Planting pumpkins
I just want to plant pie pumpkins but do not want them spreading all over my garden. Because of being gone most of the summer my garden is not as huge as I would like but pretty low maintenance. How am I going to put in pumpkins and squash with out covering what is left of the garden area?
Nancy Foster
Dallas City, Illinois
Plant bush varieties. The old heirloom Cheyenne bush pumpkin is a great addition to smaller gardens that really tastes great and won’t take up a lot of valuable garden space. And, likewise, there are a lot of bush squash varieties, too, including both summer and winter varieties. I grow Gold Bar summer squash because it tastes so good and I have plenty of garden room! There are also bush forms of many winter squash, including hubbard, acorn and butternut, too. See? You CAN have it all! — Jackie
Molting chickens
I love following your blog and reading your column in BHM. I have another question for you. We raised chicks from eggs this April, keeping three hens for laying; 2 Cuckoo Marans and 1 Americana. We started getting eggs from one of our C.M.s this August, nearly one everyday, and an occasional from the other C.M. Nothing from our Americana. We have had our friend that raises Americanas check her several times to be sure she is not a he and he is sure that she is not because she has no spurs, no crowing, and hen tail feathers. We are not getting any eggs at all now, for about 3 weeks. We have a large pen, with an accommodating coop having 2 nest boxes each 12×12 inches and a roost. There is plenty of food and water each day and we are using a layer feed. They get loads of kitchen scraps left from our canning and all the bad tomatoes from the garden that have split too much. Our friend thinks they might be too fat to lay, though I doubt it as they run, play, and flap as though they are fine. Have you heard of such a thing? They are also dropping a lot of feathers right now. I assume they are molting but I am concerned as night temperatures are beginning to dip down into the 30’s starting tonight. Should I worry? What in the world is going on with my girls?
Jessica
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Your chickens are just molting. That’s totally normal for this time of year and soon they’ll be re-feathered and beginning to lay again. Just feed and water as normal and relax and wait for those first eggs. The Americana probably just matured at a later date and will also begin to lay after molting. — Jackie
You can grow pumpkins up a trellis, provided that the trellis is strong enough. Some of the heavier varieties might need “pumpkin bras” to keep them from dropping off the stem before ripe, but others will hang from the stem just fine.
Nancy, you could also try a smaller vine, smaller size winter squash and grow them up a wire panel, either vertical or at an angle supported by 1x2s. Baker Creek sells an 1863 heirloom pumpkin called New England Sugar Pie that has 2 to 5 pound pumpkins with a very strong stem. In a terrible growing year, I got 4-6 pumpkins per vine. I just ate my first one, baked, and it was as described on the seed packet, very find grained flesh (like a banana squash), not at all stringy, and very sweet. Another small vine small winter squash variety is Uncle David’s Dakota Dessert squash. This is a 30 year old variety. The squash are 3 to 5 pounds each and also have a strong stem. It looks like a small Buttercup, but does not have the large seed cavity of the regular Buttercup so you get more food from each squash. I baked one and as the seed packet says, it is the sweetest squash I’ve ever eaten, a very intense flavor.
Comments are closed.