Growing Beans, Squash & Pumpkins in Southern California

Here are some updated pics of the bush bean, squash and pumpkin seeds that we planted on August 11th. These pictures were taken a couple of days ago and reflect the growth of our seeds at day 50. They still have a long way to go, as you can see.

Bush Beans. These beans are supposed to be yellow, so we are waiting for them to change color a bit before harvesting them. The seed packet says that they will be ready to harvest in 60 days, so we're almost there.



Squash. The seed packet says 53 days to harvest. We don't even have gourds growing yet to harvest at 50 days, so we'll wait patiently and see what happens.



Baby Mini Jack Pumpkins. We have some big, beautiful flowers that will be pumpkins some day. The seed packet said 90 days to harvest, so we hope to have some pumpkins in November.

Seedlings

The squash, pumpkin and bean seeds that we planted on 8.11.09 (read about it HERE) peeked out of the soil FIVE days after planting. These pictures were taken this morning, SEVEN days after planting. Aren't they so cute?!


Squash



Pumpkins

Bush Beans

Growing Pumpkins, Squash & Beans

The boys wanted to grow an autumn harvest, so we chose mini pumpkins, squash and yellow bush beans. We are especially excited about growing pumpkins. It is a little late to start growing them, but since we live in sunny Southern California, we thought that we would take a chance. The pumpkin seeds that we bought (Botanical Gardens: Jack Be Little) take 95 days to harvest, so we will be probably be picking them in November. We are hoping that they grow faster than normal so that they are ready to pick near Halloween. For those of you who have gotten a late start like us, we found pumpkins seeds by Renee's Garden called "Baby Mini Jack" that has a harvest time of 85 days.



When planting pumpkins or any type of gourd, it is necessary to make little mounds or hills to plant the seeds in as shown above. We did also did this for the squash.



The pumpkin and squash seeds are to be planted 1 inch below the dirt. Six seeds can be placed in each hill as shown above.



Water thoroughly and regularly(as shown above).



Make sure to mark each container or area. We chose to put the seed packet with the picture inside each container.



UPDATES
Click here to view these seeds seven days after planting.

Here are some links to our favorite seeds. Click on the name to go to their websites.

Bontanical Interests
Renee's Garden
Seeds of Change

...and this is our FAVORITE gardening book. It is so inspirational!
Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children

Pumpkin Picking in Southern California

We went pumpkin picking at Underwood Family Farms today. It is located at 3370 Sunset Valley Road Moorpark,CA 93021
(805) 529-3690. They are smack dab in the middle of their 11th Annual Harvest Festival. If you live in the Los Angeles area, this is worth the drive as you can see below.



When we arrived at Underwood Family Farms, we were greeted with friendly faces and good old fashioned common courtesy. Underwood Family Farms is totally sustainable and uses no pesticides on their produce. They supply produce to 12 farmer's markets in the L.A. area.



Kids love searching for that perfect pumpkin! Here is a pic of Tennessee and California happily wondering through a real pumpkin patch(unlike the one's you see up on every corner in urban L.A.).



Posing with Mama.



Posing with Daddio.



Here is a sunflower forest!



This is the wagon we rode in to tour the farm. The horses names were Mark and Spencer. We think Mark is part donkey. He didn't pull his weight and Spencer had to do most of the work. During the tour, we saw fields on lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, corn and thickets of nectarine, avocado and apricot trees. We saw the fields being primed to plant strawberries for harvest next Spring. We also saw the most darling baby crows.



There were several vendors there. We found a man who made wooden toys with the utmost attention to detail. California loves wooden toys and immediately fell in love with the wooden train below. We also bought a wooden caterpillar that holds a package of 24 crayons. This man was also kind enough to supply the crayons! These toys are true treasures!



We stopped by the market at the farm on the way out and bought farm fresh corn! I immediately cooked the corn and served it to the family. Tennessee said "It is so cool to eat corn that wasn't bought at the store...and it tastes so much better!"



Here is a pic of our bag of goodies! We also brought home three large pumpkins that are outside. We will be making something yummy soon with the sugar pie pumpkins. Stay tuned and Happy Harvest to you all!



Go HERE to find a Southern California pumpkin patch near you!