at work right now and having Monday morning brain freeze or I would think of something. I'm pretty sure you can still plant turnips or beets or carrots or onions now. Or keep feeding the area and when it cools off a little plant spinach, lettuce, broccoli, potatoes, or any cool weather plant. Or better yet, in the fall, plant garlic! Yum! Ours did great this year.

Glad to have you here. sweetie. :hug:

[lizziegrace]

2. I may just put in a few more rows of green beans.

I'm really disappointed that none of the squash germinated. :-/

So good to see you again. :pals:

[hippywife]

3. I've found that beans and peas

don't do well in the full heat of the summer. Maybe that's just here in this intensive OK sun. I dunno.

I really think you should go with the garlic in the fall. It's about the easiest durn thing to grow.

[Blue Gardener]

5. Thinking of planting garlic myself

If I can find a little space for it. I don't like that much of the garlic in the grocery store now comes from China.

[kfred]

4. Garlic is a great idea!

such that I just ordered some. I'm going to experiment right off - container and typical ground, just out of curiosity. I checked and MN Extension has quite a bit of info on it. Mulching over the winter is the main thing (I don't expect the few in the container to make it, but who knows. They'll be on a sunny, warmth conducting deck, and the others'll get mulched and still be sunny (providing we get some sun) on the southside. It's worth a shot!

I also ordered some peapods and spinach. No one seems to have any seeds locally. September they'll have older seeds, and I'd rather try them fresh this year.

Asparagus will be the fallish order. I have the perfect spot for it and even though it takes some time for a real crop, we do love it and we'll be here a while.

If anyone runs into chlorosis on trees like we did, the most cost effective method of treating it is using a Ross root feeder, they have special iron boosting spikes that go into the feeder. I actually tried a professional on my pin oaks and it didn't do a darn thing for the money. I can spend an hour per tree of feeding (stick the feeder into the ground and let the hose feed into it down to about 12"s). It's worth the shot to save 20 year old pin oaks. To replace them it's $175 for the largest plus labor ($300 total) and a backhoe and labor to remove the one that's a goner - that'll be $400. I hve to at least TRY to save them.

Tomatoes are shaping up, green and growing nicely shaped. No hint of disease.

[lizziegrace]

8. Sounds good!

I've got spinach in containers on the covered porch. They get sun in the morning and don't bake in the afternoon sun. So far it's been spinach nearly ever night. :-)

[beac]

11. I'm jealous. I bought a special kind of spinach that was supposed to do well in warmer months and

tried growing it in a container in much the same circumstances (porch/am sun), but had a MISERABLE germination rate and the ones that did start growing are still tiny and spindly and pathetic. :( In happier news, my Swiss Chard is growing beautifully. I'm thinking of planting even more of it b/c I'm liking the tender baby leaves so much in salads that it's hard to leave it alone to grow into actual stalks.

[NEOhiodemocrat]

6. I know what you mean

I live on 6 acres in NW Ohio...house built in 1830's. You would not believe the things I dig up in the garden! Lots of old broken crockery and metal animal thingies. Anyway, last year I had to replant my squash plants three times before I got them going. This year I planted them twice and then decided to forget it as thought it was too late. To my delight, low and behold, there are butternut squash plants growing out of three sides of my compose bin! Am I lucky or what? No acorn squash volunters though. I had some trouble getting my peas to go this year, so just put in more potatoes, figured you can always use more potatoes. And I am picking and using the early ones from March already, so these latter ones will be for storage. Oh, I am trying garlic for the first time this year also. Good luck with your garden. Enjoy!

[lizziegrace]

7. It's nice to hear from a fellow Ohioan

:)

I think next year I'll either have to start seeds inside or buy plants. I had at least 6 hills and nothing.

I know this is a ridiculous question, but how do you grow potatoes? Do you have to buy starts for them? (I know, I'm a product of the suburbs...)

:hi:

[Blue Gardener]

10. I threw old potatoes in my neglected compost bin

And I now have a very nice potato plant growing. Maybe it pays to procrastinate and never get around to turning the compost.

[hippywife]

12. Growing potatoes.

Get some nice organic potatoes of a variety that you like. I buy a small bag of small organic red creamers at Whole Foods. Let them sprout eyes and then cut them in pieces, each piece having an eye or two, and bury them (you can let them dry out a little if you like first), covering with only about an inch or so of dirt. As they sprout leaves, keep burying them with just enough to cover. Some people do this in large containers with holes drilled in them for drainage.

[lizziegrace]

14. You're great!

Thank you. I thought it had to be simple and it is. We typically eat red potatoes here, so your suggestion is perfect. I'll give it a go.

:-)

[hippywife]

16. You are very welcome, sweetie.

I'm having fun watching you have fun! ;)

[clear eye]

15. The warmth from the decomposing compost probably helped

Squash likes warm ground.

Which reminds me. Has anyone w/ a fairly short growing season tried a hotbed?

[InkAddict]

9. Good luck w/your new garden

lizziegrace, fellow central Ohioan.

My little apartment patio-sized Victory Garden has worked out pretty well this year. Unfortunately, my zukes got the PW (powdery mildew) and I didn't recognize the problem until it was too late...so only got about 5 zukes out of the few plants, which are now history...oh well. However, I got lots of sweet cherry tomatoes, Romas, and Big Boys. Red cabbages are coming along now too I borrowed my neighbor's patio bed and am sharing the harvest. We exhausted the lettuce in many salads by the end of June, and I got a quart bag of peas blanched and frozen (not as many as I'd have liked) as well as a few bags of broccholi and cauliflower put in the freezer from an early planting from transplants purchased early April.

I'm thinking that since September has been warm in past years, if I get the green beans sowed where the early veggies grew, I'll get some before it frosts.

Look on the Internet for information about sowing crops for fall harvesting. You've still got time.

[lizziegrace]

13. Nice to meet you!

I appreciate your advice and your experience.

I'm on my second round of lettuce and spinach since the containers are shaded part of the day and we've had such a mild summer so far.

I started squash indoors as the days to harvest is still sooner than our first fall cold.

My green beans and peas are doing great (second sowing) and I'll have more tomatoes than I can possibly eat or put up.

:hi: