Featured Plant of the Week: Winter Squash
What would the harvest season be without winter squash? It's not just their beautiful fall colors that make them perfect for the season or even the wonderfully comforting soups and pies you can make with them. It's all that and the promise of more to come. Winter squash can be stored for months. You'll be enjoying this season's harvest well into winter.
Yet not many home gardeners still grow winter squash, in their vegetable gardens. A lot of folks think of them as space hogs - and many are. It takes the whole growing season for winter squash to mature. If space is a concern, try one of the newer compact varieties of winter squash. With compact plants and fruits, there's a winter squash for every size garden. Take a look at some favorites and if you didn't grow your own this year, there's still time to visit a local farmers' market to sample and plan for next year.
Photo: © Marie Iannotti
Comments
We live in Gilbert, Arizona where our summer days can be well into the triple digits, nearly 3 weeks of 118+ degrees this summer. We flood irrigate and thought we might plant vines on the eastern base of our trees, spring 2010.
That’s a great idea. The vines will mulch the trees and the trees will give the vines a little shade in the heat. Just don’t plant to close to the tree. The tree’s roots will compete with the squash for water.