On May 31, 2021, we were able to start planting our squash gardens. The method Andrew used for this was strip tilling. This is done by tilling strips of soil where the seed will be planted, and leaving undisturbed soil in between the strips. This will keep the squash plants cleaner as they vine out because they will be on grass. This method also uses less fuel, as well as helping prevent soil erosion.
The area where we planted our squash gardens has set fallow since 2014, which has some good advantages as well.
Step One: tilling the strips
Our squash garden has twenty four rows. Andrew broke them out into sections of four, with wider spacing between the sections. Each row is about 5′ wide, which is the width of his tiller. He made two passes with his tiller for each row, which worked the soil a little finer. The soil tilled very well, and created a nice bed for the seeds that would come next.
Step Two: planting the seed in our squash gardens
The next step is direct sowing the squash seed in the newly tilled soil. He used his Jab planter for the most of the rows, and his Earthway planter for the last three rows. This process went fairly quickly. With the Jab planter, he spaced the seeds about every three feet. The last few rows, planted with the Earthway planter, he used a spacing of seven and a half inches.
Step Three: setting up drip lines after planting our squash gardens
The rain has been scarce the last few weeks and the weather turned really hot! Our poor plants will be parched (and most likely die) without adequate moisture once they germinate. Andrew set up drip lines so we can efficiently get water to our plants. Drip irrigation works well for squash plants because they are susceptible to powdery mildew. Keeping the leaves dry is a good way to help prevent it. Although we do use a a foliar fertilizer spray once per week, we spray it in the morning so the leaves have plenty of time to dry out.
Summary of our squash gardens
Below is labeled aerial view of our gardens. We have several kinds of winter and summer squash, as well as a few rows of gourds. Each fall we like to have a variety of different types of squash, pumpkins, and gourds. The seeds from some of these rows came from seed we saved from previous years’ yields, which allows us to grow a lot of plants without the cost of the seed. We don’t sell these…it’s just fun to see what we end up with. Also, we like to share with friends and family.
The date to harvest on winter squash is longer than the summer squash, so we should be harvesting zucchini long before the others. Zucchini is also more labor intensive because it will need to be picked everyday. Winter squash we just pick once, and it stores well, so it’s an easier crop to grow. With that said, zucchini has been our biggest crop most years, and we look forward to cooking with it as well as having plenty to sell. We love the combination of winter and summer squash in our gardens, and look forward to picking our first yields!
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