Growing Winter Squash Vertically

As I've mentioned before, space is extremely precious in my garden.  So precious that I pick, choose and plan everything to make the puzzle pieces fit together.  This might make winter squashes like butternut squash, kabocha, pumpkins, etc. something to skip and just buy.  However, not only am I fond of all of these, my wife absolutely loves winter squash.  Last year, I had 1 single butternut squash plant that took over most of my garden, and actually choked out other plants.

So  here I will show you how this year  I have managed to grow 8 winter squash plants ( 4 varieties ) in about a 5 X 10 Foot area.

As you can see in the photo, the second wooden trellis is for winter squash.  The ends of the trellis are wooden stakes I found at Home Depot for 79 cents a piece.  I tied them together in tripod shape for stability and then added one across the top.

Here you can see that we transplanted 2 each of 4 different winter squash varieties.  I also squeezed some White Wonder Cucumbers at the end near the walkway for easy picking.  The varieties planted are:

galeux d'eysines

Kabocha

Whalthum Butternut

Native American Hidatsa  

Here, you can see that as the squashes grew we tied nylon trellis netting to both sides of the frame and began training the plant up the netting.

 Here they are again with a few weeks of training.  Onces they cling on to the trellis, they support their own fruit really well.  Here are some of the squashes:

So, if you think you don't have space to grow winter squash, think again.  You just have to go vertical!

Thanks for reading!

-Ian

Growing the Egyptian Walking Onion

Last year, in an article of Mother Earth News entitled "The Other Onions", I came across what I thought to be a very interesting plant, the Egyptian Walking Onion.

This Perennial onion has the interesting habits of multiplying by forming a head or "set" of many small onions on top of the green portion.  If allowed, the head will weigh down the plant, touch the ground and replant itself to grow more onions.  Thus the "Walking" in it's name. Here is a picture of the "set":

When I bought my first plant last fall at Common grounds in Palo Alto, It was one small plant in a pot for about $4?, I think.  It had one set with 2 onions formed.  As I transplanted the plant, I promptly picked off the 2 onions and planted those about 4 inches apart from the parent plant.  This morning (8 or 9 months later) all three had fully formed sets which I have taken off and replanted about 12 of the individual onions, again about four inches apart.  

Rather than allowing the onions to "walk"  I am choosing where I want to replant them.  I harvested about 50 small onions.  I planted 12. The other 38 or so that I did not replant, I will figure out a culinary use for.  I figure, from three plants I harvested about 50 onions, so from 15, I should get several hundred next time. 

I did eat one raw, as I often do with my homegrown produce.  It had a spicy and relatively strong onion flavor.  I think they would make great pickles, creamed onions, or I could use them in a stew or Coq Au Vin.  With less than 40,  I'll probably do something simple this time, but next crop will be fun. 

The Egyptian Walking Onion so far has been easy to grow.  I pretty much forget about it most of the time.  Pests leave it alone, and so far it has produced without any special care.  This is a great plant for kids, new gardeners, or anyone who just want to grow something fun and unique.  Besides, most of us who cook always need onions of all types. 

Until next time.

  

My Little Backyard Farm

My name is Ian and I live in a small Suburban House in San Jose, CA with my wife and dog.  I work in a high stress, high energy career that has nothing to do with gardening, organic and heirloom produce, or cooking.  That is precisely why gardening and cooking are the things in my life that keep me going.  As I have become somewhat of a gardening and cooking guru among my family, friends, and social circles, I figured why not start a Blog.

In San Jose we are blessed with mild weather year round, which actually allows me to garden four seasons a year.  However, in San Jose land is at a premium (very expensive), so this year having mostly maxed out my garden space.  I decided to go vertical and incorporate some more container gardening too.

Because, gardening is an ongoing process for me, and I am always sprouting something new, taking something out, transplanting something else, etc., my first post here will give you an overview of my gardening techniques and philosophies, and subsequent posts will go into more details about specific crops, how to grow them, and the funnest part: How to cook them!!!!!!!

I firmly stand for chemical free, non-GMO, open-pollinated gardening, and compost every scrap of organic matter that I can.  My family's weekly garbage output can now fit in a 8 X 8 box, but I'd like to get that down to less.


 Here is a picture of my winter squashes, tomatos, melons, and cucumbers on June 13:

There are actually a few leeks leftover form the fall in the middle too.

Here is the bed on July 11:

The squash plants are loaded with small to medium winter squashes, I'm harvesting cucumbers, and the tomatoes are loaded with green tomatoes (I check them every day for signs of ripening.  It has been a cool summer here so far, so the plants are growing but fruits are ripening slowly.

Over the winter and into spring, I grew the bed of peas you see here.  In the front are Sugar Snaps and in the back shelling peas.  Knowing they would come out early summer, I inter-planted six summer squash plants down the center, 2 early crooknecks, 2 Cocozelle (Striped Heirloom Zucchini), and 2 Black Beauties about 15 inches aparts.

A few days after this photo, I took out the peas.  Here are the squash plants today, yielding lots of squash:

So I planted Blue Hubbard squash on my side yard.  These can supposedly grow a 20 - 40 pound squash.  This is 2 plants about 4 feet aparts.  As you can see, they have pretty much taken over the side of the house.  I think it pretty cool:

Here some more odds and ends:

Peppers in Containers

Tomatos in Homemade Self watering planters

A fig tree and a bay tree

Compost

Scarlett Runner Beans make a great front yard vegetable

Ground Cherries

The remains of some fall veg

That's it for today.  Hope you enjoy