Soil

Well-drained soil of average fertility.

Position

Full sun.

Frost tolerant

None. Morning glory is a warm-season annual.

Feeding

Mix a light application of a balanced organic fertilizer into the soil prior to planting. In midsummer, drench plants with a liquid fertilizer to prolong bloom time.

Companions

Melon. Vigorous morning glory vines will twine up any type of support and grow into lush, heavy-blooming plants. They are at their best on a sturdy fence.

Spacing

Single Plants: 7" (20cm) each way (minimum)

Rows: 7" (20cm) with 7" (20cm) row gap (minimum)

Sow and Plant

Sow morning glory seeds indoors to get a head start, or you can plant the seeds where you want the plants to grow at about the time of your last spring frost.

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

Notes

Morning glory vines are fast climbers that will run up fences, poles, or taller plants such as sunflowers. Morning glory flowers close up during the afternoon hours.

Harvesting

Gather up the old vines after they are damaged by frost and compost them. Morning glories are related to tomatoes, sweet potatoes and other members of the nightshade family.

Troubleshooting

Many older strains of morning glory quickly become invasive weeds in warm summer climates. ‘Heavenly Blue’ and ‘Flying Saucers’ are safe choices because they set few seeds compared to many other varieties.

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. 

A very popular addition to gourmet salad mixes. Serrated green leaves offer interesting texture to blend with other varieties of lettuce. The younger the growth, the more mild the flavour. As a baby green 17 to 21 days to harvest. Full grown, 40 Days to harvest!

Spicy mustard flavor adds zing to salads and is a frequent addition to spring mix. Narrow leaves are dark green and serrated. Excellent for baby vegetable and salad mixes. 

A pumpkin seed, also known in North America as a pepita, is the edible seed of a pumpkin or certain other cultivars of squash. The seeds are typically flat and asymmetrically oval, have a white outer husk, and are light green in color after the husk is removed.

Pumpkins are actually a type of winter squash. Many varieties can send out vines that are 10 to 20 feet long, which can be challenging for a raised-bed garden. One option is to grow them on a trellis, such as the Cucumber Trellis. Use a mesh bag or fabric to help support especially heavy fruit. Another technique is to plant them on an outside corner of your raised bed and let the vines ramble onto the grass.

Like summer squash, winter squash need rich soil that's been amended with compost. They need warm weather and warm soil to grow and produce well. In most cases, it takes 90 to 100 days from planting seeds until the squash are ripe. Cold-climate gardeners may want to get an early start by planting seeds indoors about three weeks before the last spring frost. Plant two seeds per 3" pot, and cut off one if both grow.

Transplant into the garden a week or two after the last spring frost. You can warm the soil by covering it with clear plastic, which works better than the traditional black plastic, as long as you seal the edges with soil to contain the heat.

Some winter squash and pumpkins — the bigger ones, generally — will only produce a couple of fruit per plant. The seed catalog or seed packet should tell you what to expect. Pumpkins are always fun for kids, but not always good for pie. If you want jack-o-lanterns, you can grow any variety; for pies and soups, look for "pie pumpkins" or "sugar pumpkins," which have sweeter, more flavorful flesh.