Planting for a 4-Season Harvest, Part 7
Tender Crops
in Last
The most tender crops, pole
beans and limas, go in last while pepper
plants and eggplant are set out.
At the very last I sow
winter squash --- not more tender, really than
the summer types which won't, however, be harvested until fall.
The small varieties are better for the backyard garden than Blue
Hubbard, while the dark-green, heart-shaped Quality now rates higher
with me than Butternut. It was even more vigorous growing in last
summer's drought than Butternut, and far more prolific. The
average fruit weighed 5 to 6 pounds, only one weighed 10, and it was
just as disease-resistant. Quality's chief virgue, however, is
the marvelous flavor of its fine-grained flesh. It can be eaten
immature, skin and all. Buttercup also has good flavor, but in my
experience is more susceptible to disease and insect attacks. I
also plant a few hills of Small Sugar pumpkin whose flesh is not
stringy, and which are good both for decoration and for pies. Read more....
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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