Dear Marc,
These look like crosses. Petty pan and the Acorn. The color is Acorn, the shape is petty pan. I had some really weird ones last year, but they were very tasty. I think what you bought was acorn, crossed with the white squash. Email me back if you found out different.
Okay, this is going to sound a bit forward but WHAT AN ANSWER TO PRAYER! Marc and family, I am a rookie-sustainable-greenie who needs some serious help.
My husband and I have just been hit hard by conviction about sustainable living, and we want to respond. He will be starting a PhD program in the summer/fall, and I will be stepping back from work (switching to part time) in order to pursue this new lifestyle. Feeding ourselves is the obvious starting place, and I am looking for some kind of mentor to get me started.
Would you mind contacting me? I could really use some advice!
Old post regarding potatoes grown in trash can. One year I planted a tiny ornamental sweet potato vine in a large ceramic urn in Arkansas, had plenty of rain that year plus I soaked the urn as needed. Come fall I went to dig up the tuber, it was the size of a medium pumpkin with multiple offshoots. Consistent moisture, air, loose soil. Wow! Have not had same success since but now live in dry wind prone north Texas.
Use a drain tray to let water soak back into pot, always.
Enjoyed all your posts. Gardening organically & creatively since 1975. Look up Dallas Morning News, Thursday garden section for "chicken stories", new city trend. Enjoy.
New hairbrained hanging tomato idea. Take an old coat rack. Bury the base, stake it solid to the ground to prevent wind from toppling it. Or use blocks or stones.
Then suspend on each coat hook 2liter bottles or similar upside down pots holding tomato plants. You could mount a birdhouse or basket of flowers on top for maximum affect.To substitute coat rack use a 6 ft 2x2 with hooks added on all sides. Build an X base for stability, Secure the base. Will let you know how mine turns out.
Another experiment: I have an elegant wire planter that is 3ft x 1ft x 10in. deep. Though it has a moss liner the soil dries out too quickly. The experiment.I lay down a garbage sack with one drain hole carefully running it up the insides approx. 2 inches to create a reservoir affect. Here's the kicker..I added some pillow stuffing on top of that....Nothing like a wet pillow...eh ? Then filled it with potting mix combined with good garden soil. With careful watering I aim to see if these new moisture retaining features make a difference in the beauty of the petunias I have planted in it this year. Dry air is our biggest challenge here on the north Texas prairie. Cotton vs synthetic may be the key. Wonder if cotton batting and potatoes make good soil mates?
I think it would be beneficial for your reader to learn more about micro-climates within a garden. Especially for city gardeners planning various gardens around the perimeter of their home. Your success with the bell peppers were undoubtedly due to the increased sun and warmth from the chicken coop roof. I live adjacent to a neighborhood block wall, this increases garden warmth but also adds a wind tunnel affect. Within just a few feet are various planting possibilities. Makes it more fun & interesting for sure.
Book entitled "Lasagna Gardening",,, For those who put off starting a garden due to all that grass removal and digging. Pick a good location, Lay down at least an inch of of newspapers, add a border of wood or large blocks to hold in soil placing this on top of the papers. Water the papers. Add soil, compost and other soil amendments. and Bam your good to go! Keep adding soil and compost each year. Ive seen this method used to create a beautiful English cottage garden at a new home with lousy soil.
Marc,et. al., Just found your site. Great stuff, keep going. I am a fellow fanatic Gardener,also geologist and chemistry teacher.
My best tip:
I recently put a lot of biochar into my garden (last two years)-some I made myself and recently a couple of pickup truckloads from a commercial facility here in Vermont. My Sugarsnap Peas, for example, got ten feet high and we got sick of peas. That's not easy!
The number of 'services' the stuff performs in the soil is amazing: each bit is a coral reef for microorganisms, I could go on...
Thanks for the site, contact me if interested to hear more....Waiting for Spring
Dear Marc,
These look like crosses. Petty pan and the Acorn. The color is Acorn, the shape is petty pan. I had some really weird ones last year, but they were very tasty. I think what you bought was acorn, crossed with the white squash. Email me back if you found out different.
Posted by: Marilyn | October 15, 2009 at 01:41 PM
Okay, this is going to sound a bit forward but WHAT AN ANSWER TO PRAYER! Marc and family, I am a rookie-sustainable-greenie who needs some serious help.
My husband and I have just been hit hard by conviction about sustainable living, and we want to respond. He will be starting a PhD program in the summer/fall, and I will be stepping back from work (switching to part time) in order to pursue this new lifestyle. Feeding ourselves is the obvious starting place, and I am looking for some kind of mentor to get me started.
Would you mind contacting me? I could really use some advice!
Posted by: Jes Rothwell | February 25, 2010 at 03:26 PM
We are interested to increase traffic to your website, please get back to us in order to discuss the possibility in further detail.
Posted by: Felicia Sams | March 16, 2010 at 03:30 AM
Old post regarding potatoes grown in trash can. One year I planted a tiny ornamental sweet potato vine in a large ceramic urn in Arkansas, had plenty of rain that year plus I soaked the urn as needed. Come fall I went to dig up the tuber, it was the size of a medium pumpkin with multiple offshoots. Consistent moisture, air, loose soil. Wow! Have not had same success since but now live in dry wind prone north Texas.
Use a drain tray to let water soak back into pot, always.
Enjoyed all your posts. Gardening organically & creatively since 1975. Look up Dallas Morning News, Thursday garden section for "chicken stories", new city trend. Enjoy.
Posted by: Carol Abernathy | May 03, 2010 at 12:53 AM
New hairbrained hanging tomato idea. Take an old coat rack. Bury the base, stake it solid to the ground to prevent wind from toppling it. Or use blocks or stones.
Then suspend on each coat hook 2liter bottles or similar upside down pots holding tomato plants. You could mount a birdhouse or basket of flowers on top for maximum affect.To substitute coat rack use a 6 ft 2x2 with hooks added on all sides. Build an X base for stability, Secure the base. Will let you know how mine turns out.
Posted by: Carol Abernathy | May 03, 2010 at 01:11 AM
Another experiment: I have an elegant wire planter that is 3ft x 1ft x 10in. deep. Though it has a moss liner the soil dries out too quickly. The experiment.I lay down a garbage sack with one drain hole carefully running it up the insides approx. 2 inches to create a reservoir affect. Here's the kicker..I added some pillow stuffing on top of that....Nothing like a wet pillow...eh ? Then filled it with potting mix combined with good garden soil. With careful watering I aim to see if these new moisture retaining features make a difference in the beauty of the petunias I have planted in it this year. Dry air is our biggest challenge here on the north Texas prairie. Cotton vs synthetic may be the key. Wonder if cotton batting and potatoes make good soil mates?
Posted by: Carol Abernathy | May 03, 2010 at 01:35 AM
I think it would be beneficial for your reader to learn more about micro-climates within a garden. Especially for city gardeners planning various gardens around the perimeter of their home. Your success with the bell peppers were undoubtedly due to the increased sun and warmth from the chicken coop roof. I live adjacent to a neighborhood block wall, this increases garden warmth but also adds a wind tunnel affect. Within just a few feet are various planting possibilities. Makes it more fun & interesting for sure.
Posted by: Carol Abernathy | May 03, 2010 at 01:51 AM
Book entitled "Lasagna Gardening",,, For those who put off starting a garden due to all that grass removal and digging. Pick a good location, Lay down at least an inch of of newspapers, add a border of wood or large blocks to hold in soil placing this on top of the papers. Water the papers. Add soil, compost and other soil amendments. and Bam your good to go! Keep adding soil and compost each year. Ive seen this method used to create a beautiful English cottage garden at a new home with lousy soil.
Posted by: Carol Abernathy | May 03, 2010 at 02:06 AM
Marc,et. al., Just found your site. Great stuff, keep going. I am a fellow fanatic Gardener,also geologist and chemistry teacher.
My best tip:
I recently put a lot of biochar into my garden (last two years)-some I made myself and recently a couple of pickup truckloads from a commercial facility here in Vermont. My Sugarsnap Peas, for example, got ten feet high and we got sick of peas. That's not easy!
The number of 'services' the stuff performs in the soil is amazing: each bit is a coral reef for microorganisms, I could go on...
Thanks for the site, contact me if interested to hear more....Waiting for Spring
Posted by: Ernie Luikart | December 07, 2010 at 10:42 AM