Greetings!
Last week I started to plow some parts of my garden in anticipation of planting mustard as suggested by my wife. But it has been days have passed and I am still unable to prepare the soil for planting mustard. And then a few days ago one of my uncles gave us a squash, that squash gave me an idea... "Why not just plant squash instead of mustard".
And so I did, but not immediately, there were still hindrances of me planting the squash because of some household chores that I need to do, like cutting some Acacia tree to be used in cooking.
This would be my second time planting squash in my vegetable garden. I elected to plant squash because it is quite a sturdy vegetable and can last for days without rotting.
What I Prepared in Planting Squash
Before I began planting the squash I prepared first the soil, the seeds, and some rice stalks for keeping the moisture longer.
The squash seeds that I am going to plant directly in my garden
Here is the soil that I am going to use in planting the squash
Some hay, or rice stalks
A plowed area of my garden
Planting the Squash
First, I dug some hole on the soil (photos below) the size of a closed fist
The holes that I dug as can be seen on this photo
A close up of the dug up soil
And then I added some of the black soil enough to fill the hole
Adding some black soil on the hole
This photo shows all the holes filled with black soil
And then I dug up all the black soil about an inch deep (photo below)
Digging the black soil about an inch deep as can be seen on the photo below
And then I put one seed on each hole and covered it with black soil again.
Putting a seed on the black soil
The photo below shows all the black soil after I put one seed on each.
This photo shows the black soil where I planted the squash
And then I watered them one by one with an improvised sprinkler. I used a sprinkler because I do not want the black soil to be eroded.
Watering the planted squash seeds using a sprinkler
And then I put some rice stalks at the surrounding of the black soil to keep the moisture as long as possible and to keep weed and wild grass from growing nearby.
Some rice stalks surrounding the black soil
Some Protection from Our Livestock and Pets
To protect the newly planted squash from our livestock and from our dogs I have to put some protection for the newly planted squash so I made some pointed bamboo sticks as posts and some straw to act as a fence.
Some pointed bamboo sticks and straw
Putting them into place is as easy as ABC. I just buried the pointed bamboo stick on all four sides of the plowed soil and then I tied that straw on each of the buried bamboo sticks as can be seen on the next three photos below.
Before burying the bamboo sticks
And here's how it looks like after I buried the bamboo stick on all four sides of the plowed soil
And here's how it looks like after I tied the straw on each bamboo stick
I am a Computer Engineer, blogger, farmer, father, and husband. I love countryside living, nature, farming (rice/vegetables), and has two decades of experience as an I.T. professional