Beware of rocks!!!

I don't have a picture for this entry because by the time I was finished there wasn't enough light. Late this afternoon I dug up a trench at the end of my yard for future asparagus plants. It's approximately 2 feet wide and 16 long. Since the seedling need to grow for 2-3 years before you can harvest.....you want a place out of the way so they'll grow quietly. Anyway......rocks! The spot where I dug was, like I said at the end of my yard. When my parents used to grow vegetable they threw all the rocks they found there. So today when I jumped on my shovel it didn't even go in! And I had a really bad time taking all those big rocks out. So what I want to say is throw your rock away for real. Not in a place you don't use. Because one day you may want to use it and will be really frustrated at yourself....or maybe your kids will be in the future =)

Oh and we are having really weird pre-winter weather. Normally there's snow and cold. But so far no snow, beautiful over freezing weather and just awsome Fall!

Composting more leaves!

Tonite after work....just before the sun went out.....I composted more leaves. This time I just added a huge load on my compost and covered it with garden dirt. When I take my greenhouse in the garage I'll use the dirt in the pots to cover some more leaves =) It's weird but I love composting!

Sumary of 2009 (pumpkins and zucchinis)

I've just posted a new video about what I learned on my first year of actual gardening in the earth. So I might as well share this knowledge here too.

First the pumpkins!
I started them inside the house I think it was in the middle of April. I didn't want the worms to eat my new sprouts so by the time they went in the garden they had a few leaves. The vines grew pretty fast. But by mid June I was starting to despair about the pumpkins actually growing. They had quite a few flowers, both male and female but they kept falling off. I though it was a watering problem...but now that I think of it I just think it was too early and the plant wasn't ready to grow pumpkins. By mid June I self polinated the flowers(it was always rainy and the bees were scarce) and they finally stayed on the vine. I had one pumpkin per plant and they grew really fast and took a LOT of space. Now they are all turning orange and will soon be harvested and brought in the house. They can keep for a long while just at room temperature, if you don't overheat your house. So I will have enough pumpkins for a while.

Now zucchinis!

Well again like the pumpkins I grew them in the house, because of the worms that like sprouts. Like pumpkins they grew fast and easily. They do need a constant moist soil. And you have to watch not to get the leaves wet for long time as they grow mildew pretty easily. With a few plants (6) I had more than I could eat, litterally! They do take some space, the vine doesn't travel as far as a pumpkin but the leaves are pretty big. One plant grew at least 4 feet long and was over 2 feet wide. They started dying down as the nights got colder. But since I build my greenhouses around them they started growing again. I will probably have a few zucchinis before winter =)

So this is mostly what I learned about those two squashes. Next year I'm gonna try some more squashes, buttercup and butternut. So if you have advice on those please do tell. I would really appreciate it =)

Here's the link to my video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L-hkzrlq0k