Vegetable Garden Update: Squash and Melons

The squash and melons also had a rough start. We made some mounds out on the land, outside of the fenced garden area, so in addition to pest like earwigs and worms,  they were pray to rabbits, squirrels and our own chickens.

We planted summer squash, including green and yellow zucchini, winter squash like acorn squash, water melon, honeydew and cantaloupe.As they first started to sprout, they were getting eaten by some sort of pests so Ron protected them with water bottles by cutting off the bottoms and putting over the plants. That helped them get started and once we took the bottles off, the squashes started doing very well. We put some deer netting over them for a while to keep the rabbits, squirrels and chickens off. Now, they are flowering and producing lots of great looking fruit.

The melons on the other hand kept struggling and finally died off.  We planted them a little early and the nights were still a little cold, so Ron started some watermelon seeds in the house. Now they are outside and looking healthy with some deer netting to help keep out critters.