Annual zones 2-10

5-6 feet tall, space 18-24" apart

full sun/part shade, average water

Great cut flowers

Sow seeds 1/4-1/2" deep

Sunflowers are best used as outdoor border plants and can be planted in fences or crowded fields. They will bloom throughout the summer and collect seeds at the end of the season.

Soil

Fertile garden soil with excellent drainage.

Position

Full sun.

Frost tolerant

Good. Where winters are mild, well-rooted plants survive one winter and bloom heavily the following spring.

Feeding

Encourage fast growth by mixing a balanced organic fertilizer into the soil before planting.

Companions

Cosmos, Salvia and Celery. Upright and uniform, snapdragons make great accent plants when grown in groups. Try a snapdragon as the upright element in a mixed container.

Spacing

Single Plants: 11" (30cm) each way (minimum)

Rows: 11" (30cm) with 11" (30cm) row gap (minimum)

Sow and Plant

When starting snapdragon seeds indoors in late winter, barely cover the seeds with moist seed starting mix. Grow the seedlings under bright lights until they are large enough to transplant outdoors. Most gardeners save time by buying snapdragons as bedding plants.

Our Garden Planner can produce a personalized calendar of when to sow, plant and harvest for your area.

Notes

Some varieties can grow tall enough to need staking. Colors include red, orange, yellow, violet, white, pink and many bicolors.

Harvesting

Snapdragons make wonderful cut flowers. Gather stems when two-thirds of the flowers on the spike have opened. As flowers fade outdoors, snip them off with scissors to encourage reblooming.

Troubleshooting

Especially in warm, wet weather, tired snapdragons may collapse from various root rot diseases.

This wonderful Italian heirloom summer squash is a vigorous climbing vine, producing many 12 to 15-inch, lime-green fruits with a curvaceous trumpet shape and a delicate mild taste with a hint of nutty artichoke flavor. Trombetta's flesh is seedless and firm and doesn't get watery or mushy like regular zucchini. The rambling plants will soon cover a trellis, fence or stakes with fruits

Cantaloupe sprouts, stems, leaves, flowers, fruit, and seeds are edible.

Muskmelon Hale's Best Jumbo Cantaloupe matures early and has an excellent sweet flavor. This hardy variety will grow in all regions and is more drought tolerant than other melons. The beautiful oval melons have a ribbed, tan skin, and a sweet, musky flavor and aroma.

Muskmelon  Cantaloupes are a variety of the muskmelon, and the name “cantaloupe” refers specifically to the North American variety.

Cantaloupe seeds can be planted directly into the garden.

Sow seed directly into the garden soil a few weeks after the last frost date. Seeds can be planted again in late summer for a fall harvest. 

Create a hill of well-drained soil about 10" high and 2' across. Plant 3 seeds 1" deep on top. Later thin to one plant per hill. Grow in full sun and water often.

They should come up in 7-14 days depending on the soil temperature. They grow quickly in warm weather. Keep their roots cooler with a few inches of mulch and it will conserve moisture and reduce weed growth. If you are in a cooler climate try to keep plants as warm as possible. One suggestion is to plant them next to a warm south-facing wall and to cover the vines during cooler nights. 

Cantaloupe vines spread quickly across the garden and can reach 3-6' long. If space is limited they can be trained up a trellis, but be sure to provide support for the hanging melons. When the fruits on the trellis are the size of a baseball place them in a stretchy net or sling. For larger melons, keep only 2-3 fruits per vine and remove the others. Harvest when the melons they are yellowish-orange and slightly soft near the stem. They can gently be pulled from the vines when mature.

Muskmelon Hale's Best Jumbo Cantaloupe seeds. Cucumis melo Annual. Open-pollinated, heirloom, non-GMO. Harvest after 80 days  

This packet plants 10 mounds for growing 10 plants. 

Slender fruit is bright sweet golden-yellow. They are as delicious as they are attractive; bush plants.

Summer Squash - a broad term used to describe soft squash varieties such as zucchini and patty pan squash—is a warm-season crop that can be grown almost anywhere in full sun. Wait until any threat of frost has passed and the soil has warmed to about 70 F before planting, as these tender squash varieties are extremely sensitive to frost and light freezes. Perfect for containers, most summer squash grow on short, compact vines that don’t require trellising or staking, unlike the sprawling vines of most winter squash and pumpkins. Rather than growing baseball bat-sized zucchini—which can be bland, full of seeds, and woody—harvest squash when fruit is small and tender and your plants will keep producing right up to frost.