I have learned a very important lesson this year - plant the plants further
apart!! My pumpkins have taken over everything within 15 feet. I have beans
I can't get at to harvest. I have tomatillos that are huge, I had no idea
they would get so big!

http://zootal.no-ip.info/stuff/2006%...s/DSCF4180.jpg

This is a typical shot. You can see a pumpkin bursting out of the corn, and
another one taking up what used to be a pathway I used to be able to use to
walk through the garden.

http://zootal.no-ip.info/stuff/2006%...s/DSCF4137.jpg

With this shot, if you look to the upper right you see a mass of tomatoes.
The pic doesn't show it very well, but it's about 8 plants growing in a huge
mass that I can't hardly get around. I cut the suckers when I can, and am
just letting it grow. Suckers pop up out of the middle from somewhere down
inside, I have no idea where they come from lol. I don't know what to do
with it but just let it grow.

The center is a row of squash that is doing quite well. I thought I was
wasting space with the wide path to the left - now I can hardly walk through
it.

http://zootal.no-ip.info/stuff/2006%...s/DSCF4108.jpg

This is what happens when you throw sunflower seeds into the garden. I cut
out most of them because nothing else wround them was getting any sun.

So - lesson learned. Wider rows. Give pumpkins a *lot* of room. Plant
tomatoes further apart. And space tomatillos ... maybe 3 feet apart?, mine
are just huge and have crowded out nearby tomatoes and peppers.

Oh, Matt this is so funny. I am in no better shape than you! I planted
cantelopes just to watch them grow. They sook off and haven't stopped yet!
What the heck do I need 14 melons for? From 6 little plants! Wish I liked
them but my Husband does and he'd best get to eating. We live in a senior
mobile home park and are not allowed gardens for food, only flowers? As if
this makes sense.
Just consider your self lucky, no back yard BBQ's and no lawn mowing till
fall?

--

Betsy
"Matthew Reed" nospam at zootal dot com nospam wrote in message
...
I have learned a very important lesson this year - plant the plants further
apart!! My pumpkins have taken over everything within 15 feet. I have beans
I can't get at to harvest. I have tomatillos that are huge, I had no idea
they would get so big!

http://zootal.no-ip.info/stuff/2006%...s/DSCF4180.jpg

This is a typical shot. You can see a pumpkin bursting out of the corn,
and another one taking up what used to be a pathway I used to be able to
use to walk through the garden.

http://zootal.no-ip.info/stuff/2006%...s/DSCF4137.jpg

With this shot, if you look to the upper right you see a mass of tomatoes.
The pic doesn't show it very well, but it's about 8 plants growing in a
huge mass that I can't hardly get around. I cut the suckers when I can,
and am just letting it grow. Suckers pop up out of the middle from
somewhere down inside, I have no idea where they come from lol. I don't
know what to do with it but just let it grow.

The center is a row of squash that is doing quite well. I thought I was
wasting space with the wide path to the left - now I can hardly walk
through it.

http://zootal.no-ip.info/stuff/2006%...s/DSCF4108.jpg

This is what happens when you throw sunflower seeds into the garden. I cut
out most of them because nothing else wround them was getting any sun.

So - lesson learned. Wider rows. Give pumpkins a *lot* of room. Plant
tomatoes further apart. And space tomatillos ... maybe 3 feet apart?, mine
are just huge and have crowded out nearby tomatoes and peppers.

I envy all you people in the warmer climates...up here in Newfoundland
you have at best 3 months from start to finish....we have really small
bugs tho....to match our really small gardens...but I'm not
whining...lol

Haha, I don't feel so bad now. I wish my cantelopes would take off, but
although my squash and tomatoes are exploding, my melons and cukes are just
poking along at slow speed. I"ve read that squash should be spaced 2-3 feet
apart. phhhttt. My scallop squash plant is easily 6 feet across. My wife is
complaining because it is so big she can't get into it to pick the squash
without being poked in the face by spiny stems and leaves:

http://zootal.no-ip.info/stuff/2006%...s/DSCF4202.jpg

Scallop squash lovers might appreciate this pic

http://zootal.no-ip.info/stuff/2006%...s/DSCF4208.jpg


"betsyb" wrote in message
...
Oh, Matt this is so funny. I am in no better shape than you! I planted
cantelopes just to watch them grow. They sook off and haven't stopped yet!
What the heck do I need 14 melons for? From 6 little plants! Wish I liked
them but my Husband does and he'd best get to eating. We live in a senior
mobile home park and are not allowed gardens for food, only flowers? As if
this makes sense.
Just consider your self lucky, no back yard BBQ's and no lawn mowing till
fall?

--

Betsy
"Matthew Reed" nospam at zootal dot com nospam wrote in message
...
I have learned a very important lesson this year - plant the plants
further apart!! My pumpkins have taken over everything within 15 feet. I
have beans I can't get at to harvest. I have tomatillos that are huge, I
had no idea they would get so big!

http://zootal.no-ip.info/stuff/2006%...s/DSCF4180.jpg

This is a typical shot. You can see a pumpkin bursting out of the corn,
and another one taking up what used to be a pathway I used to be able to
use to walk through the garden.

http://zootal.no-ip.info/stuff/2006%...s/DSCF4137.jpg

With this shot, if you look to the upper right you see a mass of
tomatoes. The pic doesn't show it very well, but it's about 8 plants
growing in a huge mass that I can't hardly get around. I cut the suckers
when I can, and am just letting it grow. Suckers pop up out of the middle
from somewhere down inside, I have no idea where they come from lol. I
don't know what to do with it but just let it grow.

The center is a row of squash that is doing quite well. I thought I was
wasting space with the wide path to the left - now I can hardly walk
through it.

http://zootal.no-ip.info/stuff/2006%...s/DSCF4108.jpg

This is what happens when you throw sunflower seeds into the garden. I
cut out most of them because nothing else wround them was getting any
sun.

So - lesson learned. Wider rows. Give pumpkins a *lot* of room. Plant
tomatoes further apart. And space tomatillos ... maybe 3 feet apart?,
mine are just huge and have crowded out nearby tomatoes and peppers.

The only thing that's doing much of anything for me this year is a
yellow summer squash that came up volunteer. I pulled up most of the
volunteer squash, but I left this one. It's growing like a pumpkin, but
in all directions instead of just taking off with one long vine. It's
probably 20 feet in diameter and still growing. I can't keep up with
all the squash it's producing.

Bob

On 29 Jul 2006 18:05:09 -0700, "JustBrowsing"
wrote:

I envy all you people in the warmer climates...up here in Newfoundland
you have at best 3 months from start to finish....we have really small
bugs tho....to match our really small gardens...but I'm not
whining...lol


You might think so. I'm in E.TN and it can be a hell hole here. The
heat can kill a lot of my favorite plants, like tomato which prefers
hot days and cool nights. I used to live in Ohio--the perfect climate
for tomatoes in the world--I've seen them growing in sidewalk cracks!
My point here is to grow what grows best in your climate and you will
be a very successful gardener.

Cross between a crookneck and some vining squash? My pumpkins are easily 25
feet from one end to the other - they invaded my corn and beans, and I can
no longer tell which vine end comes from which plant. And we have green
pumpkins the size of basket balls all over, I can't tell which one comes
from which plant, or where another pumpkin will pop up.

"zxcvbob" wrote in message
...
The only thing that's doing much of anything for me this year is a yellow
summer squash that came up volunteer. I pulled up most of the volunteer
squash, but I left this one. It's growing like a pumpkin, but in all
directions instead of just taking off with one long vine. It's probably
20 feet in diameter and still growing. I can't keep up with all the
squash it's producing.

Bob

"Matthew Reed" nospam at zootal dot com nospam wrote in message
...

[snippage]


My husband took a glance at the photos and said, "Pacific Northwest".
Vancouver WA, right? It's a combo of the architecture of the house and the
look of the sky.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
http://www.bicyclemeditations.org/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

"Claire Petersky" wrote in message
ink.net...
"Matthew Reed" nospam at zootal dot com nospam wrote in message
...

[snippage]


My husband took a glance at the photos and said, "Pacific Northwest".
Vancouver WA, right? It's a combo of the architecture of the house and the
look of the sky.


Close. I moved from Vancouver last December. Now we are in Lebanon, about
100 miles south of Vancouver. The house was built in 1948.

We are having an unusually dry summer. It hasn't rained for about 6 weeks,
and things are really drying out. Weather is in the 70s. Waiting to see if
we are going to have another heat wave in August, or if it's going to stay
like this for the rest of the summer.

Matthew Reed wrote:
Cross between a crookneck and some vining squash? My pumpkins are easily 25
feet from one end to the other - they invaded my corn and beans, and I can
no longer tell which vine end comes from which plant. And we have green
pumpkins the size of basket balls all over, I can't tell which one comes
from which plant, or where another pumpkin will pop up.

"
Matthew,
Now is the perfect time to personalize your pumpkins. We use a
homemade gadget, but I think you can buy pumpkin carving kits. Anyway,
scrape off the skin, write your name, etc. now. The pumpkin should keep
growing and the name, etc will scab over and look cool.
Doris

wrote in message
oups.com...

Matthew Reed wrote:
Cross between a crookneck and some vining squash? My pumpkins are easily
25
feet from one end to the other - they invaded my corn and beans, and I
can
no longer tell which vine end comes from which plant. And we have green
pumpkins the size of basket balls all over, I can't tell which one comes
from which plant, or where another pumpkin will pop up.

"
Matthew,
Now is the perfect time to personalize your pumpkins. We use a
homemade gadget, but I think you can buy pumpkin carving kits. Anyway,
scrape off the skin, write your name, etc. now. The pumpkin should keep
growing and the name, etc will scab over and look cool.
Doris


What about the ones that are starting to turn orange? how long from the
start of orange to actually being ripe?

Problem here is we can barely get to them LOL. The pumpkin "patch" is so
dense, we can barely get into it to swee the pumpkins, let alone touh them