The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Planting for a 4-Season Harvest, Part 7

Tender Crops in Last

CabbageThe 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....


This post is part of our Planting for a Four Season Harvest lunchtime series.  Read all of the entries:





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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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