It’s mid-July and we have planted the full 38’ x 50’ plot! We pulled back the silage tarp row by row as we were ready to plant, with the first plants going in after under 2 weeks, and ended up with 11 rows at 38’ long each.
A peek at the squash plants after the cardboard was done and before we added compost and straw.
Instead of tilling the soil to start, we dug out holes right into the heat-killed weeds and added some compost collected on the property, then transplanted in squash and pumpkin plants (which I had started inside from seed at the start of June). Surrounding each plant, we lay down cardboard my neighbors were giving away and topped that with additional compost to help slow weed growth. We had some lightly composted straw that we ringed around the plants to help with water retention.
Gus loaded up with the sweet potatoes, marigolds and perennial herbs we were interplanting into the squash vines
In addition to the squash + sweet potato rows we planted our first larger block of cover crop of buckwheat and clover. I just emptied some larger seed packets full of the 2 varieties into a yogurt container, then asked my son Gus to scatter it over the area. The kids also helped by sowing clusters of cowpeas between the 1st 2 rows of squash, then I went back through and interplanted some sorghum seeds.
During that first week we tested a soil sample and were so pleased to find that the topsoil in the field (before even adding compost!) tested as high in nitrogen and adequate in phosphorus, plus in healthy pH range making for a great foundation to build on.
Nate and my dad putting down lime to mark the rows. Millie in the foreground planting cowpeas.
SQUASH, etc. KEY: BH - Blue Hubbard / RK - Red Kuri / Ct - Connecticut Field Pumpkin / BhG - Birdhouse Gourd / Bn - Butternut / Sg - Spaghetti Squash / Se - Seminole Pumpkin / SwP - sweet potato
We kept the upper right stretch of the plot (the white rows and pink rectangle above) under the silage tarp for a couple extra weeks, which was a huge help. Now that the full field has been uncovered we can so a tremendous difference between the rows that were under the tarp for 2 weeks vs. those that got the full 4 weeks or more. So far, there’s almost no weed growth (beyond what we brought in with the compost) in those later rows that got more tarp-time!
Update: once the squash had been in the field for about 1 week.
One Saturday we put in the remaining transplants - watermelon, eggplant, tomatoes interplanted with zinnias, calendula and sunflowers.
This final round of planting was super satisfying, because it matched my vision for what I had hoped permanent in-ground raised rows would look like. We marked out the rows with a rope tied to a brick and dumped wheelbarrow loads of compost along the line until we had several inches thick of pretty good tilth to plant seeds into. I smoothed the compost over with our bed prep rake, then gave it another pass with the prep rake loaded up with some row marker tips that carved out several parallel lines so we could drop in seeds for several mini-rows side-by-side.
Finally, we reserved the far right corner for another stretch of buckwheat and crimson clover, to serve as both future green manure plus draw some pollinators in that all the squash will need ASAP.
Take-aways at 1 month:
Next time we use the silage tarp, I will try to take the time to spread out the compost under the tarp so that the weed seeds in the compost get heat-killed. We’ve got burdock root popping up all over that was growing in the compost!
Planting sorghum and cowpeas between rows of squash is already quite crowded after the first month of growth, since our rows are only 3’ (with 20” paths). Some of those interior squash plants are going to be on their own for bug control very soon!
I thought we might have some beginner’s luck and escape pressure from squash vine borers this first year (maybe the moths wouldn’t find us yet??) but we absolutely had some tough ones to remove.
The deer fence was working —until it wasn’t! We had something get in and chew up leaves from the spaghetti squash and pumpkin plants, but my dad added a higher cross bar above the gate where they seemed to be getting in. Otherwise, the rabbits are paying us some attention and are chewing on the sweet potato vines plus marigold flowers (which were there for pest control - mission not accomplished)