tel: 512-280-1192 Friday, March 16, 2012
Nursery Notes: new shipment of cucumber, eggplant, okra,
squash, and zucchini. 6-packs $3.29. Gorgeous 5 gal. Chinese
ground orchids, a shade-loving perennial that blooms early spring:
$29.99. We continue to have plenty of tomatoes and peppers, and
lots of beautiful plants for your garden. Please stop by for a visit.
SXSW COOKING DEMO this Sunday at 2 p.m. from the chefs
at the Cool Mint Cafe (San Marcos) with a focus on cooking with
fresh peppers and herbs. Free. Please join us! [Coming next Sun:
'Intro to Creating a Water-Wise Landscape’ with Caroline Foley.]
Thanks to Amanda Moon for her very interesting lecture last
Sun. on birds, butterflies, bees and bats. (Handout attached.)
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Breaking the Garden Language Code: 15,000 definitions from
the National Gardeners Associaion covering all the fruits, herbs,
vegetables, botanical terms, pests, diseases, pesticides, fertilizers,
soils, tools, materials, and techniques. gardeners dictionary
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Central Texas Gardener (KLRU-TV): This week the CTG team
joins gardeners from around the world for May Dreams’ Garden
Bloom Day. Sat. noon or 4 p.m. or Sun: 9 a.m. www.klru.org/ctg/
A Guide to Growing Squash
by Chris Winslow
One of my favorite vegetable plants to both grow and eat, is squash.
This is a warm season crop (spring, summer, and fall) that comes in
a multitude of colors and shapes. The two main groups are summer
quash and winter squash (pictured above).
Summer squash is generally planted after the last frost of spring.
The Texas A&M gardening calendar suggests planting from now
through the first week of May.
For a fall crop, squash can be replanted from the second week of
July until the first week of September. Summer squash is harvested
young, while the fruit is still tender and the seeds inside are im-
mature. If you allow the fruit to mature and harden, it becomes
almost inedible.
Recommended yellow summer squash varieties for our Central
Texas region are Dixie, Early Prolific, Early Summer, and Multipic.
Some good zucchini varieties: Aristocrat, President, Zuccini green
and Zuccini grey.
Winter squash can be planted from mid-March to May and again
from the second half of June until August 1.Winter squash differs
from their summer cousins because you have to allow them to grow
to full size and become hard and dense. Winter squash has a longer
crop time.
Both winter and summer squash should be harvested before the first
frost or freeze of the fall. Like all vegetables, squash needs a sunny,
well-drained location to thrive. Working lots of organic matter such
as compost with a balanced slow release organic fertilizer into the
squash bed will insure success.
We mix blood meal, bone meal, and cottonseed meal into the bed at
planting time. Remember, squash is a vine and can take up a lot of
room. It only takes a few plants to feed a large family.
Plant your squash in hills that are 3 to 4 feet apart. Three to four
seedlings per hill will make a good showing. Pests to look out for
are squash bugs and squash vine borers. The borers are particularly
devastating: they bore through the stem of the plant and it then
wilts and dies. Organic Spinosad and B.T. sprays are effective on
these borers when used on a weekly basis.
Unfortunately squash is also susceptible to a leaf disease called
powdery mildew. This leaf disease is mostly cured by careful
watering. Wet leaves at night will certainly bring on mildew.
Water early and allow the leaves to dry before nightfall. If the
problem persists, a spray of Serenade organic fungicide will help
to slow the spread of this disease.
Good luck, and happy squash gardening!
Visit the website: www.itsaboutthyme.com 