When I say berries, I bet you think of currants, strawberries, raspberries, maybe gooseberries or even blueberries. I also bet pumpkins are neither your first nor your second, or third idea. But that’s what pumpkins are: berries. The largest berries on earth, in fact. And now that we’re talking about them, I’ll even make a third bet: you want to cultivate them in your garden, amiright? That’s wonderful, because they’re not only a beautiful sight (whatever colour or form you choose) but they can also feed a family. Some even the whole town. There are a few things you need to know about successfully cultivating pumpkins in your garden. Whether it’s your first time growing pumpkins or whether you’re already best buddies, this comprehensive guide on cultivating pumpkins will leave no question unanswered.
Overview of cultivating pumpkins
Here’s a quick overview of the most important points about cultivating pumpkins
Choose the right variety, depending on your goal: do you want to feed your family, gather the seeds or want to take part in a competition? Or do you just want them for decoration? Are you a novice regarding pumpkins, or do you already have experience with that vegetable? How large is your garden space?
Seed-start pumpkins indoors about four weeks before the last night frosts in your hardiness zone.
About a week before it’s time to plant them out, gradually harden them off.
Pumpkins need a sunny, warm spot with loose soil and plenty of water.
Pumpkins are heavy feeders, meaning they need a balanced dose of nutrients every three to four weeks.
The fewer pumpkins you leave on the plant, the larger they get.
Carefully watch for pests and diseases so that you can act quickly in case of infestation.
Pumpkins are ready to be harvested when the stem gets woody and they sound hollow when you knock on them.
Cure harvested pumpkins for about three weeks in a dry and warm place.
Depending on the variety, pumpkins can be stored up to nine months when properly cured.
Choosing the Right Pumpkin Varieties
Can you believe that there are more than 800 pumpkin varieties? It makes me feel sad, because there’s no chance we can try all of them. The good news is that there’s a variety for every desire! Whether you’ve got a large garden or just a towel-sized raised bed, whether you want to feed a large family or you’re looking for the perfect pumpkin to be carved for Halloween, there’ll be plenty of varieties just for your needs. Let’s have a look:
Carving pumpkins vs. cooking/pie pumpkins
Our pumpkins from last Halloween
Carving pumpkins are typically large and have thinner skin, making them easier to carve. They also have fewer guts inside, which makes them easier to clean.
Cooking or pie pumpkins, on the other hand, are usually (but not always) smaller. Theoretically, all cooking pumpkins can be used for carving, but not every carving pumpkin is edible. If you want to eat your pumpkins (with or without carving them first), make sure you plant edible varieties.
Giant varieties for competitions
Over 800 varieties of pumpkins cover a wide range of colours and – especially – sizes. If you want to take part in a pumpkin competition (or feed your whole town), choose varieties like “Atlantic Giant”, “Big Max” or “Prizewinner” which can grow up to -and often even above – 100 kg.
By the way, the world record for the heaviest pumpkin currently lies with Travis Gienger from Minnesota. In 2023, he grew a record pumpkin weighing 1247 kg!
Ornamental varieties
Just by looking at them, it’s difficult to distinguish between purely ornamental and culinary pumpkins. Here’s how you can tell if your variety is edible:
Ornamental pumpkins are usually much smaller than their edible relatives.
They mostly have extraordinary colours and forms. However, some edible pumpkin varieties also have spectacular patterns or striking forms (for example, “Flat White” or “Musquee de Maroque”), which makes it difficult to tell for sure by only assessing their appearance.
Cut the pumpkin. If it’s ornamental, its skin will be relatively thick, and it’ll have little flesh.
If still in doubt, cut off a small (!) piece of pumpkin flesh and test its taste. If it’s bitter, spit it out. The bitterness comes from the substance cucurbitacin, which is toxic. It’s important to taste the pumpkin raw because the bitterness will vanish when the pumpkin is cooked, while the cucurbitacin is still there, causing sickness and vomiting.
Lovely examples for ornamental pumpkins are “Bicolor pearl” or “Autumn Wing”.
Heirloom options
Heirloom pumpkin varieties offer a huge diversity in shape, colour, size and flavour, and their origins sometimes go back hundreds of years!
They often have a very unique visual appearance, like for example the ribbed ‘Musquee de Provence’ or the flat, cheese-wheel shaped ‘Long Island Cheese’.
Many old varieties were cultivated specifically for particular culinary uses, from the sweet ‘Sugar Pie’ to the drier-fleshed soup varieties. There are pumpkins with ultra-smooth flesh that’s perfect for pies (like ‘Winter Luxury’) and firmer varieties ideal for roasting and savoury dishes.
Some heirlooms, like ‘Boston Marrow’, were specifically selected for their exceptional keeping qualities, lasting months in proper storage.
Recommended varieties for beginners
The choice of pumpkins is endless, and you can easily lose yourself in the labyrinth of seed catalogues with all those tempting varieties. If you’re looking for some easy-to-grow classics, read on:
One of them is the Hokkaido pumpkin „Red Kuri“. This variety produces orange fruits of about 1,5 kg with yellow flesh. They have a mild, slightly sweet taste, which makes them great for many sweet and savoury dishes, and they can easily be stored till spring.
A great pumpkin from the moschata family is „Butternut Waltham“. With its fine nut-like taste, it’s a wonderful vegetable to be baked in the oven. The pumpkins are about 2 kg and can also be stored for months.
Dark orange coloured hokkaido pumpkins and butternuts
If you have a large family or simply want to grow large pumpkins, I can recommend“Muscat (or Musquee) de Provence”. They produce ripped, green-orange fruits which weigh up to 15 kg! They taste like nuts and chestnuts and can be used for sweet and savoury dishes alike.
„Sweet Dumpling“ has white or yellowish skin with green stripes and stays relatively small with a weight of about 0,5 kg. They also taste a bit like chestnuts and can be stored up to four months.
Understanding Pumpkin Growing Requirements
Pumpkins need space. Even the varieties that produce small-sized fruits will require at least one square meter (10 square feet), preferably 1,5 – 2 m2 (16 – 20 square feet). For that reason, cultivating pumpkins in a pot is out of the question.
Pumpkins like sandy-loamy soil that warms up quickly and has good water retention capabilities. Add a high humus content, and the pumpkins are happy. If you don’t know how to determine your garden’s soil type, read on here.
Even more important than soil conditions, however, is climate. Pumpkins are warm-season plants that grow well in zones 3 to 9. They like to have a hot head and moist (not wet!) feet, which means that high temperatures in the direct sun and moderate watering are the key to successfully cultivating pumpkins.
Lastly, pumpkins need lots of nutrients, especially nitrogen for growth and phosphorus and potassium for fruit building. Add some long-term fertiliser to the planting hole and then give them liquid fertiliser (like nettle manure, for example) every 4 weeks to give them all the nutrients they need.
Starting Your Pumpkin Journey: Timing and Planting
When to plant for autumn harvest
Pumpkins must be harvested before the first frost strikes. To calculate when to sow pumpkins for your garden, look up the estimated first frost date for your zone (if you don’t know your growing zone, check it out here).
Depending on the variety, pumpkins need between 90 and 140 days to reach full maturity. So, we take our estimated first frost date and calculate backwards 100 – 150 days to be on the safe side. That’s the latest date to sow your pumpkins. In my zone, 7b, the first frosts hit around the beginning of November. 150 days earlier is the beginning of June. That’s the latest sowing date for pumpkins.
Now, look up the latest night frosts for your zone and see if they are already over before your latest sowing date.
As we want to give our pumpkins all the time they can get, we usually start them even earlier than the required 100 – 150 days.
I seed-start my pumpkins mid-April, that is four weeks before I can plant them out after the last night frosts in mid-May. If I wanted to (yes!) and had some space (ahem…), I could still sow some of them directly into the patch until the beginning of June.
Starting seeds indoors
As I said, I always seed-start my pumpkins by sowing them indoors around mid-April. That way, I have four-week-old seedlings that I can plant outdoors after the last night frosts. However, you must observe a fact when seed-starting: pumpkins – like all Cucurbitaceae – do not like to get their roots disturbed. Therefore, you can’t sow several seeds in one pot and transplant them later into larger pots like we do with cabbages, for example.
Instead, take single pots of about 8 – 10 cm in diameter (3 – 4 inches) and sow one pumpkin seed per pot, 2 – 3 cm (1 inch) deep.
Let them germinate at 22 – 24 °C (68 – 75 °F) in a sunny spot with plenty of light.
After three to four weeks, they’ll have several sturdy leaves. Now, you can put them in a cooler place, but they still need much light, the more the better. Make sure not to let them dry out and add some liquid fertiliser to the water as they are heavy feeders.
Before you can plant your pumpkins outdoors, it’s crucial to harden them off. Put them out into the open for 2 – 3 hours, increasing the time every day. On the first day, put them in the shade and gradually expose them to more light and even wind.
When you finally plant your pumpkins in the patch, do not disturb their roots.
Besides a prolonged growing time, seed-starting pumpkins (and cucumbers and zucchini for that matter) has an additional benefit: your plants will already have reached a robust size when you plant them outside, making them less prone to pests like snails and slugs, who prefer munching on the soft seedlings. Yet, to make sure snails and slugs aren’t tempted by your pumpkins, always protect the young plants with a slug collar or a slug fence around your patch.
Proper spacing
Pumpkins are spreaders, and they can easily cover several square meters/feet of garden with their fast-growing vines and large leaves. It’s important, therefore, to plant them with enough space between each other:
Plant small pumpkins at least 1 x 1 m (3 x 3 feet) apart, large varieties at least 2 x 2 m (6,5 x 6,5 feet).
Essential Care Throughout the Growing Season
Watering
Pumpkins like their feet moist, so make sure you water them properly. It’s not necessary to water every day, but rather water once or twice a week (depending on the temperatures) and then sufficiently. If in doubt, carefully dig about 2 – 3 cm (1 inch) deep, test the soil for moisture and water only when it’s dry. Much as they need moisture, pumpkins can die in waterlogged soil, so be careful not to overdo it.
Mulch
Always keep a thick layer of mulch, like straw, grass clippings or leaves, around your pumpkins. That way, you not only retain moisture in the soil but, later in the season, also prevent bruises on the fruits. Another good way to protect the pumpkin fruits from getting damaged is to lay them on wooden boards.
Fertilisation schedule and recommended nutrients
Pumpkins are heavy feeders, which means they need plenty of nutrients to grow and produce large fruits. To become robust and healthy plants that grow many high-quality fruits, pumpkins need nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, as well as micronutrients like zinc, manganese and copper.
To prepare your patch for the pumpkins, add rotted manure in spring and work it into the soil. That way, you’ll have the soil enriched with nutrients before the plants get into the ground. When planting, put some mature compost into each plant hole to let the roots grow into it.
Three to four weeks after transplanting, you should fertilise your pumpkins. You can, of course, buy some ready-made fertiliser at the nursery (make sure it’s natural, not chemical), but there are plenty of homemade solutions that won’t cost you anything, are organic, easy to make and as rich in nutrients as any store-bought version:
Coffee grounds: Coffee grounds are rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which pumpkins need for growth. It can also improve the soil by increasing its permeability and suppressing weeds. However, don’t add too many coffee grounds as they affect the soil’s ph value.
Ash: Ash from wood or paper contains plenty of potassium. It can also help to regulate the soil’s ph value for optimum nutrient uptake.
Milk: Milk contains nitrogen, calcium and other nutrients that our pumpkins need to grow healthily and robustly.
Nettle manure: This contains mostly nitrogen and other nutrients that support growth. To add potassium, make a brew from nettles and comfrey. Dilute it with water at a ratio of 1:10.
Urine: You can also fertilise your pumpkins with urine, which is rich in nitrogen, potassium, magnesium and phosphorus and therefore an optimal fertiliser for heavy feeders. Make sure to dilute it with water at a ratio of 1:10.
Fertilise pumpkins every 2 – 3 weeks with liquid fertiliser or every 4 – 6 weeks with compact fertiliser.
Companion planting strategies
Pumpkins go very well with beans and corn. In fact, the classic Milpa or “Three sisters” bed consists of those three vegetables. Sow corn and when it’s about a foot (30 cm) high, sow climbing beans. They will use the corn as a trellis and add nitrogen to the soil. Now you plant pumpkins in between, which will cover the soil and suppress weeds while at the same time preventing the soil from drying out. This concept of planting vegetables that “like” each other together is called “companion planting“.
Other good companions for pumpkins are herbs like oregano, marjoram, lavender or peppermint, flowers like calendula and sunflowers and vegetables that need little to medium nutrients like peas, lentils, lettuce and spinach.
Vegetables that don’t grow well with pumpkins are all the other members of the Cucurbita family, like cucumbers, zucchini and melons, as well as other heavy feeders like cabbages, tomatoes, peppers or eggplants.
Training vines for space efficiency
Pumpkin vines can sprawl extensively, but with proper training techniques, you can grow them efficiently even in limited spaces.
When vines begin to develop and reach about 1-2 feet in length, you can start guiding their growth. Direct the main vine in the direction you prefer by using gentle stakes or trellises. For bush varieties, minimal training is needed, but vining types benefit from regular redirection.
For vertical growth, install sturdy trellises or A-frames early in the season. As vines grow, carefully weave them through or tie them to the support structure using soft plant ties or strips of cloth. For larger pumpkin varieties, create hammock-like slings from netting or old t-shirts to support developing fruit.
To maximise ground space, try guiding vines in a circular pattern around the central plant, or train them along garden borders. Regularly redirect wandering vines back into your designated growing area.
Pruning can also help with space management. Once you have several developing fruits, pinch off the growing tip of the main vine to redirect energy. You can also remove some secondary vines (those growing out of the main vine) if the plant becomes too crowded.
Managing Pests and Diseases When Cultivating Pumpkins
Whenever we cultivate a plant, we have this idyllic picture of sturdy, blooming plants with lots of healthy fruits and a huge yield in mind. However, in reality, sometimes there’s trouble in paradise:
Common pumpkin pests
Snails and slugs
Here in Southern Germany, the most dangerous pests for pumpkins are snails and slugs, and we get rid of them best by not letting them anywhere near our pumpkins in the first place.
How to get rid of them:
Put snail collars around the plant or a snail fence around the patch (or garden) to protect your plants.
Aphids
Aphids can also endanger our pumpkins, especially in hot, humid summers. They are tiny and can mostly be found on the underside of the leaves or at the stems where they suck out the plants’ sap, leaving them weak and wilting or even producing sooty mould due to the sticky substance they leave behind.
How to get rid of them:
Wash the aphids off by spraying them with a hose. Then, mix 1 tablespoon of bleach-free dishwashing liquid with 1 litre of water and spray the leaves and stems (and if there are still some) the aphids with it. Repeat that every three days for about two weeks. When there seem to be none left, spray once a week to keep them away.
White flies, like aphids, are also often found on the underside of the leaves where they suck out the plants’ sap and make the leaves turn yellow and wilt.
How to get rid of them:
Plant strong-smelling plants like rosemary, basil, thyme, marigolds or nasturtium near your pumpkins. Their smell will repel white flies.
The following pests are nearly unknown here in Germany but very common in other areas of the world:
Squash bug
The squash bug, for example, is a common and dreaded pest in the US. They not only suck the sap out of your plants, leaving them to wilt, but also lay their eggs on the leaves’ underside. From there, new generations of bugs that will also feed on your pumpkins will be born.
How to get rid of them:
Disgusting as this may sound, you’ll have to remove squash bugs and their eggs by hand on a daily basis. Put newspapers on the ground; they’ll hide underneath, and you can remove them easily. Additionally, spray your plants (and the bugs if you get them) with neem oil, which repels them.
Vine borer
Vine borers are also a common garden pest in the US. They have specialised in all members of the cucurbitacea family, like cucumbers, zucchini and pumpkins. Vine borers are moths, but it’s their larvae that inflict the most harm because they burrow into the stems of your pumpkins, eventually even wandering into the fruits.
How to get rid of them:
Like with snails and slugs, the best way to get rid of the vine borer is to not let it get near your plants. That’s easier said than done, however. Cover your plants with a protective net, but remove it for pollination as soon as the plant blooms.
Sprinkle diatomaceous earth around the base of your pumpkins to keep vine borers off the plants.
If all things fail, you may even have to use insecticidal soap.
Armyworms
Armyworms are caterpillars, and they feed on pumpkin leaves and even fruits. If undetected, they can exfoliate your pumpkin plants before you can say “Halloween”!
How to get rid of them:
If you suspect armyworms are eating your pumpkins, take a nightly stroll through the garden and check the underside of the pumpkin leaves. If you detect any armyworms, remove them by hand. Get out there every night to eliminate or at least considerably decimate them. Neem oil can also help to repel armyworms.
Cutworms
While you’re on your nightly round through the pumpkin patch, you can also keep a lookout for cutworms. These caterpillars can cause severe damage to young seedlings, including pumpkins.
How to get rid of them:
Like armyworms, cutworms are night-eaters (aren’t we all!) and are therefore best detected after nightfall. Check the leaves and the soil around your pumpkins and remove the cutworms by hand. When all are off, put collars of tin foil or cardboard around your plants. The collars must be a few inches below the soil and about 10 – 15 cm (4 – 6 inches) high to keep the caterpillars off.
Cucumber beetle
Cucumber beetles not only eat on your pumpkins, cucumbers or zucchini but also transmit bacterial wilt, a disastrous disease that kills members of the cucumber family.
How to get rid of them:
Protecting your pumpkins by covering them with floating row covers is the best method to keep cucumber beetles away from your plants. Just remember to remove the covers once the flowers bloom to let them be pollinated.
However, covers won’t be enough as the beetles also come out of the earth. Sprinkle the soil around your pumpkins with diatomaceous earth to repel them and spray your plants with neem oil. That way, they won’t be able to lay their eggs on the plant leaves.
Pumpkin diseases
It’s mostly fungal diseases that affect our pumpkins. The most common are
Powdery and False Mildew
A floury residue on the leaves is a sure sign of an infection with powdery mildew, which often occurs when the air is very dry.
False mildew, on the other hand, can be identified by yellow-brownish stains on the leaves’ upper sides as well as a greyish-white residue on the underside. False mildew is most common when the weather is cold and moist.
How to get rid of it:
The fungus doesn’t like acidic soil. For that reason, we can regulate our soil’s pH value before planting by spraying it with diluted milk or apple vinegar, which lowers the soil’s pH and makes it harder for the fungus to grow.
Additionally, make sure to plant your pumpkins at a proper distance from each other so that they dry off quickly.
Also, a preventive dose of garlic and/or onion brew can strengthen your plants.
If your pumpkins are strongly infected with mildew, you shouldn’t plant members of the cucumber family for at least three years on that patch, as the fungus can survive in the soil. Do not compost infected plant parts.
Mosaic virus
The first sign of an infection with mosaic virus is mosaic-like yellow blotches on the pumpkin leaves, which will eventually wilt.
How to get rid of it:
Mosaic virus mostly occurs at the end of the vegetation period, and therefore, it’s usually not necessary to do anything against it.
However, it’s never wrong to strengthen your plants preventively by fertilising them with nettle manure or rock flour and spraying them with neem oil.
Didymella bryoniae
Didymella bryoniae is a microscopic sac fungus that causes gummy stem blight. The fungus thrives especially at high summer temperatures and penetrates into the plant through small injuries on the surface. Blotches on the leaves, black tissue on the pumpkins and a jelly-like softening of the stem are typical symptoms.
How to get rid of it:
To prevent the fungus, cultivate pumpkins in a dry and airy place. Avoid injuries on the plants’ surface where the fungus could penetrate. Do not over-fertilise with nitrogen.
If your plants are infected, there’s no other way (at least none that I know) than using a fungicide. Here in Germany, the active ingredient difenoconazole is permitted. Check your country’s regulations for permitted fungicides.
Crop rotation importance
To keep your soil healthy and prevent diseases and pests from overrunning your garden, it’s important not to plant the same crops in the same place year after year. The principles of crop rotation tell us that we should vary what we plant so that pests and diseases won’t have a chance of thriving, and the soil will not be leached of nutrients.
Pumpkins belong to the family of Cucurbitaceae, of which cucumbers, melons and zucchini are also members. Members of the same family should not be planted in close vicinity or year after year in the same place. Keep a 3 – 4 year rotation break before planting the same family in the same spot.
When you pair crop rotation with companion plants that support each other’s growth, your garden will thrive.
Special Techniques for Growing Giant Pumpkins
I know they always say that we should focus on the inner values, but sometimes size does matter! If you intend to take part in a competition where the largest pumpkin wins the prize, here are a few tips:
Genetics, genetics, genetics
There’s no giant Hokkaido pumpkin, so choose your variety wisely. If you want to grow really – really! – big pumpkin berries, choose a ‘Cucurbita Maxima’ (giant pumpkin) variety, a sub-family of pumpkins that produces the largest fruits. “Atlantic Giant” is a common variety which commonly grows pumpkins of 50 – 100 kg, even in hobby gardens!
Soil preparation and amendments
To prepare the soil for your heavyweight pumpkin, work in mature compost or manure in early spring. That way, you add enough nutrients that your seedlings can feed on once they’ve been transplanted. Also, test the soil’s pH-value which should be between 6.5 and 6.8 and adjust it if necessary.
As pumpkins in general and giant pumpkins especially need lots and lots of nutrients, it’s a common technique to plant them directly at the foot of the compost heap where they can feed excessively.
Plant the pumpkins at a distance of at least 2 x 2 m (6.5 – 6.5 feet). The narrower the spacing, the smaller the fruit. Furthermore, narrowly planted pumpkins are more prone to diseases and pests.
Pruning and training techniques
Pruning and training your pumpkin plants is essential for growth. For extraordinarily large fruits, it’s advisable to leave only one main vine with 2 – 3 secondary and third vines. When the plant grows larger, bury the vine partially at the nodes. That way, more roots are built that can nourish the pumpkin and make the plant more sturdy and stable. When the pumpkin fruits develop, remove all but the largest fruit so that there’s no competition for nutrients.
Fertilisation Secrets of Champion Growers
Giant pumpkins are extremely heavy feeders. Besides nitrogen, they need mostly potassium and phosphorus. Check your soil’s nutrient content before the season starts and add what’s needed. Additionally, fertilise the plants every 2 -3 weeks with liquid plant manure from stinging nettle and comfrey, compost water or manure water.
Pollination and Fruit Development
Pumpkins develop male and female blossoms, which can be easily distinguished. Understanding the “who is who” of pumpkin blossoms improves pollination chances and makes it easier for you to pollinate by hand if necessary
Understanding male and female flowers
The male blossoms sit on long, thin, hairy stems. In the middle of the male flowers sit stamens that produce pollen. Male blossoms appear more often and mostly at the beginning of the vegetation cycle.
Female blossoms have shorter stems, which are closer to the ground. The stigma, which receives the pollen, sits in the middle of the flower.
Hand pollination techniques
Usually, pollination is done by flying insects like bees, bumble bees and others. However, due to unfavourable climatic conditions like cool soil temperature and high humidity, pollinators may not be able to do their job properly. In that case, we may have to pollinate our pumpkins ourselves:
The best time for hand pollination is the early morning when the flowers start to open. Make sure you have both male and female flowers at the same time.
Pick a fresh male flower and carefully remove the petals to expose the stamens.
Rub the male stamens directly on the stigma of the female flower. Alternatively, you can use a small, clean brush to take the pollen and transfer it to the stigma of the female blossom.
If successfully pollinated, female pumpkin blossoms will show a thickened ovary at the bottom of the flower, which looks like a small version of the later pumpkin.
When the pumpkins form, a wooden board or a thick layer of mulch underneath the fruit prevents it from rotting.
Harvesting Your Pumpkins
While summer squash like zucchini and patissons are best harvested young, pumpkins must mature completely to develop their best taste and be able to be stored for a long time. When the leaves start to wilt, the maturity process begins. After that, we must be patient for some further weeks.
Signs that pumpkins are ready to harvest
It’s time to harvest your pumpkins when they have the right colour (depending on the variety) and the fruit stem has become hard, brown and woody. The skin can no longer be scratched with a fingernail.
Mature large fruits, for example “Muscat de Provence”, sound hollow when you knock on them, but this doesn’t work for small varieties like Hokkaido or butternuts.
Proper cutting techniques to maximise shelf life
Leave the pumpkins as long as possible on the plant and put them either on a thick layer of straw or a wooden board to prevent them from rotting.
Pumpkins must not be exposed to frost, so before the first frost strikes, cut the pumpkin with a sharp knife off the plant, leaving at least 10 cm (4 inches) of stem on the fruit. If the stem is too short, pathogens might enter the plant.
Curing process for extended storage
Only unscathed pumpkins can be stored for a long time. Immediately after harvesting, let the pumpkins cure for about 2 – 3 weeks in a dry place of about 20 °C (68 °F), for example, in a warm boiler room or a heated living room. During that time, small injuries will close and get sealed with a cork-like plaster.
Storing and Preserving Your Harvest
We’ve come such a long way from seed-starting our pumpkins to harvesting them. Now let’s find out how we can store them properly so we can enjoy them for months:
Optimal storage conditions
After curing, our pumpkins are best stored in a dry, cool place, at temperatures between 10 and 15 °C (50 – 60 °F). A cold basement or stairwell is great. The room should not get direct sunlight and should also be well aerated.
Store pumpkins on a shelf or in a box with straw. Make sure they don’t touch. It’s best to store them 5 – 10 cm (2 – 4 inches) away from each other. Don’t stack them on top of each other. Alternatively, put the pumpkins in nets (one pumpkin per net) and let them hang from the ceiling.
The storage time of pumpkins depends widely on the variety.
Hokkaido pumpkins can be stored up to 3 months. Butternut varieties have a longer shelf life: in optimum storage conditions, they’ll last up to 6 months. Moschata pumpkins, which are even larger, can be stored up to 9 months.
Preserving pumpkin flesh
Once a pumpkin is cut open, it must be used within several days, which can be managed with small varieties, but what to do with pumpkins of 2 kg and above? The answer is preservation, and pumpkin can be preserved in many ways:
Freezing Pumpkin can be best frozen either raw (in cubes, grated or slices) or as a puree.
Canning As pumpkin is a vegetable with low acid content, it must be canned with a pressure canner. Waterbath canning won’t be safe! It’s best to can pumpkin in cubes. They’ll be safely cooked through, and you can puree them after opening the jar.
Dehydrating You can dehydrate raw or blanched pumpkin slices in the oven or the dehydrator. Either store those chips or make pumpkin powder out of them.
Jam Did you know that you can cook jam from pumpkins? Try it in combination with orange, vanilla or pumpkin spice. It’s delicious!
Conclusion
Growing pumpkins in your garden might take some work, but the results are totally worth it! By picking the right spot with lots of sun, preparing your soil with compost, planting seeds after the last frost, and giving your vines plenty of water and space to grow, you’ll be on your way to an awesome pumpkin harvest. Don’t forget to keep those weeds away and watch out for pests that might try to munch on your plants.
When fall comes around and you’re carrying your very own home-grown pumpkins into the house, you’ll feel so proud! Just imagine the delicious pumpkin pies, roasted pumpkin seeds, and Halloween jack-o’-lanterns you can make with what you grew yourself. Plus, your friends and family will be super impressed!
Another great thing about pumpkins is how well they keep after harvest. With proper curing in a warm, dry place for 2 -3 weeks, your pumpkins can last for months in a cool spot in your home. You can also freeze cooked pumpkin chunks or puree for up to a year, or can or dehydrate your pumpkin harvest to enjoy your garden’s bounty even in the middle of winter!
So grab those seeds, dig in the dirt, and start your pumpkin patch. Before you know it, you’ll be the pumpkin-growing champion of your neighbourhood!
Wanna learn more about gardening? These articles may also interest you:
Ah compost! The gardener’s “brown gold” that is the magic bullet for all our garden problems: Wanna add nutrients to your soil? Mix it with compost. Got water retention issues? Add compost to your soil. Looking for the perfect seed-starting soil? Compost it is. In this article, I’ll show you what you need for good compost and how to make compost, even if you don’t have a garden!
Learn with this step-by-step guide how you can transform garden and kitchen waste into valuable humus.
Benefits of composting
With a compost, you can dispose of kitchen and garden waste and put it back into the natural cycle of transformation. With the help of microorganisms, all the organic material will be broken down into a new, nutritious gardening soil.
Compost improves the soil by loosening its structure and enhancing its water retention capability.
With compost, you have a natural, organic fertiliser for your plants. It’s not called “the gardener’s brown gold” for nothing. 😉
That wonderful fertiliser and soil improver will save you money.
Better still, compost is environmentally friendly as it is all-natural and well-tolerated by plants and soil.
Composting systems
Before you make your first compost, let’s get an overview of the different models. They all have their advantages and disadvantages.
You must also consider how much space you’ve got in your garden, and how much garden and kitchen waste you will produce.
Open composting systems
The classic open composting system is the compost heap, where you just pile all your garden and kitchen waste. Open compost heaps should be at least 1,2 m (4 feet) broad, 80 cm (2,5 feet) high and – if necessary – several metres long. They are best for large gardens with plenty of organic waste.
Open composters are usually grids or frames made of wood or metal that surround the compost heap. They are relatively cheap, and you can even build them yourself out of wooden slats, palettes or sturdy metal fences.
Open composters are well-aired and easily accessible.
On the downside, the compost in open systems needs more time to mature, up to 12 months and longer.
Closed composting systems
Closed composters are usually made of well-isolating plastic or metal containers that usually come with a flap on ground level where you can take out the mature compost. They should be able to contain at least 200 litres to make sure that the composting process takes place fast and effectively.
They protect against weathering and animals (like rats) and require less space than open systems.
Their most important advantage is that they generate high temperatures, making the compost mature a good deal faster than in open systems. These systems are often called thermo composters.
Disadvantageously, closed composters are more expensive than open ones
An alternative closed composter that needs less space is a drum composter. By regularly turning the drum, you’ll mix the waste and provide it with oxygen.
If you want to buy a thermo composter, make sure that the plastic is weather and UV resistant.
Composters for the balcony
Even on a balcony or patio, you can make compost.
You can, for example, use the above-mentioned drum composters that have a compact size.
Also, worm bins are a good method of composting with little space. They do not smell and are very efficient. You can either buy worm bins or build them yourself. The necessary composting worms can be bought online.
Another great method of composting with limited space is a Bokashi bucket, in which you ferment your organic waste and transform it into nutritious soil.
How to make compost: finding the right location
A compost, no matter which system you choose, is usually not a very pretty sight. Sometimes, it can even smell bad. So, to avoid stress with the neighbours, you shouldn’t place the compost directly at the property boundary.
The perfect location for your compost heap should lie in the half-shadow, maybe under trees or (fruit) shrubs. That way, it’s not only protected from winds and sun but also from views. If you have the possibility to hide it, do so.
It’s also important that you can access your compost with a wheelbarrow. All that black gold has to be transported to your patches 😊
Compost should not lie in the direct sun as it dries out very fast. Yet, I don’t have (half-)shade in my garden, and so the compost is exposed to the blazing sun. To keep it from drying out, therefore, I have to water it during the summer, and sometimes I put a cardboard on top to keep the moisture in.
Composts should always have direct contact with the soil. That way, worms and microorganisms can get into it, and excess water can flow away. Even many closed composting systems are open at the bottom. With a floor grid, you can prevent voles, rats, mice and other pests from entering.
If you want to compost on the balcony, make sure that the total weight doesn’t exceed maximum load.
Basic composting factors to observe
Before you make a compost, there are some basic factors you have to observe:
Size
Closed systems have a preset size but an open system should be at least 1 x 1 metre (3,5 x 3,5 feet) to produce enough heat for the rotting process. Larger compost heaps should not be broader than 2 m (6 feet) to ensure sufficient ventilation.
Material
The one thing we need to make compost is: compostable matter! Usually, we get plenty of organic waste from our garden and the kitchen.
“Brown” material like wood chips, twigs and branches, straw and leaves contains much carbon (C)
“Green” material like grass clippings, kitchen waste, weeds, coffee grounds, or manure contains more nitrogen (N).
For an optimal composting process, the ratio between carbon and nitrogen should be between 15:1 and 25:1. That means that we compost more brown material than green one. Ideally, we collect brown material and every time we throw some green material on the compost, we add an amount of brown material.
Chop up large chunks of wood or vegetables to accelerate composting, but don’t make them too small. Sizable parts of organic matter make sure that air is held within the heap, which prevents it from moulding or putrefying.
Oxygen
Oxygen is a vital factor for the composting process. Make sure your heap is well-ventilated by adding coarse material like twigs, straw and leaves.
Moisture
Your compost should be moist but not wet. If it’s too dry, water it now and then; if there’s heavy rain, cover it to avoid putrefaction.
The best time to start a compost
Basically, you can start a compost at any time of the year, but I recommend the warm seasons. Life in the compost heap, like bacteria, microorganisms, worms and other creatures, develops and thrives better when it’s warm.
In winter, however, there is next to no activity. The beneficial bacteria are slow and they even stop working when it gets too cold. It may help to cover the compost to protect it from cold and wetness.
How to Make Compost in 8 Easy Steps
Step 1
Lay a grid against voles and mice on the ground. Then, build a basic layer of coarse material like twigs, straw or leaves. This layer ensures good ventilation and prevents waterlogging.
Step 2
After that, alternately layer green materials (moist and nitrogen-rich) like grass clippings, vegetable scraps or coffee grounds and brown materials (dry and carbon-rich) like leaves, straw or chopped loppings. Each layer should be about 10 – 15 cm (4 – 6 inches) high. The smaller the materials, the faster they decompose.
Step 3
Activate your compost by one of the following methods:
Add mature compost as a starter. It contains the microorganisms required for composting.
Mix a compost starter from 10 litres of lukewarm water, 1 kg of sugar and two packages of dry yeast and pour it over the compost heap. The microorganisms love that!
Have you ever heard of Effective Microorganisms? They are mixtures of different aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms that can, among other uses, accelerate composting.
Step 4
If necessary, water the compost to ensure enough moisture. Compost should always be moist but never wet.
Step 5
Cover the compost heap on hot days with a layer of leaves, straw or cardboard to prevent it from drying out and overheating.
Step 6
Oxygen is an important factor for composting. Mix in enough coarse material to get in air pockets and (optionally) turn the compost over every 4 – 6 weeks to mix the ingredients well and ventilate it.
Step 7
Let the compost mature for about 6 – 12 months. During that time, microorganisms and soil organisms break the material down and transform it into nutrient-rich humus. You know that your compost is ready when it looks dark and crumbly and smells of forest soil.
Step 8
When your compost is ripe, you can use it as a fertiliser and soil improver in your garden. Distribute the compost on your patches to provide your plants with nutrients and loosen up the garden soil. You can also use mature compost as potting soil for balcony boxes and planting pots.
Kitchen waste: fruit and vegetable remains (untreated), coffee grounds
Egg shells (crushed)
Tea and coffee filters (from paper)
Sawdust and wood shavings (untreated); don’t use too much of it as it may attract wireworms
Litter from small animals (plant-based and untreated), manure, feathers
Paper and cardboard (uncoated and in small amounts)
What NOT to put in the compost
Do not put any of the following on your compost:
Cooked or baked food
Meat and fish remains
Dairy products
Weeds with seeds or roots that hardly decompose (e.g. goutweed, couch grass). Plants with contagious diseases like blight or mildew. The disease is not killed but spreads through the new compost into the soil and infects your whole garden. Always throw parts of ill plants into the garbage bin.
Treated wood, plastics or metals
How to use compost
There are different stages of decomposition and in each of them the compost can be used, but for different purposes.
Half-rotted compost: Mulch
The temperature of the compost heap has decreased, and large chunks remain. You can now use them as mulch for your patches.
Nearly mature compost
The temperature has fallen to normal, and there are only a few smaller bits and pieces in there. The compost smells of forest soil. Now you can use it as fertiliser for heavy feeders like cabbage, tomatoes and cucumbers.
Mature compost
The compost has a dark colour, a fine and crumbly structure, and it smells of forest soil. Use this compost as seed-starting soil or make a new vegetable patch with it.
I made a new patch with my compost where I’m going to plant strawberries
You can throw the compost through a sieve and sort the chunks out. They need a bit longer to decompose so put them back in the compost.
Usually, compost is distributed inearly spring, as soon as the soil warms up and needs new nutrients for the plants. Add a layer of about 2 cm (1 inch) of compost to your vegetable patches, flower beds or under your fruit trees and bushes and rake it slightly in.
You can add compost to your soil in autumn as well, but only as long as the soil is still warm. And you need to cover it with mulch afterwards.
If you can’t use the compost right away, store it in closed buckets until you need it. That way, the nutrients won’t be washed out by rain.
Compost maintenance
Once you’ve layered all the material, your compost doesn’t need you to do its work. However, there are a few factors that need controlling to ensure a fast and good decomposition process:
Temperature
In closed composting system the temperature will get higher than in open systems. The hotter the temperature, the faster the composting process will be.
Moisture
If the compost is too dry, the microorganisms can die; if it’s too wet, it may rot. But how to know if the moisture is right? I usually take a large stick and poke some holes into the compost. When it feels like a squeezed sponge, the moisture is right.
Oxygen
Composting needs oxygen to work properly. That’s why it’s so important to not add too many (wet) grass clippings to your compost as that would lead to an anaerobic (that is: without oxygen) mass that moulds and rots.
Compost troubleshooting
Composting does not always go without trouble. Here are the most common problems and their solutions.
#1 The compost stinks
The reason for bad smells from the compost is that it has too little oxygen and thus creates an anaerobic atmosphere.
Solution:
Check if your composting system is water permeable towards the ground and the cover is water-tight.
Open the composter and shovel everything out. Now put it back into the composter, but mix in plenty of dry brown material to keep oxygen in.
#2 The compost moulds
Although we associate mould and mildew with moisture, it’s the contrary: the compost is too dry.
Solution:
Turn the compost over and mix in some mature compost to reactivate it. Then water it with several buckets of water and keep an eye on its moisture the next time.
#3 Animal infestation
Animals like rats, voles or mice can be attracted by a compost heap.
Solution
Make sure that it’s well protected, for example by putting a metal grid on the ground before starting the compost. Also, don’t ever put meat, fish or cooked food on the compost!
#4 Composting takes too long
Although composting takes its time, more than a year is too long. This may be caused by too little moisture or an imbalance in green and brown material.
Solution:
Turn the compost and add what’s necessary, either moist or dry material and mix it regularly. That way, oxygen gets in, and the good microorganisms thrive.
Composting is not difficult. With the right tips and tricks you can soon transform your garden and kitchen waste into great humus for your garden. Just make sure to use the right materials, to layer the compost in the right way and to give it enough oxygen, moisture and warmth. That way, you contribute to a sustainable eco-cylce and do something good for your garden. Your vegetables will soon thrive in the “brown gold” and reward you with a great harvest. So, get out there, look for a good spot and start composting!
Nearly everybody who has indoor plants will sooner or later make the dubious acquaintance of fungus gnats. Not only but especially in winter, those tiny black insects whirl up from the soil when we water our plants and fly around seemingly aimlessly. Unfortunately, fungus gnats are not only an annoying or aesthetic problem but a real threat to our seedlings because they like to nibble on plant roots! If we only had two or three gnats taking a small bite out of the roots, that wouldn’t be a problem. However, as it happens, fungus gnats never work alone but rather in clouds of gazillions. You can imagine the havoc these numbers can wreak among our baby vegetables. In order to find out how to get rid of fungus gnats, we first must look at what they are exactly.
What are fungus gnats?
Fungus gnats can be found all over the world. In Europe, there are around 600 different types. They are related to midges but cannot sting. In nature, especially in woods or moors, but also in gardens, their larvae play an important role as they decompose organic material.
Fungus gnats are often introduced with potting soil that already contains eggs or larvae, but they can also get into the house through open windows.
You have an infestation when swarms of 2 – 4 mm black insects rise from the pots every time you move or water them. Contrary to fruit flies, fungus gnats have long legs and feelers as well as large wings. They preferably lay their eggs in the moist soil of indoor plants, and one female can lay up to 200 eggs, out of which wormlike, about 5 – 7 mm long, white larvae hatch. They live in large groups in the moist soil. After about 13 days, the larvae pupate, and five to six days later, the fungus gnats hatch.
What damages do fungus gnats cause?
While the black fungus gnats are only pesky, their larvae, which live in the soil, eat not only dead plant parts but also the plants’ roots. Large plants can usually cope with that, but seedlings and cuttings can die. The damaged roots can’t take up enough water and nutrients, and bacterial and fungal diseases can penetrate the plant through the open roots.
How to get rid of fungus gnats
Now, the good news is that there are ways to get rid of those little black beasts – and without throwing a chemical bomb into your living room. Read on!
Prevention
Prevention, they say, is better than cure. So the best way to get rid of fungus gnats is to not let them in in the first place.
Soil preparation
Since we mostly bring fungus gnats in ourselves with the soil we use for potting or seed starting, it’s certainly a great idea to give that a closer look. Only buy high-quality potting soil in undamaged sacks. If you use your own potting preparation, for example with compost, sterilise it before use. For that purpose, heat the soil in the oven at 150 °C (300 °F) for 30 minutes and let it cool down.
Watering correctly
As fungus gnats need moist soil to survive, we should only water our plants when the surface is really dry. However, this can be a bit tricky with seedlings as they must not dry out. It’s better to water several times a week with little water instead of once with a lot. Reliable water monitoring is essential when it comes to healthy seedlings and getting rid of fungus gnats.
Traps
There are those yellow sticky traps that you can put into the planting pots. They attract (amongst others) fungus gnats, which will stick to the gluey cards. However, those traps only catch the male gnats, and although males and females are necessary for producing fertilised eggs, sticky traps are not enough to get rid of all the gnats in your home. The traps are an indicator of an infestation and also a good addition to the next steps:
Natural antagonists
Nematodes
There is a kind of secret weapon, like a SWAT team, in the battle against fungus gnats: nematodes (Steinernema feltiae or SF-nematodes). They are minuscule, wormlike animals that live in the soil and kill fungus gnats’ larvae. Sounds disgusting, but it works wonderfully and is a great non-chemical way of getting rid of our plants’ unwanted roommates.
You can buy nematodes online. They come in small packages and look like a powder that you have to dilute with water. I always use a large mason jar for that, and then add the dilution to the watering can, where I fill it up with more water.
Before you spread the nematodes, however, the potting soil must already be moist. Nematodes (like fungus gnats) die in dry soil, so water your plants in advance, then bring out the nematodes and keep the soil moist during the next weeks. It usually takes about 2 – 4 weeks to notice a considerable decline in fungus gnats.
Predatory mites
Like nematodes, predatory mites also find fungus gnats irresistible. You can use the types Hypoaspis miles, Hypoaspis aculeifer, and Macrocheles robustulus. They usually come as a granulate that you spread on top of the soil.
Bacteria
Special bacteria, like Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. Israelensis are also a good weapon against fungus gnats. Like nematodes, they are diluted in water and poured on the potting soil with a watering can.
Neem oil
Neem oil affects the insects’ hormonal system and prevents them from forming chitin, so that they will not reach the stage of mature gnats and, as a consequence, are not able to reproduce. If you are sure that there are no beneficial insects in the vicinity that you want to spare, neem oil is a good way to get rid of fungus gnats. I wouldn’t use it outside, though, for fear of affecting bees and other pollinators.
Soil cover
A well-known home remedy to prevent the gnats from laying their eggs in the soil is to cover it with quartz sand, where the flies will not get through it. However, the layer should be about 1 cm (0.5 inches) thick. Sprinkle a bit of baking soda on top of the sand to set a double barrier.
Tempting as it might be, however, do not cover your potting soil with organic material as that provides nourishment for the gants and larvae.
However tedious, fungus gnats are not one of the seven plagues, and as easily as we can bring them in unconsciously, we can get rid of them. It’s best, of course, to take precautions, but as you have seen above, there are also several non-chemical ways to protect our green friends from those root nibblers.
Aphids are just one of many garden challenges! For more organic pest solutions, seasonal planting guides, and beginner-friendly tutorials, browse my complete gardening library.
When I was a child, we had a vegetable garden of about 40 square meters. Seeing that we were six people and Granny also had a patch for her and Gramps, it was a relatively small garden. Yet, it produced most of our vegetables, and we rarely had to buy any from the supermarket. Today, my mom is still an avid gardener, but she cultivates only two raised beds for her and my dad, which is plenty of work for an octogenarian. Surprisingly enough, like before, those beds (and a few pots) provide them with most of their veggies throughout the growing season. That shows that a small space is no excuse for not starting a vegetable garden! Let me show you how you can also have a huge harvest in your small space vegetable garden.
Small vegetable gardens: Choose your site
If you have already established patches or raised beds to grow vegetables, that’s fine. But if you’re just starting, there are a few things to observe when you plan your garden.
Location
Vegetables need light to grow. It doesn’t matter if you have a small garden with a tiny bed or just some pots on a patio, as long as your veggies get enough sunshine, they’ll be fine.
Inventory
Take inventory of what plants already grow in your garden and use the different growing heights to your advantage. If you have some shrubs and bushes, for example, you could plant herbs which grow smaller, on the south of them and proceed with vegetables. That way, you can cultivate fruits, herbs and vegetables in a comparatively small space.
Patches and Co.
If you have the opportunity, you can create some garden patcheswith this easy method (no need to dig, I promise!). But even if a coherent gardening space isn’t possible, maybe you can create “pockets” within your garden, which means single patches scattered throughout your soon-to-be small vegetable garden.
Raised beds may be a good idea, no matter if you have a garden, patio or just a balcony.
Last but not least, pots and containers fit on the tiniest balcony. You’ll be surprised to see what you can grow in pots!
Dreaming of your small vegetable garden
Every garden, even a small one, needs a plan! I know it can be tedious to create one, but I promise you it’s worth it.
Choosing vegetables
To make a plan, however, you must decide first what vegetables you want to grow. Make a list with all the veggies you like AND which don’t require too much space.
Good, and beginner-friendly, examples are Swiss chard, Chinese cabbage, peas, beans, leeks, carrots, garlic, onions, kohlrabi, radishes, turnips, beetroot, stalk celery, lettuce and lamb’s lettuce.
For a small vegetable garden, it’s also clever to choose vegetables that grow vertically rather than horizontally. Runner beans, for example, that grow upwards on trellises, may be a better option than bush beans, which require much more space.
If you have one or two vegetables that you absolutely want to have, although they normally need too much space, include them in your plan. Growing our own food should be fun, and not a way to limit ourselves. Growing them in pots is usually a great option.
Look for high-yielding vegetables that produce a huge harvest. Good examples are zucchini, carrots, onions and tomatoes.
Make sure you cultivate varieties that are robust and well-adapted to your climate and hardiness zone, and prefer heirloom and resistant varieties.
Choose vegetables that are easy to cultivate, like lettuce, Swiss chard, garlic and beets.
It’s also good to have vegetables that grow fast, like radishes, beets, Swiss chard and spinach and veggies you can harvest for a long time, like lettuce, runner beans, leek, stalk celery and kale.
Small vegetable garden: Make a cultivation plan
Now that you have your list of vegetables, it’s time to make a plan. If you have patches or raised beds, draw them on paper and outline which plants you want to grow where. To make the best of your space, combine high and low-growing plants.
The right combinations
Randomly mixing vegetables can work, but usually, it won’t. It’s good, therefore, to know which plants to grow together and how to combine different veggies.
Now that we have a plan, we prepare our patches. No matter the kind of patches or pots we have to grow our vegetables in, soil preparation is essential for a good harvest. And what would be better than
Compost
Compost is a universal remedy. It improves the soil structure, stores water, provides nourishment for the soil organisms and nutrients for the plants.
A generous layer of compost on the soil is a great method to ensure a huge harvest.
“Homemade” compost is certainly best, but if you don’t have enough “homemade” compost, I recommend buying some from a composting plant. It’s usually of better quality than the stuff in plastic bags you can buy in the supermarket, and it’s cheaper.
Manure
If you have livestock and use their manure for the garden, the soil will become increasingly fertile with time. Chicken manure, for example, is a marvellous fertiliser.
Horse manure has fewer nutrients than other manure, but the nutrient content is very balanced. Yet, no matter what animals you have: your garden will profit from their manure in any case.
Even if you don’t have any livestock, you can ask on farms, horse stables, or other animal owners if you can have some manure for your garden.
The only thing you have to keep in mind is that fresh manure is usually too „hot“ for most plants, and they would burn. For that reason, you must compost it before you can use it in your garden.
Cultivating your small vegetable garden
Made a plan: check
Prepared the soil: check
Now we can plant!
Intensive cultivation
When you use compost to enhance your soil’s fertility, you can plant your vegetables more closely than indicated on the seed packages. Especially leafy vegetables can be planted closer together, and a smaller planting distance means a higher yield.
Another example is head cabbage, which needs a lot of space as it grows relatively expansively, and we should plant it with the right spacing.
Normally.
We can intensify the space yield, however, when we plant leeks between the cabbage rows. The cabbage grows on the ground and leeks on the “first floor” without them getting in each other’s way.
Pots and containers
For most gardeners, tomatoes and cucumbers are a must-have. Unfortunately, they require a comparatively large space to grow healthily and bring a good harvest. Instead of growing them in our patches or raised beds, therefore, we plant them in pots and containers. Just make sure that the pots are large enough and that you put them in a protected, sunny spot.
Attract pollinators in small vegetable gardens.
Fruiting vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers, but peas and beans, as well, need insects to pollinate them. To attract these pollinators, it’s a good idea to plant blooming herbs or (edible) flowers like calendula or nasturtium between our veggies or around the patches. Bees and other pollinating insects will love them, and as a thank you, pollinate your veggies.
Harvest
Many gardeners hesitate when it comes to harvesting, but harvesting is our goal, isn’t it?!
When you cultivate vegetables that can be harvested for a long time, like lettuce, runner beans, leek, stalk celery and kale, make sure to harvest them continually throughout the season. That way, you drive them to grow more leaves or fruits.
As soon as you have harvested any veggies completely, sow or plant immediately afterwards so that the next batch of veggies is on its way.
Having fewer vegetables makes us want to use more parts of them. Did you know, for example, that you can mix the leaves of beetroots, carrots and Florence fennel with your lettuce? Or that the leaves of radishes make a wonderful pesto? You can also cut off garlic greens and put them in your salad or cook with them. They have a mild garlic taste and improve every dish.
Lastly, why not harvest edible wild plants that grow in your garden? One of the most dreaded weeds, goutweed, for example, can be perfectly baked into pancakes or used up for a wild herb pesto.
The leaves of stinging nettle can be mixed with spinach or cooked into a soup.
Vegetable garden, greenhouse, balcony, or patio: Cucumbers thrive in many environments and brighten your summer with crisp, fresh fruit. And they are a vegetable that can be easily seed-started indoors. Let’s have a look at how it works.
Cucumber varieties
Depending on where they grow, there are different varieties of cucumbers. Snack and pickling cucumbers grow well outdoors and even in pots, while snake cucumbers prefer to be cultivated in a greenhouse.
Seed-starting cucumbers for greenhouse cultivation
Many cucumbers for the greenhouse produce only female flowers, which makes them more productive.
Cucumber varieties with only female flowers are called “parthenocarpous”. That means that they don’t need male pollen for fertilisation and don’t produce seeds.
If you choose a parthenocarpous cucumber variety, make sure that you don’t plant other varieties with male flowers in the vicinity. Otherwise, bees could bring in male pollen – and you‘ll get a smaller harvest.
Seed-starting cucumbers for outdoor cultivation
Outdoor cucumber varieties are often smaller and have less smooth skin, but they often taste more aromatic and stay fresher and crispier.
If you want to cultivate your cucumbers in an unprotected place, I recommend the robust outdoor varieties. They are not as prone to mildew as the more sensitive greenhouse cucumbers.
But cucumbers are not only for fresh consumption. There are several varieties, especially for preserving. My favourite variety for pickles and ferments is „Boston Pickling“. Its fruits stay smaller, and they grow well outdoors.
The right time
At the beginning of April, you can seed-start cucumbers indoors. I also recommend sowing cucumbers in several batches between April and mid-June. This succession planting will make sure that you can harvest cucumbers throughout the whole season.
Seeing that sometimes older plants get infected with (real or false) mildew, a further batch provides you with fresh fruits.
Seed-starting Cucumbers: 8 Steps for Healthy Seedlings
. To make sure seed-starting will be a success, let’s go from sowing to transplanting step by step!
#1 How many cucumber plants do I need?
If you want to be self-sufficient with cucumbers, I recommend cultivating one to two plants per household member. For pickling and fermenting, you can even calculate some more. That way, you can preserve cucumbers for the winter months.
#2 Equipment
Fortunately, there’s not much equipment you’ll need:
Wondering if you could really sow in compost? Yep, that’s possible, BUT only in mature compost. If it looks dark and smells like a forest, it’s ready for seed-starting.
#3 How to sow cucumbers
Take your pots, fill them with mature compost or cultivation soil and make a hole of about 2 cm in it. There, you put in two seeds. Unfortunately, there’s always the risk that some seeds won’t germinate. By putting two seeds into the pots, we minimise that risk. If both germinate, rip out the weaker plant (even if it’s hard for you).
Now cover the seeds with soil, press it slightly and water the pots with the watering can or ball shower.
#4 Do NOT thin out cucumbers
Cucumbers don’t like it when their roots get messed with. For that reason, we seed-start them in pots that are large enough for them to grow until they’re transplanted outdoors or into the greenhouse without being uprooted.
#5 Temperature and light
Cucumbers like it hot, about 25 °C (77 °F), for germination. I usually place the pots above the radiator, or I use a heating mat to create a cosily warm atmosphere for my cucumber babies.
When they have germinated and peek out of the soil, they need less temperature but more light. At that stage, I move them to the guest toilet, where it’s a few degrees colder (18 – 20 °C / 64 – 68 °F). Now they need more light to grow, about 12 – 16 hours per day and at best special wavelengths.
It’s difficult to get that amount of light at the beginning of April, which is why I have several plant lamps installed. The right light is essential for sturdy growth. If there’s too little, the plants will get leggy and weak.
When your cucumbers are 2 – 3 weeks old, they need their first dose of fertiliser. It’s best to use a liquid fertiliser that you dilute with water (I usually use half the amount indicated on the package) and water your plants with it.
At that stage, cucumbers need a small dose of nitrogen to get them going and induce healthy growth.
#7 Watering
You shouldn‘t water any seedlings from above but rather into the saucer or holder. That way, the water can be absorbed up into the pot and the seedlings can take what they need. It’s the simplest and best way to water seedlings, and you can even fertilise them that way.
But be careful: don’t over-water your seedlings! A short period with a slightly drier soil helps them to develop strong roots.
#8 Hardening off
Before planting your cucumbers outdoors (here, that’s around the middle of May), you must harden them off to get them used to the harsher conditions. About a week before the „great day“, start putting them outside in a protected, shady place for 2 – 3 hours. Prolong that time over the next few days, and also put them into the sun. After about 7 days, they are hardened off enough to get transplanted outdoors.
Now you can also sow cucumbers directly into the patch.
Have fun seed-starting your cucumbers! If you want to read on, here are some articles you may also like:
In an ideal world, we would just take the time once to make a planting plan for our vegetable garden and then stick to it for all the years to come. That would be so convenient, wouldn’t it? Alas, it doesn’t work that way. Cultivating the same plants in the same place again and again would leach out the soil over the years and bring little to no harvest. The solution to this problem is to implement a rotational system where crops are planted on a different field every year until they reach that first field again. This concept is what we know as crop rotation.
But crop rotation isn’t just an old farming technique: In a vegetable garden where we intensively cultivate a small(ish) amount of soil for maximum harvest, we also use crop rotation to keep the soil fertile and our plants healthy. In this post, I’ll show you what crop rotation is, how it will help you to get healthier plants, fewer pests and more abundant harvests and how you can integrate it into your garden plan. Let’s dive into everything you need to know about this game-changing practice!
What is crop rotation, and what are its benefits?
Crop rotation is the concept of NOT cultivating the same plants in the same place year after year. That way, we avoid pests and diseases from getting the upper hand. Many pests and diseases specialise in one plant or plant family (see below). By rotating our crops, we keep them at bay and diminish the risk of them getting ground and permanently invading our garden.
Another benefit of crop rotation is the soil’s nutrient content and thus its fertility. As you know, we can categorise vegetables as heavy, medium and light feeders, that is, plants with high, medium or low nutrient demands. Cultivating cabbage, for example, which is a heavy feeder, for years in a row would leach out the soil fast of the many nutrients cabbage needs to grow healthily.
However, nutrient supply by crop rotation is not as important for vegetable gardening as the disruption of pest and disease cycles. After all, we do add compost and fertilisers to supply nutrients. For the same reason, a fallow where we grow nothing but a cover crop on a bed will not be necessary in vegetable gardening.
Together with companion planting (mixed culture), the use of eco-friendly fertilisers and plant protection, crop rotation is an important pillar for the long-term sustainability of our gardens.
How to use crop rotation in your vegetable garden
First of all, we need to understand the different groups of vegetables. The best way to do so is to either categorise our vegetables by the “family” they belong to or by what we want to harvest from them.
Understanding Plant Families
Plants, like humans, belong to different families. It’s important to know which plants are members of the same family, as they usually show not only similar nutrient needs but also attract the same pests and diseases.
Here’s a short overview of the most common plant families and their requirements:
Family: Poaceae (sweet grass) Vegetables: Corn Nutrient uptake: medium
Understanding plant categories
Apart from plant families, we can also sort our vegetables depending on what we want to harvest from them.
There are five categories:
Category: Leafy vegetables Vegetables: Lettuce, spinach and Swiss chard Nutrient uptake: medium to high
Category: Brassicas Vegetables: Cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, Savoy cabbage and kohlrabi. Nutrient uptake: high
Category: Fruiting vegetables Vegetables: Tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, melons and potatoes Nutrient uptake: high (especially potassium and phosphorus)
Category: Root vegetables Vegetables: Carrots, turnips, parsnips, beetroots, radishes, parsley, onions and garlic Nutrient uptake: medium
Category: Legumes Vegetables: Beans, peas, lentils, chick peas, soy beans and peanuts Nutrient uptake: low; fixes nitrogen into the soil
Crop rotation in practice
With two possibilities of dividing vegetables into groups, we also have two options for planning our crop rotation. But first of all, we need to
Make a garden plan
Before the planting comes a plan. Make a list of all the vegetables you like and want to cultivate. If you’re a fledgling in vegetable gardening, start small and only take a few crops. Then, draw a map of your garden beds, raised beds or containers and divide them into sections for each crop group.
At the beginning of your garden journey, I’d recommend sorting the vegetables by category (leafy veggies + brassicas, fruit bearers, root vegetables and legumes). Divide your vegetable garden into quarters and cultivate one category per quarter.
If you choose to group your vegetables by family, think about how many plants per variety you’ll need and plan the size of the zones accordingly.
Crop Rotation by Category
Legumes have the extraordinary ability to gather nitrogen from the air and fix it in their roots. For that reason, we only cut legumes after harvesting and leave their roots in the soil to enrich it with nitrogen.
Plant leafy vegetables and brassicas after legumes, as they need the nitrogen the legumes have fixed.
Fruiting vegetables follow leafy veggies and brassicas. Fruiting vegetables don’t need as much nitrogen as leafy veggies and brassicas, but rather potassium and phosphorus. Too much nitrogen can even prevent them from producing many fruits. The leafies and brassicas will have consumed enough nitrogen in the season before, so there’ll be no problem on that front.
Plant root vegetables after fruiting vegetables. Root vegetables need even less nitrogen than fruiters. At the same time, they’ll break up the soil which legumes, that you should plant afterwards, love.
Rotating by plant category can be easily implemented. Divide your gardening space into quarters and plant a different category in each quarter. The next year, just rotate by one bed. That way, fruiters are followed by root vegetables. After that, we plant legumes and in the fourth year, leafy vegetables and brassicas.
Crop Rotation by Plant Family
If you want to rotate your vegetables by plant family, you must first look at their nutrient needs. Basically, you plant medium feeders after heavy feeders and then cultivate nitrogen fixers to replenish the soil. This could look as follows:
Brassicaceae (cabbage family) need lots of nitrogen, so they are best planted after legumes, which are nitrogen-fixers.
Root vegetables break up the soil, which makes it great for potatoes and tomatoes that need to grow deep.
Legumes like peas and beans love the loose soil that, for example, potatoes leave behind.
Members of the umbelliferae family, like carrots and parsnips, are light to medium feeders and can follow vegetables of any other group.
Rotating by plant family can be a bit trickier at first, but it also gives you more alternatives to mix your vegetables, especially when it comes to succession planting and follow-up crops.
Nightshades and Umbellifers (tomatoes, pepper, eggplant, etc. and carrots, celery, parsley, etc.) – Poaceae (corn) and Asteraceae (lettuce, salsify) – Brassicaceae (cabbages, radish) and Liliaceae (onions, chives, garlic) – Cucurbitaceae (cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, zucchini) and Legumes (peas, beans)
Crop rotation and succession planting
Most vegetables don’t occupy the garden for the whole season, so we plant fast-growing crops before or after them. This is called succession planting, and we also need to observe the rules of crop rotation here. It’s not good to plant late cauliflower after early broccoli, for example, because, as you know by now, they are from the same family and category and thus have the same nutrient requirements and attract the same pests and diseases. You’ll find more details on succession planting over here.
A cleverly planned succession of vegetables will leave your soil healthy and nutrient-rich, while your plants will benefit from one another and produce a great harvest.
Here are some examples of succession planting that take crop rotation into account:
Plant late cabbage varieties, lettuce or onions after potatoes
Cultivate radishes, lamb’s lettuce, spinach or kohlrabi after broad beans
When you’ve harvested garlic, plant strawberries on that bed or sow broad beans; the year after that, the bed is ready for heavy feeders like cabbage or Cucurbitaceae.
After onions, you can sow endives, radicchio, beetroot, or Swiss chard.
Plant bush beans, spring onions, Swiss chard, spinach or late cabbage varieties after fennel.
How to rotate crops in small gardens
You may only have a small space for vegetable gardening, and that’s okay. In fact, most home gardens are not very large, and that may make it difficult to rotate and effectively space apart different veggies. Nevertheless, you should still try to do it as best as possible to keep pests and diseases at bay and help maintain soil fertility.
Here are a few tips on how to rotate crops in small gardens:
Raised beds
If you have only a small space for gardening, building three to four raised beds may be a good idea. That way, you can rotate your crops according to one of the plans above while having a solid barrier between each area, although they may be close to one another.
Container gardening
Using containers is similar to raised beds, and I especially recommend it for vegetables that are prone to diseases, like tomatoes. Like with raised beds, there is a physical barrier between the containers and the rest of your vegetable garden and the risk of spreading diseases across beds is minimal.
Scattered beds
Who says that all vegetables must be grown in one place? Admittedly, when it comes to watering or harvesting, it’s easier to have all vegetables in the same location, but you can also create “pockets” and grow veggies on beds scattered around your garden. That way, it’s easy to rotate crops and make sure that diseases do not spread.
Advanced Crop Rotation Strategies
Integrating cover crops into your rotation schedule
Cover crops are great for replenishing nutrients while at the same time covering the soil. Cultivating cover crops counts as fallow in the vegetable garden, whether it’s during the whole season or just a part of it. However, cover crops also belong to plant families and can be “siblings” of our veggies. It’s important to know, therefore, who is related to whom to avoid leaching the soil and spreading pests and diseases.
Here is an overview of common cover crops and their family membership:
Family: Legumes Members: Cowpea, red clover, white clover, crimson clover, sun hemp
Family: Brassicaceae Members: Rapeseed, yellow mustard, oilseed radish, field turnip
Make sure to consider these family memberships when planning your crop rotation. For example, don’t grow any cabbages in a bed where brassica cover crops like rapeseed or mustard were grown before. Also, cultivating corn after, for example, winter barley or oats, may be difficult.
Companion planting and crop rotation
Companion planting means planting those vegetables together (that is, alternating or in proximity to each other) that help each other grow better. For example, corn and beans are amazing plant buddies: corn provides a natural support for bean vines to climb, while beans add nitrogen to the soil, which helps corn grow stronger. Another great pair is tomatoes and basil – basil helps keep pesky insects away from tomato plants, acting like a natural bodyguard. If you want to learn more about companion planting, you’ll find a comprehensive guide here.
When we use companion planting within our crop rotation system, we’re basically creating a superhero team of plants. Each plant brings its own special power to the garden. Some plants, like marigolds, can chase away harmful insects, while others, like clover, can improve soil health by adding nutrients. This method is not just smart gardening – it’s a way of working with nature instead of fighting against it, helping to grow healthier crops and take better care of the earth.
Companion Planting in Crop Rotation: Four Strategic Examples
Nitrogen-Fixing Legume Rotation with Heavy Feeders
Rotation Sequence:
Year 1: Plant bush beans or peas (nitrogen-fixing legumes)
Year 2: Follow with heavy-feeding corn or brassicas
Companion Planting Strategy:
Interplant beans with carrots and radishes
Plant pumpkins with corn to cover the soil
Benefits: Beans naturally enrich soil with nitrogen, supporting next year’s nutrient-hungry crops
Brassica and Allium Rotation with Root Crops
Rotation Sequence:
Year 1: Grow cabbage family crops (broccoli, kale, etc.)
Year 2: Plant root crops like carrots and parsnips
Companion Planting Strategy:
Interplant onions and garlic with carrots to deter carrot flies
Use calendula as a trap crop to attract beneficial insects
Benefits: Breaks pest cycles, improves soil structure, reduces disease pressure
Nightshade Family Rotation with Soil-Building Crops
Rotation Sequence:
Year 1: Tomatoes and peppers
Year 2: Cover crops or green manure (like clover or buckwheat)
Companion Planting Strategy:
Plant basil near tomatoes to improve flavour and repel pests
Grow marigolds around nightshades to deter nematodes
Benefits: Restores soil health, interrupts pest and disease cycles
Cucurbit and Herb Companion Rotation
Rotation Sequence:
Year 1: Cucumbers, squash, and melons
Year 2: Grow nitrogen-fixing legumes
Companion Planting Strategy:
Plant dill and nasturtiums with cucumbers
Interplant radishes to deter cucumber beetles
Benefits: Enhances pollination, natural pest control, and soil nutrition improvement
How do you know if your rotation is working?
How would you know if your rotation system is working? Well, first of all, take a close look at your soil. It should have a deep brown to almost black colour, which indicates an increased amount of organic matter and a high nutrient content.
Secondly, track pests and diseases over several seasons and check if they have at least not spread, at best diminished.
The harvest yield, of course, is also a good indicator of whether your rotational system works. A good harvest shows good, rich soil, which will be a result of a well-working crop rotation.
Start crop rotation now!
Implementing crop rotation in your vegetable garden is one of the smartest decisions you can make for long-term gardening success! The guidelines in this post show you what to do to keep your soil healthy, diminish pests and diseases and have a great harvest year after year.
And remember that even small gardens benefit enormously from crop rotation!
Start planning your garden’s crop rotation right now, and I promise you that by this time next year, you’ll be amazed at the difference in its productivity and health! Your soil will be replenished with nutrients, you’ll have healthy plants and above all, you’ll gather an abundant harvest.
Wanna read more about vegetable gardening? Browse my gardening library for step-by-step guides on every aspect of vegetable growing, from planning to harvest.
