Gardenhacker.com – Page 6 – Tips and Tricks for Busy Gardeners

Day 88 – Patty Pan Push Lasagna Bed Further Ahead

Posted on July 28, 2011 by

admin Posted in disease, Fertilizing, Lasagna Bed, Raised Bed, Soil, Wicking Bed

a beautiful variety of patty pan squash photographed by Mason Masteka

A beautiful variety of patty pan squash. Photo Credit: Mason Masteka - http://www.flickr.com/photos/masonmasteka/

A couple of more pattypan squash have pushed the lasagna bed even further ahead, at almost 2.5 pounds (1.13kg) total yield from this gardening technique. I remember over fourty years ago getting ready for “the coming of the metric system”. Now, thankfully – we’re seeing it replacing the imperial system with popular foods measured in whole metric amounts (2 litres of beverage, 1 litre of cooking oil, etc.), glad I had those lessons, wish I remembered them – but I digress.

Patty pan squash, aka pattypan, cibleme, scallopini, button squash, and others (see wikipedia for details), is similar in texture and flavor to zucchini squash. They are often picked when they are no more than three inches in diameter (76mm). At this stage, the seeds are immature enough tthat they are similar in texture to the rest of the squash and are cooked and eaten with no difficulty.

When grown beyond three inches, the seeds become tougher, the insides start to become stringy between the seeds and some of the center needs to be scooped out and composted (or the seeds saved for next year’s garden, if they are an open pollinated variety). When patty pan squash are about six inches across, the outer husk is often used as a decorative container for either the insides, mixed with flavorings or a stuffing mixture (see http://www.squidoo.com/patty-pan-squash-recipe). Other preparations for patty pan squash include grilling, steaming coating and frying, boiling, pickling and I’m sure I’ve missed a few.

Growing patty pan squash
These are some of the easiest to grow, needing good composted soil, and really enjoy a healthy dose of comfrey: I have one plant in each of two box beds with relatively bland soil. One I put last year’s dried comfrey and grass clippings in, the other I just put grass clippings. They were both about the same size, and now the comfrey enhanced plant has gotten a lot larger, despite being shaded slightly by the blackberry plants that have gotten out of hand.
Simply plant the seeds in rich soil with compost, keep watered and give them room! While they have a “bush habit”, they do grow out and will wander some. They are more of a compact vine than a bush, and can take up a 3 square foot (one meter) area with no trouble at all. As mentioned in day 71, planting cooler weather crops around the periphery, such as lettuce will allow the plants to shade them. I, unfortunately, planted the broccoli next to them, and in one of the beds the broccoli is almost completely shaded out! This may be an advantage later in the season, when the squash die back, allowing the late summer sun to reach the broccoli, creating an extended harvest.
As with all squash, powdery mildew can cut their productivity short. You can slow down and even stop powdery mildew using foliar sprays such as the use of baking soda outlined in http://www.ghorganics.com/page15.html, or milk, as outlined in clean air gardening blog.

Day 85 – Lasagna Bed Takes the Lead

Posted on July 25, 2011 by

APerkins Posted in 30 Min., Hugelkultur, Lasagna Bed, Raised Bed, Soil, Wicking Bed

After a weekend away, the lasagna bed pulled ahead in the race for the most produce, with the hugelkultur bed surpassing the box bed by a little less than an ounce. Bringing up the rear is the leaky wicking bed. Putting the soaker hose on trickle for the wicking bed hoping that it will begin to produce in earnest and at least come in line with the lasagna bed and the other beds.

There is evidence of the rabbit I’d seen tasting our green beans, nibbling 1/2 a bean and leaving the rest.
The potato plants are starting to turn, meaning that in a couple of weeks it will be time to harvest – they have already cut them back in Deerfield, MA* which is usually two weeks ahead of Goshen, MA.
The carrots have begun to emerge in the insulated container garden, and I will have to hook up either some shade cloth or something shiny to scare away the aforementioned rabbit so the plants have a chance. There are a couple of carrots that did survive in the other beds, too – but not enough to feed my carrot hungry kids.

*Potatoes are one of the major crops of the Deerfield area, along with shade tobacco, strawberries, blueberries raspberries and corn ( The soil in Deerfield is known for it’s fertility: According to nesoil.com, the soil is “Very deep, moderately well drained soil formed in sandy glacial fluvial deposits. Deerfield soils are on stream terraces, deltas and outwash plains. “).

See Amazon.com for more information on lasagna bed gardening.

Comfrey tea for plants?

Posted on July 22, 2011 by

APerkins Posted in Fertilizing

I just gave my patty pan squash, as well as my broccoli seedlings and carrot seedlings a shot of comfrey tea. Feeding tea to plants? Comfrey itself has a good amount of nitrogen potassium and phosphorus. According to http://www.allotment.org.uk/vegetable/comfrey/comfrey.PDF, dried wilted comfrey has 0.74% nitrogen, 0.24% phosphorus, and 1.19% potassium. Making a quick comfrey tea by cutting some fresh comfrey and steeping it for about four hours will probably yield less than this amount, but it is a quick addition and is not harmful to the plants, nor do you have to worry about any bacteria. I cut one plant down, chopped it up and covered it with water (it filled about 1/6 of a tall pot). Steeping on the stove for ten minutes then letting it cool, I pulled out the material, filled the rest of the pot up (so it was a 6:1 ratio of tea to water), then applied it to the base of the plants, and in between the seedlings. As this has a higher NPK level than farm yard manure, I am hoping that the P & K help the squash set fruit, while the N will hopefully keep the leaves robust, while not making the plants just create more leaves.

Start Cool Weather Crops in the Summer?

Posted on July 22, 2011 by

APerkins Posted in 30 Min., Tangents

Yes – as posted earlier, you can start cool weather crops in the summer – middle of a heat wave in fact, as long as you can keep the soil moist. By covering the soil with a light mulch and watering enough to keep the soil from crusting, the seedlings have the right environment to sprout. Be sure to move the mulch (but don’t remove it, just push it in between the rows) so the plants don’t get shaded, or stay too moist. Here, we have started broccoli during our 95+ degree weather. The carrots are starting to show up too! Keeping the cooler weather crops cool will be a matter of shading them with some shade cloth or moving a potted plant nearby, such as a comfrey plant or possibly moving the box under one of the patty pan squash canopies for now, moving them out when the weather breaks. Lettuce can be started in the heat of the summer too, though even when shaded it does tend to bolt, causing the leaves to become bitter.

The Hack: Start cool weather crops in the summer and keep them growing by

planting them in containers, keep them moist,
keep them shaded during the hot spells, and
remove the mulch at the first sign of sprouting

Day 80 – When a Wicking Bed Goes Bad

Posted on July 20, 2011 by

APerkins Posted in 30 Min., Fertilizing, Hugelkultur, Lasagna Bed, Raised Bed, Watering, Wicking Bed

It appears there is a leak in the plastic under the wicking bed. Within hours of filling it (twice), the reservoir is empty. The potatoes at the end appear to be missing the water, too – they are turning yellow and wilting. Fortunately, I have some extra soaker hoses that I just placed there, and much of the “extra” water will be absorbed by the now rotting wood chips that were the medium above the plastic that was there to “break up the surface tension and help facilitate wicking”.

The box beds are starting to catch up to the lasagna beds as far as yield is concerned, with the wicking bed taking a break to flower like mad and the hugelkultur bed following suit, though there was the one patty pan squash that was ready for a salad, and thus picked.

I am hearing the water pump working away in the cellar, and it’s been an hour of soaker hose activity in the garden, which should be enough for now.

Also amended the box garden with well aged manure (side dressing and a topping of dried grass clippings).

Day 78 – Patty Pan Squash are Starting to Emerge!

Posted on July 18, 2011 by

APerkins Posted in 30 Min., Hugelkultur, Lasagna Bed, Raised Bed, Wicking Bed

Patty Pan Squash with Flowers

Looked in the beds, under the canopies the Patty Pan Squash are making and see the beginnings of some squash! The trick here is to pick them when they are the proper size. This seems to be a matter of picking in the morning, then picking in the evening – either that 0r (the more likely scenario) taking your time and really looking at each plant thoroughly. There always seems to be one honker of a patty pan squash that appears out of nowhere that becomes next years seeds instead of this summer’s meal. Not that this is a problem, mind you! My favorite recipe is posted at squidoo.com.

– Fruit on the Fringe –

Grapes Gone Wild!

The grapes are producing like crazy, I just have to remember to water them thoroughly every other day so they produce to the fullest, and hopefully will also produce thinner skins this year.

The stawberries are done for the season, and so it’s time to move them to the “pyramid”, where the beans are off to a good start.

The volunteer raspberries are popping up all over, and the volunteer blackberries are growing like mad, too – one cane that got away from me is over eight feet high!

Not a lot of yield today from the beds (see the “Gardenhacker Gauges” for the latest), but a lot of flowers on the beans and peas, so this week should produce well.

Tomato in the thick of it.

The tomatoes are beginning to set fruit on the plants I had gotten from the Williamsburg Farmer’s Market, too so deep watering at the roots will be in order for them too.

So, thirty minutes will be devoted to moving the strawberries to their new home, watering the grapes and the tomatoes, checking the seedlings and what little weeding needs to be done.

Tagged with: patty pan squash

Gardenhacker Gauges!

Posted on July 17, 2011 by

APerkins Posted in FYI

Gardenhacker Gauges

There is an interesting way to share information via Google, using spreadsheets and charts, you can (according to Google) “put this code into any web page” and voila! There’s your chart – right there!
So far, I haven’t been able to get it to work, but you can see our “Gardenhacker Gauges” – showing the yield per bed type in ounces. If you’ve been following our blog at all, you know that the current winner is the lasagna bed, which has had the most amendments (aged manure, grass clippings, compost), with the other beds mostly having garden soil that layed fallow for two years, transported to the respective beds.

Day 76 – Beans and Peas and a New Garden Experiment

Posted on July 16, 2011 by

APerkins Posted in 30 Min., Fertilizing, Hugelkultur, Lasagna Bed, Raised Bed, Wicking Bed

The new garden experiment is: Miracle-Gro Garden Mix vs 1 part soil, 1 part Manure. Facing south, the left box is the Miracle-Gro, the right is the soil-manure mix. In the manure pile, there was some well aged manure (no smell, as opposed to the fresher, smellier variety that I’d dug, then dumped and left there) which I screened – one shovel full manure, then one shovel full soil, mixed well, and put into the test bed/box. Ran out of seeds before I finished planting the soil/manure box, so sprouting will be a little sparse there.

I find it is extremely easy to make a new garden experiment using boxes to separate the different soils. As these experiments are of the “home grown variety”, I have not separated the boxes with a barrier of soil between them as would be proper in scientific experiments. Once the frost has taken hold later (the later the better!) this year, I will see if the roots broke through the sides, which I doubt.

Planted broccoli for a late harvest (mid October, weather willing). We will see if it’s worth $5.00 for the mix – that smells of chemicals – or $1.00 in gas and a little shoveling. Also added some onions as companions.

The patty-pan squash are shading a lot of the garden now, so the thoughts I’d had of planting carrots – aside from my poor luck – have given way to thoughts of lettuce in the middle of the summer, shaded by the gigantic leaves of my favorite squash.

Added some Swiss Chard to the tomato plants in the boxes as companions, too.

Beans are starting to show all over, I’m going to have to bring out my clipboard and see which beds are producing the most. They’re all producing, so it’s time for fresh greens!

Some good friends of mine are growing papaya(!) – the person who sold them the plant said to just give them a good pile of manure and six months. I’ll arm-chair quarterback that one, but if it works, I may opt for some of that fruit this winter.

Day 71 – Potatoes

Posted on July 11, 2011 by

APerkins Posted in 30 Min., Container, Hugelkultur, Lasagna Bed, Wicking Bed

The potatoes must just grow on sunshine. With the exception of the banana box beds, with little more than a handfull of dirt for each seed plus all the grass clippings they can stand, the potatoes don’t seem to care if it’s wicking, hugelkultur, lasagna bed – they’re also “volunteering” from last year’s beds and popping up all over. Several have migrated to neighbors (with my help), and more need to be moved. This kind of weeding I like!

Four beds of potatoes with little difference between them. - gardenhacker.com

With the exception of the banana box potatoes - subsisting on a handfull of dirt and all the grass clippings they can stand, the potatoes don't seem to care!

Day 71 – Broccoli

Posted on July 11, 2011 by

APerkins Posted in 30 Min., Container, Hugelkultur, Lasagna Bed, Wicking Bed

The Lasagna bed, with it’s added fertilizer (horse manure last fall, with a coating of grass clippings, left to “mellow” over the winter, followed with another layer of grass clippings) is feeding just about everything well, especially the broccoli. The thinnings will be transplanted to the other beds to see how they fare. Next is the wicking bed, followed by spotty performance on the hugelkultur bed. The banana box bed is a no-show.

Broccoli in the four different types of beds. Gardenhacker.com

Clockwise from top right: Lasagna bed, banana box bed, hugelkultur bed, wicking bed.