Misadventures in veggie gardening, exhibit A: I don’t think we spaced our seedlings correctly in some of our beds, like this one, and so our zucchinis are on their way to invading the leeks. At least we are able to guide the stems and leaves away and off the sides of the bed for now — does this stunt the zucchini at all? It seems hardy and unstoppable.
Also, the growth from the several cosmos flowers on the other side (not pictured) are beginning to invade the leeks from the left front, so I think I need to prune those a bit. Any tips on keeping this bed in order, or what to consider for next time? I think one or two zucchini plants would have been fine — we have seven! — and/or I’d give them their own bed. General advice, including “WTF are you thinking?!” comments, are welcome 🙂
Uh, yeh…leave at least 4 feet between anything and any squash plant…in fact if you have raised beds, plant them at the end and let them droop over the sides–especially good for hard squashes like butternut, which you can actually watch grow several feet ina day and pretend you are in a science fiction movie.
Next, the leeks needed to be separated–I mean very single one of those is a leek. ..I know one 4″ container usually has about 100 leeks in it,,,you can probably move those closest to the zucchini and not have a worry, separating before planting again…the cosmos won’t bother the leeks..don’t trim them–they are supposed to be wild looking…but wherever you planted them, they do reseed themselves vigorously.
This my brother Jim’s garden on July 20— http://hopeandallen.com/today/July17.html He has 16 beds 3″x 28″x 12″…adds a sack of manure, two handfuls of dolomite, and 2 handfuls of Triple 16 to each at the beginning of the season…nothing else except water…
Pick some of those zucchini flowers to put on pizza or in your scrambled eggs!
Thank you — we’ll be separating the leeks very soon!
Wow, your brother’s garden — lots of stuff happening there 🙂
Yeah. Just to add to the above: you could leave the leeks as they are but they will only be good for eating very small. Separate them and space them about four inches apart, lots of water and feed and you will have plentiful leeks come the autumn/winter. Seven zucchini fruiting well – if you ate them all, there would be a risk of you and Nick turning yellow and long and slim!
Thanks for the advice on the leeks — I’ll tackle them this weekend!