April is National Gardening Month, and for the Tucson area, that means its time to plant warm weather crops. If you have not yet set out tomato, pepper and eggplant plants, do so as soon as possible. Planting now ensures flowering (and fruiting) before our heat sets in.
It is also time to plant summer and winter squash by seed. Varieties to try include both the green and yellow zucchini, crookneck and either the pale green, white, or yellow scalloped squash. Winter squash, which really are not grown in the winter, the only difference is they form a hard shell when mature, include such varieties as pumpkin (try Small Sugar Pie Pumpkin), acorn (both green and gold), butternut, spaghetti, and blue hubbard among others.
Once nights are consistently above 50 degrees, plant melons and cucumbers, since they are fussy about warm soil and nights. Cantaloupes do very well in the desert, and are easy to tell when ripe since they fall off the vine. Honeydew, Crenshaw and watermelon are more challenging, as not only to they need the long growing period, but they are difficult to know when to pick. The only cucumber that really does well in the desert heat is the Armenian. This thin-skinned, pale green cucumber can get huge if you let it, so try to pick when they are no more than a foot long.
If you are following the seed package directions that tell you to plant in “hills” and are confused as to what exactly this means, you are not alone. They do not really mean to make mounds of soil and plant seeds in the mound, they are really suggesting you plant 5 or 6 seeds in a circle and thin out what sprouts usually to 3 plants. It is better to plant the seeds in a soil depression, so it will collect rain water.
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