Peas are coming up in the Square Foot Garden May 2, 2010

Peas are coming up in the Square Foot Garden May 2, 2010, originally uploaded by Campobello Island.

Both varieties of peas broke through the soil so that's the first crop direct sown in the garden to start growing.

We are about three week away from our traditional last frost date so I've decided that today would be a good day to plant squash, pumpkins and cucumbers in the light garden. Many gardening books and seed packets don't recommend starting squash indoors due to the difficulty in transplanting them. Maybe this will be the year that I have a problem with them but I have done this many years in the past without and losses due to transplanting. To the contrary I have problems when I direct seed them in the garden. The tender plants that have just emerged from the ground are very susceptible to slug and other insect attacks, but transplants with several sets of leaves stand a much better chance of survival. A list of the varieties that I planted today:

Fun With Winter Squash – A mixture of heirloom squash varieties saved by members of the Yahoo Group Heirloom Gardening.
East Elite Winter Squash
Blue Hubbard Squash
White Wonder Cucumber
Lemon Cucumber
Boothby's Blonde Cucumber
Big Max Pumpkin

I will also be planting Carmen the English Greenhouse Cucumber but I prefer to direct seed that one into a grow bag in the greenhouse, it really does not like to be transplanted.

The squash and pumpkins will not actually be in the square foot garden. I have a large raised bed, 7 by 13 feet, which doesn't make it appropriate for square foot gardening so I plan to plant it full of squash and pumpkins. Squash is one of my favorite vegetables so it will be fun to try all of the different varieties that will hopefully result from this planting.