Last spring, I decided to save a little money by starting my garden seedlings myself rather than paying retail. Since we don’t have a greenhouse yet, I thought my dining room table would do the trick. I started five kinds of tomatoes, three kinds of flowers, two kinds of squash, and I started them all WAY too early. Minnesota gardening is difficult, though, as one year we are thinking of sowing some lettuce and radish seeds in April and other years our “April showers” require a shovel. My dining room greenhouse flourished, but by the time Memorial Day weekend rolled around the flowers were looking peaked and the squash plants were pretty limp and disheveled. Still, I planted those squash in hills, along with a few zucchini seeds. June was cold and cloudy, and one by one the squash succumbed to too much rain and too little sunshine. None of the zucchini seeds germinated. It is pretty embarrassing for someone who calls herself a Farm Woman to have a garden without zucchini, the one vegetable that even a monkey could grow without even trying. Once the weather warmed up, I cleared the dead plants from the hills and direct sowed seeds of Sunshine squash, Buttercup squash, and two types of zucchini. I had worked late that day and rushed out between rain showers, but with our short growing season they needed to be in the ground or I wouldn’t have a crop. I threw in a few extra seeds, in case the reason they didn’t germinate was because I had a bad batch. Since the ground was so warm and moist, they germinated quickly and took off. Whew. I planted 18 hills altogether and should give me a good combination of both summer and winter squash, plus plenty to give away to my non-gardening friends. I did lose a few plants again, but there were plenty left and they looked healthy. I was checking them out the other day and noticed something funny. Well, really more strange than funny. All of the plants that lived look suspiciously like zucchini. I can’t tell until they start fruiting, but I think that maybe the winter squash were the plants that died, leaving me with 14 zucchini plants. I don’t remember planting that many, but I counted them. Fourteen. You can stop laughing now.
Zucchini bread, anyone?
Oh can I relate. This has been just a horrible year in Minnesota. Thought that I would share a funny story about last year. I like you, started seeds inside. I never thought all seeds would take but……I gave away 45 Roam tomato plants last year, leaving me with 45. I palnted them all, and yikes did they produce. (I still have some frozen) But I bought 6 zucchini, and they turned out to be squash! We don’t eat much of that.
This year, I sowed many less, and not one of my tomato plants germinated, the only thing that took was my zinnias. What a disappointment. There is always next year right?
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“Next year, next year” is my mantra. That’s always the way iy works. You’re lucky to have some in the freezer. Romas always do great here…I tried some of the San Martzano “real” Italian tomatoes a couple of years ago and they tasted good, but each plant gave me only 5 tomatoes. Thanks for reading and commenting!
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My husband was raised in a family of six kids, and of course, a family garden was a necessity. He refuses to eat zucchini in any form. He tells horror stories of being forced to take the red wagon filled with the darn things throughout the neighborhood to try to pawn them off on neighbors because his dad went a little berserk with plants one year. Pretty sure people closed their curtains when they saw that poor kid coming down the sidewalk with all those squash…thanks for making me chuckle tonight! 🙂
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Now you’re making ME laugh…..my husband was raised in a family with six kids and was also forced to garden. He does not pull weeds. He will till, erect fences, etc, but no weeds. It was part of the marriage vows. He, too has stories of the red wagon and being sent to sell extra veggies…..
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Oh, lawd! Your post made me laugh and the comment from the Loon Whisper just about had me falling out of my chair!
I planted San Martzano tomatoes one year and I think I only got 3 1/2 per plant. That variety didn’t make the cut. I need at least 4 1/2 tomatoes per plant.
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Yes, Jackie, and I SO wanted those San Martzanos so I could proudly say “Oh yes, here are my canned San Martzanos. They are heirlooms from Italy, you know”. Instead, I just throw the ‘maters in freezer bags and go from there. Thanks for reading, and for commenting!
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The biggest trick about gardening is knowing what grows best for where you are. Up here, in “The Great White North”, Italian/sauce tomatoes are always Romas (matter-of-fact, I’m going to go look up San Martizanos as soon as I finish here.)
You’ll probably have better luck with direct seeding your vines. They don’t seem to like being transplanted at all (roots are just too delicate, I think). To help them along earlier, my Dad used old tires as “hills” to plant them in. They love the extra heat – both from being above the ground and from the solar heat attracted by the tire itself and, later on in the “dog days” of summer, that tire (now totally buried under greenery) would help hold moisture around the roots!
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Yes, I love my good old Romas. They give me lots of delicious tomatoes, they do well here in the north, they are an heirloom, and one fall, after two heavy frosts, I was clearing out everything and still had about 20 Romas that survived under the vines….one more taste of summer. Thanks for reading and for commenting!
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Yes, Romas are awesome tough, aren’t they? Did you know that you can pull your plants (cage and all if you use them) and take them in under cover to ripen right on the plant? I stash mine in our unheated garage until it gets too cold, then pack em up and take the rest inside. We’ve eaten Bruschetta for Christmas brunch more than once! (and boy does it taste good; )
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I knew they did that in Italy, but I didn’t know I could do that here in MN. I will try iy this fall…..can’t hurt! Thanks for the tip.
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