5 Tips in Storing Your Winter Squash

Most farmers and gardeners are in love with winter squash. They love to plant and grow winter squash because it can be easily stored and it can last long even during winter. Winter squash just like the summer squash are planted and grown from spring until the summer season. The only difference is that, winter squash takes more time to mature compared to the summer squash varieties. While summer squash is harvested during the summer, the winter squash varieties are harvested during fall.

Here are 5 Tips in Storing Your Winter Squash

source: gardenbetty

1. Curing  

If you want your winter squash to last through the winter, then, it must be properly cured. To do this, you need to make sure that your winter squash will have the right water content value before it is stored for the winter. You can easily achieve this by putting your freshly harvested squash in a dry and sunny area for about a week or two.

source: sustainablemarketfarming

2. Storage Conditions  

You can store your squash in a shelf, cabinet, or a drawer it’s up to you. Just make sure that the storage temperature is at 50 degrees Fahrenheit and you store them in a dark place.

source: nwedible

3. Wrap Them  Up

Wrap your squash individually in a paper before storing them. Make sure that your wrapped squash do not touch each other and is not placed in a hard surface.

source: agreenroutine

4. While in Storage  

Check your stored squash regularly. Make sure that your squash have no soft spots in them and check for damaged fruits. To avoid bruising, turn the squash every time you check them.

source: mlive

5. Longevity of Stored Squash

When stored properly, winter squash can last until February. If you notice that your stored squash starts to get soft, then, it is a sign that your squash should be taken out and prepared to be cooked and to be eaten.

source by : http://freshorganicgardening.com/5-tips-in-storing-your-winter-squash/5/

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Garden To-Do List For November

November. It’s the month we start looking forward to the holidays. It is also the month when garden chores seriously start to slow down. But even though, there are still some tasks the gardener must attend to before finally hanging the spade. Here’s our suggested to-do list for this month…

TIPS IN GENERAL

Mulch. Mulching is beneficial to organic gardening because it helps keep soil warm during the winter, helps retain moisture during the summer, kills weeds, encourages microbial activity in the soil, improves soil structure, deters some soil pests and protects the roots of plants from extreme temperatures. Mulching before winter sets in also keeps plants from heaving out of the ground. The best time to mulch is after the ground starts to freeze but before the first snow falls.

Read our post on Mulching for general guidelines and mulch materials for vegetable gardens.

Weed now and lessen your chores next spring.

Compost. Start a compost pile with the materials you have pulled out of the beds (but make sure these are not diseased) and all the leaves you have raked. Homemade compost is the secret to a successful organic garden so start composting now if you haven’t done so yet.

Read our compost related posts:

Why Should I Compost?

Easy Composting Tips For Your Organic Garden

Materials You Can And Should Not Compost

Hot Composting Vs Cold Composting

Have your soil tested. If there are areas in your garden where plants refused to thrive this year, take a sample of soil from there and send it for testing to your local Cooperative Extension service. Some amendments can be spread or incorporated into the soil before the ground freezes. Adding necessary amendments early will also allow slow-acting amendments like lime to become available to plants next spring.

Cover crops. November is also a good time to plant cover crops, also known as green manure. These crops are specifically grown to turn back into the soil which improves the soil’s structure. Nitrogen fixing plants like Austrian field peas and fava beans convert nitrogen from the air and release it to the soil as plant nutrient.

Read this post to know other crops to sow: Winter Cover Crops: What Green Manure to Sow for Overwintering

Related posts:

Cover Crops: How Green Manure Help Your Garden

Sowing and Tilling Cover Crops

VEGETABLES, HERBS, FRUITS

To get a head start on such early crops like peas and spinach, prepare a seedbed for them now. You can even sow spinach this month – though not peas – and ensure an early spring harvest.

Mulch your strawberries with straw.

Pot up your parsley and chives and bring them indoors. If you have garlic, pot up a few cloves too. These will yield chive-like garlic greens all winter that you can use for garnish. If you have a really sunny windowsill even during the cold months, you can sow seeds of herbs like basil and peppermint in a pot.

Related Post: 12 Herbs to Grow Indoors in the Winter

Till and prepare your soil now if you plan to grow strawberries or asparagus next spring. By doing this, you can plant the bare-root plants you will order over the winter extra early come spring.

Harvest broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, collards, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, leeks, lettuce, parsnips, peas, potatoes and radishes.

Once raspberries are finished producing fruit, prune the fruiting top sections and leave the lower section of branch for next year’s early crop.

Freeze or can your bounty. Hang your herbs in a cool dry place.

PEST/DISEASE CONTROL

Control harmful insects by keeping insect eating birds around. Put out a feeder to bring the birds closer and keep them active in your garden. Birds can help lessen the number of overwintering insects in your garden, minimizing your pest problems next year.

Remove any infected plant material from your garden to keep any disease from spreading and reinfecting your crops next year.

EQUIPMENT

Drain the gas from gas powered equipment like lawnmowers before storing them.

Open sprinkler valves and drain water from sprinkler systems to keep them from freezing.

Drain and store hoses.

Empty terra cotta and ceramic pots. Sterilize them with a mixture of 1:9 parts bleach and water. Store them bottom up in a protected area to keep them from cracking.

Start cleaning your garden tools and put them away until next spring.

Related Post: Tips for Cleaning Your Garden Tools Organically

source by : http://freshorganicgardening.com/garden-to-do-list-for-november/

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7 Secret Tricks to Get the Most Produce Out Of Your Vegetable Garden

Do not let a limited garden space hamper your dreams of abundant harvest. Having a small area to work with does not mean you cannot harvest more crops. In reality it is doable! You just need to work a little bit more to make this dream turn into a reality. Here’s how to do it.

7 Secret Tricks to Get the Most Produce Out Of Your Vegetable Garden

1. Build Up Your Soil

If you want to extract more yields from your vegetable garden, the first thing you need to do is to build up your garden soil. The best thing to accomplish this task is to add organic matter to your soil. Aged animal manure and organic compost will do the trick. After you have finished adding organic matters into your soil, the next thing to do is to make raised beds. Raised beds can yield you up to four times more than just planting and growing crops in rows. Using raised beds will maximize the space in your garden resulting in much greater yield.

2. Round Out Your Beds

It is not enough to just make raised beds in your garden. The shape of your beds will also play an important part. Since raised beds are more space efficient, the best thing to do to your raised beds is to make sure that the top of the bed is rounded to form an arc. This may seem not a big deal but once you start planting and growing your crops, you will see a big difference in terms of planting space and crop yield during harvest.

3. Spacing is the key

The way you plant your crops is also a big factor to get the maximum amount of crop yield from each of your garden beds. Instead of planting your crops in square patterns or rows, why not plant them like forming a triangle. Planting in a triangle pattern can add about 12 percent more plants to each of your garden beds.

4. Use Vertical Gardening

If you have a small garden space to work with, you can still plant more crops by going vertical. Plant vine crop vegetables such as tomatoes, beans, squash, melons, peas, and other vegetable crops that grows vertically. Just make sure to support your vertical garden by using trellis, fences, stakes, or anything that can be used in vertical gardening.

5. Mix It Up

If you really want to maximize your garden space, then, interplanting crops is a great way to do it. Plant corn together with pole beans and squash in the same area in your garden. The corn will serve as a support once your pole beans start to climb while the squash can grow freely on the ground and serves as protection to competing weeds.

6. Plant in Succession

Growing more than one crop in the same space in the garden is also a great way to get the most out of your garden. During the planting season, do some succession planting in your garden. This way you can harvest up to about four different crops from a single area. You can do this by planting different crops that grows and matures fast. For example, If you plant and harvest lettuce, you can follow it up by planting corn, then, followed by some fast maturing greens. This is done within the same planting season.

7. Stretch Your Season

You can stretch your planting season by growing crops that matures fast. Lettuce, kale, turnips, and tomatoes are just some of the examples. You can also stretch your planting season by making sure your soil is warm enough and have a good air circulation even during the colder months. Do this by applying mulch around your plants, putting row covers, or using cold frames to protect the crops in your garden.

source by : http://freshorganicgardening.com/7-secret-tricks-to-get-the-most-produce-out-of-your-vegetable-garden/6/

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5 How-To’s in Preparing Your Garden For Winter

When the leaves starts to fall in your garden and the breeze of the air starts to sting the skin because of its coldness, then, this is nature’s way of saying that winter is just around the corner. This also means that taking care of your garden is now a priority that should not be taken for granted. So, before winter finally sets in, it is wise to manage your garden and prepare it for the winter so that when the cold weather arrives, you can just relax in your homes without worrying about your gardens condition.

5 How-To’s in Preparing Your Garden for winter

source: devisserlandscape

1. How to Prepare Perennials for winter

How do you prepare your perennials for the winter? Here’s how to do it.

After frost, cut your perennial stems to soil level. This will remove the eggs and spores of the garden pests that still linger in your plants.

All dead plant debris must be cut and made into compost to be used as organic matter that will add nutrients to the soil.

Put winter mulch into your soil once the ground freezes. This will prevent rodents and other garden pests from nesting into your garden.

To keep the soil warm and moist even during winter, and to protect the plants that are still growing in your garden, put mulch around them. Pine needles, chopped leaves, and shrubs are the best mulch to be used.

source: truevalueprojects

2. How to Prepare Bulbs for winter

The most important thing to remember on how to prepare your bulbs for the winter is to make sure that your garden soil does not crack and shift due to the freezing temperature. To avoid shifting and cracking of soil, put mulch around your bulb beds. This will keep the soil warm and moist which is very important for your bulbs.

source: lowes

3. How to Prepare Trees for winter

Trees in the garden should also be protected during winter. Wrapping the trunks and stems of your trees with tree-guard products will do the job. You can also shade or use burlap screens to your trees to control the damage that is brought about by the cold wind of winter.

source: ourhabitatgarden

4. How to Make Leaf Mold

Creating a leaf mold will encourage the growth of helpful bacteria that is beneficial to the soil. It will also enrich the soil and in turn makes the crops that will be grown in the soil have a better quality and more yield during harvest. Making leaf mold is easy. If you have an empty composting bin, you can use this to pile up leaves and to keep them contained so that the breakdown process can start. You can also assemble your very own leaf mold container by building a very simple structure using chicken wires and used boards.  Also, keep your leaf mold wet at all times. This will help in the growth of fungi which is essential in the success of your leaf mold.

source: rhs.org

5. How to Control Weeds

You can use your leaf mold to control the growth of weeds in your garden during winter. To do this, just spread your leaf mold in your garden. The leaf mold will block the sun making it impossible for weed seeds to germinate.

source by : http://freshorganicgardening.com/5-how-tos-in-preparing-your-garden-for-winter/5/

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