Squash is easy to grow, and an easy way to get lots of homegrown meals without much effort.  If you've been stuck in a rut of too much zucchini and not enough variety, it's time to explore the many flavors, uses, and kinds of squash.

A refresher on the terms:

The squashes we eat are the fruit of the squash plant. If the fruit grows to full maturity, with a hard shell and mature seeds, it can keep for a long time after picking. Since they can be stored for winter food, they are called winter squash. 

The immature fruits can also be eaten while the skin is still soft and seeds haven't hardened. Some varieties have been selected to be especially tasty at that young tender stage. Varieties eaten when young are called summer squash, or zucchini (which means "little squash" in Italian.) 

Both kinds of squash can be started indoors if your season is short or your garden soil isn't ready. But I usually direct-sow into warm soil after our last frost date. What with one thing and another, I usually don't get them in until June, so don't worry about it too much unless you have an extremely short or cool growing season. The seed-grown plants develop deep, strong root systems that really help in our dry climate. And they catch up quickly with pot-grown starts. 

Squash doesn't need a fine seedbed or perfect soil prep. What they do want is plenty of organic matter. You may have seen a squash plant growing from a compost heap. That combination of fertility, loose texture, warmth, and moisture is squash heaven. The squash bed is the perfect place to bury any organic matter that holds moisture, like weeds, kitchen waste, or manure. (They are good candidates for Hugelkulture (burying wet wood) as well.) If you screen out the chunks in your compost for crops like lettuce and cabbage, you can put the chunky bits on the squash bed. Squash can eat most anything. The plants are big enough to romp over a few clods, rocks, or weeds, but mulch will help keep weeds from going to seed as well as holding moisture in the soil and reducing pests and disease. Dead leaves or straw make a good mulch.

Summer squash may run out of steam in late summer, so plan on giving it a boost with some compost or fish emulsion in August. A trick worth knowing is to put weeds into a bucket, fill it with water, and let it sit for 3-10 days, until the weeds start to decompose. This makes a wonderful liquid food for a midseason boost. (And a great way to use weeds you'd rather not put into the compost.) Or you can plant new seedlings in mid-summer for late production.

Summer Squash

Zucchini are famously productive, and that's a good thing, in spite of all the jokes about trying to get rid of them. There are several reasons people get swamped with them, and each has a solution.

• It's easy to plant too many in the first place, especially if you have seedlings you've started in pots. Who wants to compost the little plants you've nurtured? But think of all the food you could grow in that space, and all the grocery bills you could eliminate if you plant more kinds of things. Better to be realistic about your needs and give the seedlings to a neighbor, your chickens, or the compost pile. Or pot them on into bigger pots to have as spares.
  
• Pick zucchini at a smaller size. The ones in the store are too big for best flavor. If you pick them at 6" or less the flavor and texture will be optimum. (In Italy they're picked while the flower is still attached.) You might eat 3 small ones per person instead of one, so they disappear fast.
• There are more summer squash flavors than just green zucchini. If you're used to grocery-store zucchini, you might not know how flavorful and good a variety like Cocozelle or Zapallo can be. Shape, flavor, and texture do vary somewhat.
• Most cooks in this country don't have a large repertoire of zucchini recipes. If your resources don't go beyond watery boiled zucchini and zucchini bread, get some Italian recipes. We love them fried, roasted, or cooked on the grill instead of boiled. We use them all summer as the basis for a pasta sauce. Have you ever tried them mashed with a bit of milk and butter, Southern-style? Or curried? Or lightly steamed or boiled and then marinated in olive oil and lemon for a cold summer salad? Just cut in halves or quarters lengthwise, drizzle with oil, and run under the broiler or put in the oven while something else bakes. That way they make a great side dish or snack, alone or with dip. In addition to cookbooks, there are several YouTube channels devoted to authentic Italian home cooking.
• Most people don't know they can preserve zucchini for the winter. They freeze well after cooking (not just blanched like other vegetables.) You could make a big batch of roasted or mashed zucchini, or some tomato-zucchini pasta sauce, and freeze it. You can also dry squash, which is what the Native American people who originally cultivated it did. Carol Deppe developed her Goldini summer squash especially for drying. She uses the dried slices all winter in soups and stews. If you don't want to bother with preserving, read on. Winter squash is the crop for you.

Winter Squash

One rule of thumb I use is not to plant a lot of something unless it can be stored or preserved for the rest of the year. So we plant more dry storage beans than green beans. We plant more sauce tomatoes than cherry tomatoes. And more winter squash than summer squash. Like dry beans, these require no processing or preserving. They require no special storage or infrastructure--no root cellar, freezer, or refrigerator. They keep at room temperature. They keep longest in a very dry place with good air circulation. Like a kitchen shelf, under a table, or on the attic floor.  

If your perfect spot is hard to access, opt for the less-than-perfect place where you'll actually use them! First, use those that are slightly immature, have soft spots or cuts, or got nipped by frost. Then store the rest in an airy place and check them every so often. Actually, check them when you pick one up for dinner. And don't forget to keep eating them. They are one of the sweet, creamy joys of winter.

Pepita Pumpkins are in a class by themselves. They take all season and grow to maturity like a winter squash. But then you cut them open and harvest the seeds, instead of storing the squash itself. Who doesn't want a tasty nutty snack food you can grow yourself?



When you pick which winter squash to plant, select a pair--one for early eating September through December, and one long-keeper for January-May.

Fall types don't need more than about 2 weeks of curing (sitting at room temperature) for great flavor, so you can use them soon after harvest. They keep about 3 months--into December or January. Delicata and Acorn squash both fill that slot. Both are quite sweet, and perfect for one or two servings. When I worked in an office, I used to bring one and microwave it in the break room for a sweet afternoon treat.

The long-storing types store up to 8 months and tend to be bigger.  Cooked squash reheats with no loss of flavor. I like to bake a big squash and freeze some, or use it in different dishes over the week. They are great for soup, gnocchi, pie, and other recipes as well as just baked or roasted. Our varieties range from a drier, more potato-like texture (Stella Blue) to a creamier more yam-like texture (Oregon Homestead). None are as dry as the Hubbards on the one hand or as moist as many pumpkins or French squashes on the other--I like a balanced, versatile texture. 

Moschata (butternut) types are most popular in the market because they store and ship well, peel easily, and have very firm, smooth, moist flesh. They tend to be a bit bland, but I've picked ours  for best flavor. South Anna Butternut is very sweet and very disease-and-pest-resistant. Canada Crookneck has a rich, excellent flavor, and matures most quickly. I also love the long, seedless neck, which is so easy to use in the kitchen.

Maxima types are especially sweet and fine-flavored when fully mature. Lower Salmon River is one of the sweetest, one of the earliest, and also one of the longest-keeping. I've had them last over winter until June. Carol Deppe's Oregon Homestead was selected for three things: great flavor, small seed cavity (more meat,) and the ability to sprout and grow when direct-sown into cold mud. Carol tells the story of breeding this squash (and the tons of squash she tasted in the process,) in her wonderful book The Resilient Gardener. Stella Blue was bred in Humboldt County California from Japanese types like Kubocha and Kuri squash. It's very sweet and rich in flavor, dry in texture. All of these are gourmet-quality treats.

A NOTE ON SEED SAVING
I always include the species in variety descriptions in case you save seed. There are three species of squash common in the US. Plants of the same species will cross with each other--but not with other species. If you are not saving seed, you can grow all kinds with no worries--they won't affect each other.

If you are saving seed, you can grow one variety of each species.  Each species has both summer and winter types.  For example, you could grow Pepita pumpkins for edible seeds (C. pepo), Zapallo  summer squash (C. maxima) and Butternut winter squash (C. moschata) together in one garden with no crossing. (assuming no near neighbors with squash.)

If you have ever grown pumpkins and zucchini in the same garden and saved seed, you've probably experienced the "pumpkini"--with hard seeds and watery tasteless flesh. If you want to save seed from zucchini, choose a maxima squash like Lower Salmon River or Oregon Homestead instead of a regular Halloween pumpkin (the flavor's better anyway!) You could also grow a moschata like Canada Crookneck or Butternut without crossing issues. (Remember, too, that to save seed you have to let some fruits mature fully, to the point where the skin is hard and the seeds are mature.)

These are Cucurbita pepo:

These are Cucurbita maxima:

These are Cucurbita moschata:

You may have put down cardboard to kill weeds, remove a cover crop, or turn lawn to vegetables. The cardboard kills unwanted plants by depriving them of the light they need to live. That is occultation. 

Recently, farmers have adapted it for faster use on larger areas. At Quail, we use occultation to clear the ground for our summer crops. By putting down an opaque cover in spring, we will have weed-free, plantable soil in time for summer transplants.

As in all of life, there are trade-offs: you are able to eliminate the labor and soil disturbance of tilling, weeding, or spading, at the cost of the material for covering and a month of occultation time. You don't have the fuel or carbon loss of tillage, but you are using plastic. Much like drip irrigation or hoop house coverings, the plastic tarps or sheeting for occultation can be re-used, but they are still plastic. And occultation uses time as a tool--you do have to wait for the biology of the plants to do the work. Very large areas tarped for very long can suffer from oxygen deprivation; that does not apply to the small areas, light tarps, and short occultation time we use or recommend. It does ease the need for strong backs and long hours digging or hoeing. Of the four family members involved in Quail, two of us are elders, two have disabilities of some sort, and one works two jobs besides Quail. I spend most days in the office filling orders. This technique allows us to have a modest but useful amount of space for food, seed, herbs, and trials in spite of those limitations.

On our growing beds, we use a mix of methods--winter mulches and cover crops to prevent weeds; hoeing to prepare for spring crops, and occultation in spring for summer crops. Farmers who use occultation to prepare the soil for early spring crops put down tarps in the fall. We prefer to have growing roots in the ground during winter, and to let rain soak in. We tarp the beds about the time the rains taper off, so our tarps help hold the winter's moisture for summer crops, and keep worms and other soil life active near the surface. 

By letting the weeds or cover crops grow lush, then cutting them and leaving them on the soil surface,  our technique provides food for worms and other soil life. They incorporate the plant material into the soil without us having to till it in or bury it. By the time we take the tarps off in May, the plant matter is almost entirely gone, turned into soil.

1) Here we are in spring, with plum blossoms and a lush growth of weeds and cover crops. We are on an old pasture, so tough perennial clumping grasses seed into the beds among the cover crops.

When there are winter crops we want to keep, like these green onions, we either position the tarps so that the plants are on an edge, or we move the plants. The hand sickle is a great tool for attacking tough stems or weeding around areas too delicate for mowing. We disconnect and coil up the drip irrigation, if it hasn't been done already.

2) We mow the garden area with a string trimmer, leaving the cut material on the ground. Notice the plants are tall and lush, but not yet stringy or setting seed. This is the sweet spot for all cover crops--whether they are cultivated ones or random weeds, they should be cut while juicy and green. To speed breakdown of the cut plants, we water the whole area after mowing and before spreading the tarp. It's one of the few times we use a sprinkler instead of drip or hand watering.

3) Next, we roll out the covering material. It needs to be lightproof, so corrugated cardboard works, if you can find enough of it. Don't use tarps from the hardware store that are meant to keep your woodpile, boat, or car dry. Lightproof tarps are now sold by farm supply stores and mail-order outlets. Sometimes they're called "blackout tarps." Other very heavy ones are called "silage tarps." 

We use ordinary black plastic sheeting, sold by the roll at the lumberyard or hardware store. It's easy to handle, cheap, folds or rolls for storage after use, and lasts at least 5 years. We cut it into 20 x 25 ft pieces, which each cover 3 of our planting beds and adjacent pathways. It comes folded to only 3 ft wide on the roll. Once rolled out in place, we can unfold it to its full width. Here's the start of the process. We've lined up the first edge on a straight line at right angles to the main path. Next we will unfold it.

4) Here it is after unfolding in place. Note we've weighted the edge with steel fenceposts to keep the wind from lifting it as we work. It's important to line up plenty of weights before you start--scrap lumber, sandbags, rocks, or rebar all work. The wind is able to shift heavier items than you'd think, so count on using many small-to mid-size weights. 

5) Here you see the entire area covered. This area took four  20 x 25' pieces. We try for at least 2 to 3 feet of overlap on the pieces, and weight them down well. If you have a prevailing wind direction, make sure that you start downwind and work upwind so that the edges don't scoop wind underneath. 

The drip tubing is light but wide, so it really helps to keep the plastic flat and in contact with the ground. It's a good way to keep track of the driplines for each bed too, so they are at hand when it's time to plant.

6) Now it's 1-2 months later, and the land is hot and dry. The plastic is dusty and a bit wrinkled but still in place. It's time to peel it back, fold it up, and store it for another year.

7) When we lift the tarp, it's amazing how little vegetation is left. This little heap of dead weeds is all we raked up from a 200 sq ft area, and we'll use it for mulch. Some plant matter composted in place. Worms and beetles dragged much underground. It's all been digested into good soil.  We'll just water, spread compost, and plant.

Total area occulted: 1100 square feet. (Eight beds 22' x 4', with 2' wide paths.) Total time removing irrigation, mowing, and tarping: four hours. Total time raking afterward: about 20 minutes.

Here is one of our main reasons for using occultation. This is a random clod of dirt from the area after occultation. The soil texture is much improved. Organic matter is distributed throughout the top 8" of soil. There are many worm tunnels, and millions of pores that harbor oxygen and allow easy penetration by water and roots.

 Here's another reason we like the tarps better than tilling and disrupting the area. This little lizard was able to take shelter under the tarp, happily eating bugs and hiding from the cat. Looks like there was an earlier run-in with cat, raven, or some other predator--notice that her tail is in the process of re-growing.

Purple Tree Collards are a type of collard (Brassica oleracea, var. acephala) that is perennial wherever the ground doesn't freeze solid in the winter (typically zones 8-10, though some people grow them in colder zones with winter protection. They are prized for their tender texture, mild sweet flavor, and especially for their year-round production. This year-round leaf production is due not so much to their cold-hardiness (many kales are hardier) but to their inability to flower and make seed. 

Most leafy greens produce leaves in their vegetative phase, then move on to the flowering phase. In flowering phase, they stop making new leaves, stretch out, and make large branching stalks of flowers. The flowers turn to seed pods, which take a couple ofmonths to ripen fully before the seed is mature--at which time the plant usually dies. Some perennial collards don't die after making seed. But even if the plant survives, it doesn't provide a usable harvest of leaves during the flowering/ripening parts of the cycle--which is almost half the year. The big advantage of tree collards as a food plant is not only that they don't die, but that they don't bolt to flower, or spend months ripening seed, staying perpetually in the vegetative, leaf-producing state. It is thought that Purple Tree Collards are a natural hybrid that's unable to make seed because of genetic incompatibility. Whatever the reason, the outcome is a beloved heirloom that has been passed down by cuttings for over a century.

There are several strains of perennial kales and collards in the Channel Islands of Britain, where there are wild cabbages/kales/collards that can cross with cultivated ones, and the foggy, moist climate is ideal for their survival. Most of them have a strong flavor and are mostly fed to livestock.

Collards bred for delicious human food have been an important part of African cuisine and culture for centuries, and were carried worldwide by the African diaspora. (Many annual varieties have been preserved and saved by individual gardeners and their families. For more on these, see the Collard Ultracross listing.) Purple Tree Collards, with their perennial habit and mild flavor, have been preserved and passed down from neighbor to neighbor in African-American communities for a very long time, unknown to mainstream agriculture. We are grateful to all the anonymous gardeners who saved this treasure for the world to enjoy. 

When your tree collards cuttings arrive, put them in the refrigerator in the paper and plastic wrapping they came with. Or, if you have unwrapped them, they can stand in a glass of water overnight. Don't leave them in water more than a day or they will start to rot, and don't leave them in a hot place. If you can't pot them up within a day, put them between layers of damp paper in the fridge.
 
It is easiest if you root them in a pot rather than the ground, unless your situation is such that you just can't take care of a pot.
Use a gallon pot or something approximately that size. You want a pot at least 6" across, and at least 8" deep so they don't dry out too easily. Fill your pots with good potting mix, well-moistened but not soggy. Just pile the soil in so that it is fairly loose, not hard-packed. (If you need to put them straight into the ground, prepare a bed with lots of compost, a fine, fluffy texture, and no weeds.)
 
Now, make sure you know which is the top of your cuttings and which is the bottom. You cannot rely on the diameter--sometimes they are thicker at the top! They will have been shipped with the bottom in moist paper. If they have been unwrapped and both ends are cut, look at the bud scars on the stem, the browned areas where a leaf was attached. When the cutting is right-side-up, the scars are somewhat heart-shaped. The tiny bud that will make the new leaf sits in the notch on top of the heart.
 
Stick each cutting into the potting mix.  Give each cutting its own pot. Use a pencil or similar tool to make a hole slightly smaller than your cutting, to help ease it into the soil. The soil should come halfway up the cutting or more. I like to stick them in at a slight angle rather than absolutely vertical (I think it helps rooting somewhat) but that's just me. Top up the pot with soil so that it comes within 1/2” of the top. Once the cutting is 1/2 to 2/3 buried in the soil, firm the soil around it.
 
Keep your pots in a place with bright shade. They should not be in the dark, but they shouldn't have baking sun. A north or east window is often good, or a porch or under trees in dappled shade. If you live where it is cool and overcast, they will not need as much shade. In a hot, bright, dry climate, they need protection. Choose a place where you would be comfortable sitting for several hours. Create shade if needed.

Leaves will appear quite soon--that does not mean the cuttings are rooted yet. (Think of flowers in a vase; buds can open while the cut stem is in water.) As leaves and stems appear, take a look at them. Do they look pale and elongated? Then they need more light. Leaves should be green with possibly some purple. Stems should be sturdy. Adjust the location to give them enough light without killing heat. At this point, a growlight indoors is often the easiest and best alternative. You want a lot of light without a lot of heat or wind. Room temperature is great.

Like any transplant, the Collards are ready to go into the garden when you can see a root trying to come out the hole in the bottom of the pot. This can take anywhere from 2 to 6 months, depending on temperature and light conditions. After six months, if you haven't seen any roots, you could gently slide the damp soil out of the pot. But if you decide on this strategy, have your planting hole ready before you start. If there are no roots, you'll need to put it back into the pot. If there are, you should slide it into the planting hole without further disturbance.

In nature, the wild ancestors of lettuce sprout in early spring and makes seed during the summer, dying in the fall.
Humans have selected lettuce to taste sweeter and stay mild and leafy longer. But the majority of lettuce varieties still prefer to sprout in spring, after the seeds have been chilled by winter weather and the soil is warming but still cool. You may have noticed your lettuce seed is reluctant to sprout while the days are hot, and wondered if you seed was no good. Often the answer is that if your seed has experiences temperatures of 80 degrees or more, it probably has gone dormant, waiting for cool weather to become viable again.

Just as humans have developed a taste for salad at all times of year, we have also figured out some ways to make that possible. Here are the best strategies for great salads in fall and winter:

1) Making a false winter:
Most any lettuce variety will sprout better in late summer if it has been refrigerated for a week or so. The cool temperatures reset the seed's inner clock. When it comes out of the fridge, it feels that winter is over and spring has arrived.

2) Naturally heat-resistant types:
A few lettuce varieties have been selected for sprouting when the weather is warm. Most often, these are Crisphead, types, also known as Batavian or Summercrisp lettuce. The varieties of Summercrisp lettuce we offer are Quan Yin, Joker, and Grandpa Admire's. These lettuces are perfect for the late summer-to-fall slot because they sprout well in late summer, but can handle cold weather as well. Quan Yin and Joker are especially frost-hardy and make good fall lettuces.

3) Varieties with winter adaptation:
Since lettuce is by nature a spring crop, it is usually frost-hardy as a young seedling and less hardy as a grown plant. However, farmers and gardeners have selected varieties that and are adapted to winter growing. Since winter growing often includes not only frost and ice, but wet weather and/or growing under cover in a greenhouse or cold frame, these varieties usually are more resistant to mold and rot than summer lettuces, too.  In addition to selection by humans, another factor that increases resistance is color; the anthocyanins in red lettuce confer some protection against both cold and disease.

especially4) Look for a "strong constitution":
Some plants have a naturally strong resistance to environmental stresses, just as some people do. When that is the case, they can stand strong against both heat and cold.  For example, the "Stupice" tomato was bred to be a cold-hardy, ultra-early tomato. But unlike some early types, it's strong constitution makes it able to withstand heat and drought as well. The same is true with lettuce. For us, Bronze Arrow and Quan Yin--which were bred to resist bolting in heat--have turned out to be especially cold-hardy. 

Recommended lettuces for fall/winter growing:
Bronze Arrow--Easy-to-grow Oakleaf lettuce, outstanding for summer or winter
Hungarian Pink Winter--A winter-hardy Butterhead with delicate flavor and texture
Hyper Red Rumpled Waved--Crumpled, textured leaf lettuce with very dark purple color
Quan Yin--Heat and cold resistant lettuce with ruffled emerald-green leaves and crisp heart
Winter Density--Deep green Romaine type with buttery texture  
Winter Red (Rouge d'Hiver)--French heirloom romaine. Bright red color and excellent cold hardiness.

One question that comes up this time of year is tomato pruning, training, and support. Many books and websites tell you to prune indeterminate tomatoes to one stem, pinching out the “suckers.” (These are actually the new branches that sprout in the crotches where leaves meet the stem.) Professional growers use overhead rails, strings, and clips to train their tomato plants as a single vertical stem with clusters of fruit growing from it. Many home growers do the same. For some, it gives great results. For others, it is a disaster. How do you know what will work for you?

The answer is that like most other aspects of gardening, it depends on climate. In places like England, Seattle, or Maine, summers tend to be cool and severe pruning helps the plant to ripen more fruit. Even in some places that get a lot of heat, like the South or Midwest, there is often cloud cover or humidity in the air, which diffuses the sun's rays. Each tiny droplet of water sends the light in a slightly different direction, softening its effect in the same way that a frosted light bulb does. Shadows aren’t as dark, and lighted areas aren’t as bright. This is obvious during overcast weather, but even a bit of haze will diffuse the light to some degree. Plastic hoop houses have the same effect, breaking up the sun's rays so that the light seems to come from all directions instead of one focussed beam.

When the air is dry, nothing bends or breaks up the sun’s rays. If humidity makes the sun more like a florescent light, dry air lets it act more like a laser. Any surface that faces the sun directly heats up, so tomatoes, peppers, apples, and other fruit can literally cook in spots, which we call sunscald. Cherry tomatoes are less susceptible than slicers, because their small round shape has less exposed surface. Large peppers often suffer the worst--their relatively flat sides make a wide target.

Another aspect of the sunscald problem comes when there is water on the leaves in hot weather. A droplet of water acts like a lens, focussing the sun's rays and killing the leaf tissue. I've seen holes in leaves where droplets were, and whole leaves turn brown when they were coated with water. I've learned that I have to be very careful about any water getting on leaves during sunny, windless times. I've also seen that I can safely wet plants when wind keeps them in motion, or when they are inside a hoop house where the plastic diffuses sunlight.

I once had neighbors who learned to farm in the Northwest. They spent hours training tomatoes to single stems with elaborate supports–only to lose them all to sunscald in our unforgiving sun. Growing tomatoes outdoors where I live, we need leaves to shelter the fruit. As a bonus, the leaves make sugars to power growth and sweeten the tomatoes. We leave the plants to branch freely, so they grow into large, heavy masses. This in turn affects how closely we can plant. If I were going to prune off all the side branches, I would need to raise many more seedlings and plant them more closely. Since I let the plants branch, I have fewer, larger plants.

How do you know which kind of sunshine you have? Of course, if sunscald has been a problem for you before, you have your answer. But what if you are new to growing, or have moved recently, or have changed your garden style? Or what if your weather seems to have changed? One way to find out is to search online for "average summer afternoon humidity" in your area. Areas with 50% humidity or more have much less problem with sunscald. Areas that are near the ocean or in the eastern half of the country usually have enough cloud cover or humidity to soften the effects of direct sun.

Areas in the Plains, mountains, Southwest or inland from the Pacific coast  The sunscald zone tends to have clear blue skies much of the summer and get little or no summer rain. Your own eyes and skin can tell you a lot. Is there mist or haze when you look into the distance? Does sweat evaporate or stay on your skin? Does bread get dry and hard if you leave it out in the air? If evaporation is fast and complete, then humidity is low. If in addition there is no cloud cover, you have the conditions for sunscald.  You may want to use leafy cover, shadecloth, or other strategies to cut the sun's intensity.

Peppers are even more prone to sunscald but the solution is different: group them in a block, so that most of the light comes from above, not from the side. It helps to position them where a shadow falls for a couple of afternoon hours. And I usually grow basil, bush beans, flowers, or some other low, bushy companion between them and the sun. Peppers are native to riverbeds and arroyos in the Southwest, where the canyon walls give shelter and sunlight comes from directly above. A bed of peppers surrounded by basil may not look like a Southwestern arroyo, but once you know what conditions a plant needs, you can figure out how to provide them in the garden. 

There is one type of tomato pruning you should do no matter where you live.  Once the plant is growing well, you should remove the leaves at the base of the plant. At transplant, I remove the leaves that touch the ground. As the plant grows, I remove the leaves below the first truss of flowers.

Tomato vines are constantly putting energy upward and out to the growing tips, so the lower leaves naturally atrophy and start to die. Mites, thrips, and other pests climb up from the ground to infest those lower leaves. Removing them keeps the plant healthier. Another way to keep disease and pests away is to mulch any bare earth around the plants. You can safely remove all the leaves up to the first truss of fruit, which will be shaded by the leaves above. One final bit of pruning I like to do: a month before the first frost I cut off the growth tips to let the plant concentrate on ripening existing fruit.

Tree Collards, like berry bushes, asparagus, fruit trees, and rhubarb, need their own permanent place in the garden. They need a site where they will not be disturbed by digging and harvesting annual crops. If you already have a section of the garden for berries or the like, that might be expanded to fit collards. 

It's best to think about issues like shade, access, soil quality, and views before you commit to a site. The plants can be anywhere from 3 to 6 feet tall, depending on how you manage them. Staked or trellised as tall plants, they make an excellent screen to hide an ugly view, create privacy, diminish wind, or make a striking background for flowers. They will cast shade--welcome for shade-loving perennials like rhubarb, but a problem for plants like blackberries that need sun. Managed to be lower in height, they will need more space. In In my area, which gets very hot sunny summers, one of the best sites for tree collards is to the east of (not under) fruit trees. They profit from the yearly mulch of fallen leaves and the afternoon shade in summer, while getting full sun in winter when the trees are bare. On the coast, or in climates with cool or cloudy summers, you would want to put them in full sun.

Their bold size and purple-tinted leaves make them a welcome background for flowers, or landscape plant for front yard or patio. Like all brassicas, they like a limey, rich soil and are fairly shallow-rooted. Since they do not require any soil disturbance once they're planted, they could use a space that is too steep, too rocky, too awkward in shape, or too close to hardscaping for yearly tillage and planting. Perennials don't have the need for fast growth that annuals have, and can typically get by with less-perfect conditions of sun, soil, and fertility. 4-6 hours of sun and a yearly application of compost should give them what they need, as long as you keep a constant layer of mulch over the soil surface. The mulch will provide much of their fertility requirement, and minimize the need for water once well established. 
 
Management options: As your plants root and grow, consider how you prefer to manage them. Tree Collards naturally have a woody stem that can get over an inch in diameter, with a cluster of leaves on top. Left to themselves, the stem tends to flop down and crawl around, sprouting more upward stems every few inches. Many growers stake them so that they stay vertical, like palm trees. Each plant then has one main "trunk" with a cluster of leaves on top. Staked plants can be grown fairly close--about 18-24". Intensive growers might have a bed with several dozen of them all staked and each producing its cluster of leaves.
 
Other people prefer to let each plant make many clusters of leaves by allowing it to grow horizontally. In that case, vertical stems will sprout from the main stem every few inches. The advantage is that you get many more leaves per plant. The disadvantages are that they are down on the ground where more leaves are lost to slugs, rot, and other pests. Its harder to get in and fertilize, cultivate, and harvest. And it takes up a lot of space.
 
A very effective method is to grow several plants on a trellis or fence, and train them like blackberries. The main stem of each plant is tied to the trellis so that it doesn't sprawl. But instead of being vertical, like staked plants, the trellis permits the plants to be tied at 45-degree angle. You end up with a row of main stems slanted sideways like this //////////////. The plants can sprout many clusters of leaves, like the horizontal plants do. But they take less space and are more accessible. This method combines high production with space-efficiency, at the cost of more labor to build and maintain the trellis system.

Winter weather will bring out the purple color and make the leaves quite sweet. However, too much cold will stop production and temperatures under 20 degrees will kill them if prolonged. It is best to plan ahead for winter. Give kelp meal or wood ash in August/September--potassium helps develop cold-hardiness. Mulch the soil well to prevent freezing and heaving. And plan on a cover you can easily deploy when cold is predicted. Or use a row cover for the entire winter.
 
Taking cuttings for further propagation: You may want to increase your collards. Many growers take cuttings every year to bring inside in case of severe winter weather. In my area, tree collards freeze to death about one winter in five.
 
Look for side stems that are firm but not woody, and about 1/2” in diameter.  Remove leaves, and make the cuttings about 8” long. Proceed with potting just as above. During the winter, potted cuttings can live in a sunny window or in a greenhouse. They will need more light than the average houseplant (most houseplants are usually from the jungle floor). Supplement with artificial light if needed.

July's combination of high temperatures and long days puts plants under maximum stress with minimal hours of cool recovery time. How you manage soil, water, planting, and shade will make a bigger difference now than at any other time in the year.

Give both new and old plants their best shot (and make your labor go farther) by following best practices for hot weather: 

• Plant the right seeds to start with. Choose vegetables and flowers that are meant for the season. For example, spinach is a winter green, while chard is a summer green. Varieties of the same vegetable can vary a lot too. For example, Rattlesnake pole beans continue to bear in hot spells, when popular varieties like Kentucky Wonder and Blue Lake burn out. Commercial lettuce is grown in cool, foggy places. We need different kinds than what you see in the store. Batavian or Summercrisp types are more heat-tolerant.
• Soil should be moist enough to prevent wilting in afternoon heat (though large-leaved plants like squash may droop a bit.) But make sure they have plenty of water during morning and evening, when plants can actively grow, rather than just survive.
  
• Normally you'll want to water in the morning or evening. In very hot, dry, or windy weather, you may need to water the soil around plants to cool the air a bit. However, do not get water on the leaves during intense sunlight. It will act as a lens, and concentrate the sun's heat. I have seen leaves burned crisp by being wet in direct sunlight.
  
• Reduce competition for water. Follow recommended spacing and keep beds weeded. If plants are stressed and you can’t water more, thin them to wider spacing. 
• Keep the soil covered with mulch. In hot weather, use a light-colored mulch like straw. This not only conserves moisture, it also prevents compaction and shelters soil life that creates fertility.
  
• Wind dries plants worse than heat. Provide some shelter.
• Before planting, work in organic matter to hold moisture and release it slowly to plant roots. Compost is ideal. After planting, you can layer compost on top of the soil and under your mulch. 
• Provide shade to reduce temperatures at ground level. Seedlings and new transplants are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat, sunlight, or wind.
• Plant a wide variety of flowers, herbs, vegetables, shrubs, and trees. Plants thrive in an interlocking community, with some shading others. Perennials are deeper-rooted and more resilient than annual vegetables.

The unique thing about gardens is that they’re habitat for both plants and people. Increasing the comfort, beauty, and diversity of the garden makes it better for both.

The squash family includes cucumbers, melons, gourds, watermelons, bitter melons, horned melons and gherkins as well as all the summer and winter squashes. They all come from places with hot summers, and they all thrive in heat. In gardening, it's useful to separate the squashes--large plants that originated in North and South America--from the other cucurbits of Africa and Asia. They respond to different garden strategies.

Squash seems to love growing in a compost pile. This tells you three things: It likes a lot of nutrients. It isn't picky about how fine the soil or how "finished" the compost--it will grow in stuff that's downright chunky and stinky. And it sprouts best in warm, moist places.

If you add lots of compost, or bury kitchen waste, manure, or other nitrogen source a foot deep under the seeds, they will love it. Plant in clusters, called hills, of 3-5 seeds. Bush varieties can go 2-3 feet apart, vines 4-6 feet apart. If you use beds, run the hills down the middle of the bed. If you use rows, make them about 6'  apart. If you are planting vining types and need to get barrows, carts, or tillers between, use rows 12' apart.

After the sprouts are a few inches tall, thin to the best 3 plants per hill. Hoe out all the weeds in the bed or row, piling some dirt at the base of the plants. Mulch well with straw, leaves, hay, or piles of weeds you just pulled. Use whatever you have that can keep the soil covered and provide a steady diet of organic matter. Vining squash can be grown up a trellis to save space, or they can be planted at the edge of the garden where they can run out over a rough, paved, or unirrigated area outside the growing beds. Do not let them grow so close to corn that they try to climb it--they'll pull the stalks down. You can let the vines run amid corn, sunflower, or amaranth stalks as long as you don't let the tendrils start trying to climb the stalks--just snip any clinging tendrils. Most summer squash has a bush habit, which is compact and saves space, but is not as vigorous or drought-resistant.

Speaking of drought, you will probably see squash leaves wilt and droop a bit in hot sun. This is a water-saving measure. Rather than try to keep their big leaves turgid and flat which would take a huge amount of water and hydraulic pressure from the roots, they let them droop a bit to reduce the surface area and change their angle so they're not facing the sun directly. If the plants are truly thirsty, the soil will be dry 1" down, and the leaves won't perk up when the day cools. If the leaves look normal again once the sun is off of them, they don't need extra water. The rough, hairy surface of squash leaves and stems is another water-saving measure--it minimizes evaporation from the leaves by slowing the flow of air past the surface.

If squash bugs are a problem for you, sprinkle the base of the plant and all the main stems with diatom dust.

All squash have separate male and female flowers on each plant. The female flowers have a small bulge or ball below the flower; this will turn into the squash fruit. Male flowers are on a longer stem with no solid ball at the base. They make pollen but no fruit. You can harvest them for the kitchen--they're edible and delicious. Use just the yellow petals (the green parts are bitter) in pasta, tacos, soups, or stuffed.

Summer squash should be picked every day or two, and eaten while small (6"-8".) The reason people complain about having too many zucchini is that they let them get too big. Store squash in a dry place. Even zucchini keeps better in a dry airy room than in the fridge, where it molds.

​Winter squash is ripe when there is no green left in the stem--it should be hard and woody or corky--and the skin should be too hard to poke with a fingernail. Regardless of ripeness, harvest before frost or they will rot. Use any unripe or bruised ones first. The rest should be put indoors to cure for a month before eating. Delicata squash and pumpkins (C. pepo species) do not store as long, or need as much curing. Cure 2 weeks and eat before January. Squash can be stored in any dry place that stays above 50 degrees. Check often for soft spots, and don't forget to use them for soups and pasta as well as roasted and in pie.

Squashes were not originally edible; they were horribly bitter, (to deter animals from eating them) and mostly provided moisture and compost for the seeds to grow in. The original human uses of these plants were for containers (gourds) and for their protein-rich seeds. It probably took centuries of patient work for the ancient farmers to transform those bitter seed envelopes into the sweet and delicious squash we grow.

Breeding has also produced the summer squash, which were selected to be stay soft and free of hard seeds for longer than normal, so they have a longer window for fresh use. They will eventually grow a hard shell and mature seeds, but they are no longer palatable at that point. Winter squash are meant to be grown to maturity, with sweet flesh surrounding a cavity full of hard, mature seeds. The lower-moisture flesh and hard shell of winter squash types enable them to last for months at room temperature, making storage easy for winter eating. That said, I have stored large semi-mature zucchini (called vegetable marrows in England) for a couple of months. They weren't prime zucchini, but they were fine in pasta sauce and soup.

Seed saving: Insect-pollinated, requires at least 500 ft isolation in home gardens (1/2 mile if selling seed.) Our offerings include 3 species: Cucurbita pepo (pumpkin, delicatas, acorns, and most summer squash), Cucurbita maxima (Buttercup, Lower Salmon River, Stella Blue, Zapallo), and  Cucurbita moschata (Butternut, Tromboncino.) Members of the same species will cross with each other, but not with other species. So if you have the isolation to grow squash seed, you can have one of each species and still save seed. ​

Cucumbers, melons, and watermelons are members of the squash family from India, Persia, and Africa. Their vines are on a smaller scale than squash, with less rampant habit. They prefer a lighter, more cultivated soil than the big squashes and their sparser vines don't shade out weeds like the larger squashes do. You will need to mulch or weed the bed to prevent weed competition. All of them love heat and are adapted to dry climates. Originating from the desert, they are adapted to a rhythm of hot days and cold nights, but they will not sprout until the soil is warm. I usually wait until 2 weeks after my last frost date to direct-sow. I find that cucumbers (from India) enjoy a bit of afternoon shade, needing heat but not blasting sun.

Melons, on the other hand, are sun-lovers that thrive in a heat. The history of melons and watermelons goes so far back it's hard to tell what they were like originally--we know that the ancient Egyptians ate watermelon 4,000 years ago. None of these plants resemble their small, unpalatable wild ancestors; all were transformed by the breeding work of ancient farmers.

Money is tight for many of us, and the garden can make a real contribution to the household. What crops you grow, how you plant, what inputs you use, your timing, and equipment all make a difference.

What to grow: Consider how much space is available, how much time you have, and what your household would actually pick, cook, and eat. Everyone's choices are different, and there are many good answers. What isn't helpful is to garden haphazardly, planting the same old stuff without considering what you hope to get out of your garden and your labor.

There are three approaches to making your garden contribute economically.

• You can focus on growing as much as you can of your food intake.
• Or you can focus on growing those items that are the most expensive to buy.
• Or you can focus on growing things that have cultural or culinary significance for your family

I seek out varieties at Quail Seeds for all three types of garden.

Culturally significant crops are priceless. They often can’t be bought, or can only be bought at high prices in small amounts. Some of the heirlooms we carry that people seek out for their cultural significance are Zapallo del Tronco summer squash, Mentuccia Romana herb, Epazote herb, Round Valley Beans, Puntarelle, Pineapple Tomato, Green-in-Snow (Xue-le-Hong), Old Timey Blue Collards, Miner’s Lettuce, Floriani Corn, Cajun Jewel Okra, and King City Pink Beans.

Growing the highest-priced items (or most often bought items) in your family’s diet is a good strategy for a small garden. Here are the most common.

• Items that are expensive for farmers to grow because they require a long season, or a lot of labor (especially those that involve picking rather than cutting the whole plant): peas, tomatoes, green beans, okra, peppers, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower. If you're on a very tight budget, either grow these or do without.
  
• Salad crops–lettuce, spinach, mixed greens, baby carrots, green onions, cucumbers. If you use it often, grow it.
• Cut flowers–if you use these, it’s a significant savings to grow them yourself. They are a high-profit item for farmers.
• Items that don’t keep long but are used often. If you find yourself making special trips to the store to grab something, save the gas and grow it at home. Kale and other greens, Broccoli,  and salads, are the most obvious, but for you it might be berries, potatoes, onions, or carrots.
• This strategy uses mainly crops that are eaten fresh, so succession-sowing and careful planning are extra important. Don't overplant zucchini that won't keep and underplant  green beans you could freeze if needed. Or plant winter squash that you could use all winter.

To grow a big part of your food intake, look at what peasant families have grown through the ages. 

• Grains like barley, amaranth, quinoa, wheat, oats, corn, and teff are classic staples. Barley, quinoa, and amaranth can be cooked like rice. Barley oats and wheat can grow during winter.
• In small spaces and cool conditions, root crops like potatoes, beets, rutabagas, yams, and storage carrots can be (and have been historically) a space-saving substitute for grains. 
• Dry legumes are a concentrated, easily-stored source of protein. 
  
• The next need is for fresh vegetables: cabbage, onions,  leeks, carrots, turnips, rutabagas, beets, mustard greens, kale, collards, winter squash, and chard  are nutrient-dense and can be either stored or grown through winter. 
• Canning and freezing both use a lot of equipment and energy. They are best suited to very dense sources of protein (meat, fish) or condiments (salsa, fruit butters). Drying is labor intensive and in moist places it’s power-intensive too. Staple foods for every day should be able to be stored with minimal inputs or else grown through winter.
• Three Sisters crops of flour corn, dry beans, and squash form a balanced diet that can be grown and then stored most places in North America.

Out of all these, the crops that can provide the most meals per unit of space are flour corn, quinoa, potatoes, yams, rutabagas, beets, onions, dry beans, cabbage, mustard, collards, chard, and leeks.

HOW you grow makes a difference too

• Sow a few plants at a time for a continuous supply. Everyone knows this, but actually doing it will make the difference between feasting all year and feasting for a couple of weeks then running to the store again.
• Grow from seed instead of buying starts. A single plant usually costs as much or more than a packet of seed.
• Plants that don’t have room to develop don’t yield enough to be worth growing. Space your plants at least as far apart as the seed packet suggests. Competition from either weeds or other crop plants cuts yields drastically.
• Vining crops that can be trellised give huge yields for their footprint. Peas, Pole beans, indeterminate tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and moschata (butternut) squash give big yields per sq ft when grown upwards.
• Mulch is worthwhile. You save on water, weeding, fertilizer, and soil preparation next year. You can harvest your own mulch by cutting tall grass and weeds with a string trimmer, sickle, or scythe; do it before they start shedding seeds. Wood chips are good on perennials and paths, but avoid them on vegetables. If cold spring soil is a problem, pull mulch aside until it warms up.
• Cardboard is free weed control. Wet it well, and weigh it down.
• Use compost tea and other probiotic sprays or liquid fertilizers to prevent disease. It’s also useful to help control mites, thrips, and other tiny pests. And it's free.
• Use companion planting to attract the good bugs that eat bad bugs.
• No-till or Low-till methods will save you money from equipment you aren’t renting, from fertilizer you can taper off on, and from labor–in the long run. In the short run, plant as best you can, check out the No-till Growers Podcast and start planning for the long run.

Supplies and inputs:

• Make compost! Start now and it can be ready when you plant out your tomatoes. It replaces bags of manure, soil conditioners, and fertilizer. Don’t just use kitchen scraps–harvest weeds, grass clippings, leaves, old potting mix, dead plants, shredded cardboard (with no color printing or plastic) and straw. It’s worth looking around for sources of organic matter. Let your neighbors know you’ll take grass clippings and fallen leaves (unless your neighbors use herbicides–they persist in the compost.)
• If you do need to buy soil amendments, look for bulk dealers. It's often the same price to buy a whole pickup load of worm castings, manure, or compost as to buy half that amount in bags.
• Skip special seed starting mix–it’s not necessary. Plus, it has no nutrients in it, which means you need to provide additional fertilizer for your seedlings. Use a good general potting mix instead. For small seeds, you can screen out any big chunks. Or use well-cured homemade compost with some sand, pumice, or perlite for drainage.  You can recondition old potting soil with compost, a balanced organic fertilizer, or aged chicken manure. (It shouldn’t smell bad–if it does, use it under your corn or squash instead.) Some brands available in the west that are acceptable are Black Gold, EB Stone, Royal Gold, Foxfarm. After 3-4 weeks, feed seedlings with compost tea.
• Don’t buy special grow lights. Standard cool-white fluorescent bulbs or LED lights are fine. Lights need to be very close to the plants–6-8 inches away. If the lights are close enough, you don’t need to buy special extra-bright ones. Either rig the lights so they can be raised as plants grow, or start the plants up on blocks and lower them.
• Learn to make a few basic probiotic sprays and teas to replace store-bought inputs. A bunch of weeds submerged in water for a week will replace expensive organic fertilizers like blood meal or fish extract. Here are some to start
• Consider water use. If you have a wet and a dry season, grow as much as you can during the wet season. Replace standard landscape plants with drought-tolerant ones. If your water is metered, consider investing in simple drip lines for your vegetables and landscaping. Dripworks is the pioneer in the field with a sterling reputation for quality and customer service. (I’m not affiliated in any way.) 
• Buy good-quality tools once, not cheap ones repeatedly. I’ve written a bit about this here https://www.quailseeds.com/how-to/useful-tools-books-and-media