New Plantings

August is about the time to get seeds going for the winter garden, so I've read. The first frost comes to North Florida in mid November and the last one is typically late February or early March. So I have a good 100+ days before the frost.

Winter harvest is kind a new concept for me, but I've been reading about plants that do well in the cool and cold weather. The picture above is some plantings I did today. I just want to document them.

The 10 pot flat on the right is half spaghetti squash and half butternut. The 8 pot flat is all Hopi squash, which is technically a summer squash, but I'm going to try my luck. The three round pots each have two pumpkin seeds planted and the black flat on the left has six spots with chinese cabbage. I'm going to try my hand at the graduated planting. New concept for me, yet totally obvious and sensible. Every two weeks, I plant another six of those. After I transplant them into the garden, they will mature over time instead of all at once.

Squash need to come in more or less together because they need to have blossoms at the same time to pollinate. Though, as I discovered this Spring when my volunteer pumpkins were came up right next to my yellow crooknecks, cross-pollinating squash can cause some undesirable effects.

In addition to what is planted, I've got seeds for carrots, onions, cabbage, spinach and other leafy greens. The underground and the leafy stuff do better in the cool weather apparently. Once I turn my mulched beds I can start planting them, though I'm in no hurry. We'll still have daytime temps in the 90s for another month and a half.