A Spacing Issue

So the instructions for the summer squash seeds I purchased said "Sow 3 seeds every 12" (thin to 1 plant), 1/2-1" deep, in rows 5-6' apart." Sounds good. Because I have quite a bit of space, I gave them a generous two or more feet between each plant in the row. Well... you can see below, not all squashes are created equal.

Here we have two enormous plants flanking a much smaller one. The big ones are my patty pans (Sunburst) while the one in the middle is a straight-neck yellow squash (Slick Pik). The poor straight-neck is barely hanging on in the shade from those big bullies! Clearly it was unwise to alternate varieties along the row, but still... imagine the tangle of squash I would have if I had multiple patty pans spaced only a foot apart! Next year I'm definitely growing patty pans again, but they'll be given plenty of room to do their thing without crowding the rest of the residents.

April Showers Bring May... Weeds

Lots of rain in April brought lots of weeds in May, particularly in the section we annexed from the hay field. So here we are re-tilling the garden! The total size here is 100 feet by 65 feet (I took this facing southwest), plenty of room to spread out.

Peppers for Cold Climates

Bell pepper from the 2012 garden.

Due to Michigan's short growing season, pretty much the only way we can grow peppers here is by sowing seeds indoors and transplant outside after the last frost date, so they can be harvested before the first frost. I use a last frost date of May 20 and first frost of September 25 (based on data for Jackson, MI), which means a window of around 120 days.

This works pretty well for most bell peppers, which will be ripe in 60-90 days (that's days after transplanting outdoors, not days after you initially start the seeds), but some hot peppers can take up to 150 days. Do the math. Even if I took a chance and transplanted a hot pepper on May 15, got lucky with no frost, I'm looking at October 15 for harvest. And I know better than to expect summer to last that long. So I need to be picky about the varieties I select. I look for cold-hardy plant varieties no matter what, since Michigan weather can be so unpredictable (frost in July? not unheard of).

Last year I didn't have much success with peppers. I started seeds indoors from an old pack of Sweet Carnival Mix from Burpee, which I transplanted outside in June, along with a poblano pepper seedling I bought from Lowe's. The bells each produced 2-3 peppers but I only picked about 3 usable ones total, and the poblanos got zapped by the frost before I was able to pick them.

This year I looked at the varieties suggested on the peppers tip sheet suggested by MSU Extension; they are common ones you can get at gardening stores in packets from Burpee, Ferry Morse, etc. Great info there, but as far as pepper varieties I was looking for something a little different (and in a larger quantity than those little packets), so I ordered Cupid (mini bell pepper), Ace (regular bell pepper), and Aji Cristal (hot). I should have started the seeds indoors already, so I'll be doing that as soon as possible, hardening off at the end of May, and transplanting probably at the start of June.

Seeds!

I probably should have started this a few weeks ago, but I bought my first seeds for 2013 today! I'm trying out Johnny's Seeds and Seed Savers, neither of which I've used before but have heard great things about them. Stay tuned for a review.

Tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos were first up. I'll be starting them indoors and transplanting sometime in May, probably a bit later for the peppers and tomatillos. I'm salivating just thinking about BLTs, fresh salsa, and tomatillo-lime jam.

Carrots, radishes, and peas will be the first seeds to go in the ground this spring, so I ordered a few varieties of those too! Now if only someone would tell Old Man Winter that it's time to let another season have a turn. It just snowed again this morning, which means the garden is destined to be a squelchy mud pit for a week or more as soon as it warms up. THEN maybe we can till the garden. The waiting is killing me!