Squash circles

Rain today and chilly. I checked my squash seedlings for slugs. None! The seedlings are doing well, all have their true leaves.

I often experience germination problems in my garden. To my shock, this year almost all the squash seeds I planted directly in the garden came up. This squash garden is in a new area, formerly the chicken run. Maybe the soil in there is especially well-fertilized by housing chickens for many years. It doesn’t look as rich as the garden soil, but I’m sure it’s full of nitrogen.

Our chickens have all risen to chicken heaven at this point, and that’s okay because we don’t eat eggs and have learned we really prefer to tend plants than animals. We still took good care of the chickens when we had them. Sam repurposed the run this year by digging out the small trees growing in there, and most of the big rocks. We removed all the fencing around and over top of the run, that made it a safe place for them. He smoothed out the soil with the tractor, and I spread hay to try to restrain weed growth. Then I dug out four large circles and put eight seeds roughly equidistant around them, with wells in the center for extra water.

So here I have more than 30 squash seedlings growing. I don’t know if all of this squash will survive – maybe pests or overcrowding will reduce the population. Maybe I should have had the soil tested to see what might be lacking in there. But it is a great source of joy at the moment to see these seedlings grow and develop.

There are more in the community garden plot – Butternut, New England Pie Pumpkin, Buttercup, and Blue Hubbard. These don’t get as much TLC as those in the home garden, so I don’t expect as much from them. But still, it’s a lot. How much squash can one couple grow? Stay tuned, I will provide squash updates as the season goes.