Orange Dawn is a C. pepo and is definitely susceptibel to SVB. Looks like a Park's exclusive and Park does not sell anything that is not the greatest since sliced bread. At any rate if the skin is rfingernail resistant you can pick them. Same rule for all winter squash. I prefer to leave on the vine as long as possible, but this time of year they need to be removed before they sunscald or get attacked by varmints. Bad drought here and I even have deer nibbling on my Beung Carn.

Thanks for the replies everyone! I didn't sow into individual cups -- I just loaded the whole shebang up with dirt and sowed into the dirt. Some stuff I sowed HOS-style, some stuff (like sunflowers, larkspur, etc) I sowed in tiny rows that I made with a fingertip. Of course, as soon as I finished all my containers it started to rain here in Pittsburgh. I moved all of my containers onto a covered porch for the night because I didn't want to flood them so soon! I'm going to move them back out into the yard and the sun today. I had lots of condensation inside my containers so I know I did it right! I labeled my containers by duct taping a snack sized ziploc bag with the names written on a slice of paper. I don't know if that will hold up over the next few months so I will have to check frequently! I've read about the paint pens you guys use. BTW, making the soil was SO EASY! I'm so glad I didn't plunk down all that money for seed starting soil bags. Here they are about 4 dollars for 8 quarts, and with the amount of soil I used it would have been a small fortune. Just a big bale of peat, some compost, and the perlite and it looked almost the same as the MG stuff. I mixed it in a big bag and used the dishwashing liquid tip! Next time I think I would try the mushroom compost over the cow manure compost. Mine had a LOT of large chunks of wood and rocks and stuff. I wound up using only a very small amount. I guess I can use the leftovers out in the beds! Happy growing! Kara

Whew, I thought I was already running late!! Mind you, my husband just planted a 4-pack of broccoli and a 4-pack of cabbage, but those are really for the winter birds (mostly goldfinches) that frequent our feeders. We have found that they like the broccoli leaves - they won't eat the broccoli, just the leaves; and the cabbage seems to do well over the cold season. He also planted some chives and some lettuce; let's see how they fare. We keep a veggie patch going most of the year - but the extreme drought this year made it hard this year for us to get much out of it, even tho we have an automatic watering setup on the thing. It was just TOO hot!! Surprisingly, our tomato plants, bell pepper plants, and jalapeno plant are still alive, and they're starting to set fruit again!! They're so confused, and I don't blame them. I doubt if the fruit will mature.

Hi Dianna! I am in central Pa (Harrisburg area) and came to the realization 3 years ago that very soon my gardens would become more than I could manage alone. It was an article sometime back by Sydney Eddison in "Fine Gardening" and an article here on this forum by Luseal that got me started. I am not disabled except by advancing years and increasing stiffness and intolerance of hot weather so far but that may not be true as the years go on. I made a list of the garden beds and their contents and what maintenance they required and with what frequency.I thought about which chores I could handle, which ones I enjoyed, which ones I could comfortably delegate entirely and which would need supervision. I walked around the inside of the house and looked out the windows of the rooms we used most often in the winter and tried to visualize what I wanted to see. The first shrubs I added were Thuja 'George Peabody' (just 3 to start) along part of the back property line and in front of them Cornus sericea 'Baileyi'. The following winter when everything else back there had browned or disappeared, the twigs of the dogwoods were lit up by the sun and were shown off beautifully by the golden arborvitae. The arborvitae need minimal pruning and the dogwoods only need the oldest stems lopped off in early spring. The dogwoods have not suckered in 5 years but they layer easily for propagating. An added benefit was that the white berries on the dogwoods were being eaten by the mockingbirds, bluebirds and robins. This is getting long and I don't want to bore you but I hope it's been helpful. Good luck Pat