veggie garden questions

[Guest guest]

Our backyard slants upward & our veggie garden is at the top of our

backyard so the water drains downward. Is it better to have the garden

at the top or better to level it off?

 

Someone told me this weekend that if you plant vine plants together,

they will cross pollinate. We planted our squash & watermelon right

next to each other but only the squash came up & it grew leaps and

bounds. Very large squash with hard seeds so I was told that it was

because I cross pollinated them and turned up with watermelon squash.

Anyone heard of this?

 

Thanks!

 

Barb

[Guest guest]

You could run your rows or beds perpendicular to the slant in a sort

of terrace. This would help you catch and use water run off. My yard

slopes down to the west by a degree or two. I didn't think of the

water run off-but then, there isn't any rain in the summer to run off,

so I run them with the slope, and plant things that like a bit more

moisture at the lower ends of the beds, mainly because the drip

irrigation tape seeps more at that end.

 

Crossed squash...I don't think you'll see an effect in this year's

eating, but if you plant the seeds next year you'll get who knows

what. except now that I recall my botany, I'm not sure, because the

endocarp, the edible part, is the result of a second fertilization, so

that would have genetic material from both parents as well and might

be expressed in fruit this year. So, sorry, not much help on that

one.

 

 

Ellen

 

On 8/12/08, Barb <FirstYrs08 wrote:

> Our backyard slants upward & our veggie garden is at the top of our

> backyard so the water drains downward. Is it better to have the garden

> at the top or better to level it off?

>

> Someone told me this weekend that if you plant vine plants together,

> they will cross pollinate. We planted our squash & watermelon right

> next to each other but only the squash came up & it grew leaps and

> bounds. Very large squash with hard seeds so I was told that it was

> because I cross pollinated them and turned up with watermelon squash.

> Anyone heard of this?

>

> Thanks!

>

> Barb

>

>

> ---

>

> " Let food be your medicine " Hippocrates

[Guest guest]

Barb, I think it's probably better to have good drainage, rather than the plants sitting in water. On the other hand, it's probably easier to keep the plants watered if the bed is at the bottom of the hill. If it were me, i'd probably do it at the bottom of the hill, but make sure I had really good drainage in the beds.

 

I've had some really bad cross pollination in squash and melons when I lived in PA. They all came out totally weird and inedible. It's definitely true it will happen. I was lucky this year, it hasn't happened to me. We have honey dew, cantaloupe, watermelon, and zucchini, and none of them are growing weird. I don't know if it is because the zukes were flowering well before the melons, or what.

 

cyndi

 

In a message dated 8/12/2008 11:43:11 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, FirstYrs08 writes:

 

 

 

 

Our backyard slants upward & our veggie garden is at the top of our backyard so the water drains downward. Is it better to have the garden at the top or better to level it off?Someone told me this weekend that if you plant vine plants together, they will cross pollinate. We planted our squash & watermelon right next to each other but only the squash came up & it grew leaps and bounds. Very large squash with hard seeds so I was told that it was because I cross pollinated them and turned up with watermelon squash. Anyone heard of this?Thanks!Barb

 

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