Squish Squash

One of the best methods for planting squash family plants(squash, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins) is to dig a hole as deep as you can go. In the greater Atlanta area, with all of the granite that lies beneath the soil, we can go down about 18 inches. That also happens to be the level that footings for buildings must be poured because it is the frost line.

Fill the hole to ground level with half a bag of composted cow manure or mushroom compost and mound the dirt that originally filled the hole. Take black and white newspaper (no colors because they contain lead) and cover the mound to avoid the necessity of weeding. If you are as lazy as I am, put an empty 2 liter bottle with a few holes punched in the bottom of the bottle into the hole before you put the manure in. Then you can water the plant at the root level by merely filling the bottle from a hose.

With the use of the Grow Boxes, we are able to grow beautiful squash plants and get production out of them. Squash is one of those plants that literally grow themselves to death. Ours are no exception and with almost 4 months left in our growing season, we will replant.

The seeds have been ordered from Parks Seeds in Greenwood, South Carolina. I choose Parks this time because my patty pan squash that I grew from Burpee seeds have been less than perfect. They have fought disease and have had a lot of blossom rot. Parks specializes in seeds for the South, the hot and muggy South.

Parks is a well known seed house and I have tried a lot of them over the last thirty plus years. As Bill and I refine, define and replant the Grow Boxes, we are making decisions as to what we want in additional veggies.

Jimmy and Beanie took a vote on what they wanted more of and they came to a 5-0 decision that they definitely wanted more squash. You say 5-0. Who said dogs could count?