FIRST A MISTAKE, THEN AMAZING! SQUASH FOR DINNER

As in an earlier post, my seed starting knowledge was a beginning level this year!  After much research and what I thought was great planning, I started my Park Seed Organic Early Summer Crookneck Squash and Park Seed Early Spring Burpless Cumber seeds indoors under a grow light on February 26th, 2012.  As many of you experienced seed growers know, that is much too early for squash and cucumbers.  You can only imagine my dismay when I realized that my plants were growing far to fast for any reasonable outdoor planting time.  With my big gardening "heart", I could not just destroy the seedlings, so on April 9th, 2012 I placed my seedlings out in my garden for the adventure of their lives!  I babied them and covered them at even the slightest talk of frost!  In my mind I just knew they would not make it.  However,  to my surprise, with the help of the extremely warm spring we have had, THEY DID MAKE IT!!  On May 7th, my family had squash for dinner!  I can't believe it.  They are doing so well and are producing a very large amount of squash!  I have read that it is best to harvest them when they are younger for higher overall yields from the plants! 

 My garden is doing very well!  I have added many plants to my collection.  I was able to attend our local Master Gardener plant sale and purchase some new plants.  For my garden I have an Abraham Lincoln Hybrid tomato plant (bottom left on outside of fence) and a Sweet Marconi pepper plant (bottom right on outside of fence).  I am excited to see how these do! 

 My peas finally bloomed and are producing pods.  They took much longer than I anticipated, perhaps I did not allow for germination time when counting the days!  I direct sowed these on February 20th. 

My hanging tomato plants look great!  These were planted and hung the middle of April!  These particular plants are my (Burpee Big Boy) tomato plants.  This year I have planted 24 tomato plants in my garden!  I only purchased three of the tomato plants.  The rest of the plants are my own seedlings that I started in February and there are a few that were volunteer plants that came up in my garden and I just couldn't bear to destroy them, so I gave them each a nice new home in my garden!  The volunteer plants are Husky Cherry Tomato plants!!  They are very healthy and "husky" looking plants that produce great cherry tomatoes!

Best of luck in your garden! 

The Ebullient Gardener!