As if the Itoh peony wasn’t enough excitement for this plant geek, I received another lovely surprise. Wayne Burleson, a tremendously enthusiastic and knowledgeable gardener who teaches Square Foot Gardening classes, as well as gardening techniques to make growing possible throughout the world, stopped in for a visit on Friday evening. (Normally, his wife Connie travels with him, but other commitments detained her at home this trip. I’m very much looking forward to meeting her in person, too. )
I interviewed Wayne this winter when I wrote an article on Square Foot Gardening, and what he and Connie do with the concept. They’ve traveled throughout many countries, including 5 in Africa and Jamaica, teaching people how to make the most of what they have on hand. Their goal is to feed the world, and they’re making impressive steps in that direction. It was fascinating to ask him what they did in certain circumstances, how the gardens progressed and how the people reacted.
As any gardener, it’s always fun to show the gardens and talk about the successes, failures and experiments. I’ve found most gardeners have no problem bouncing ideas off of each other without a competition factor. We want to learn new things, and love to share when something works. Wayne was no exception. He liked some of the things I was trying, and was eager to explain some of his projects at home.
But the special treat was the Salmon River pumpkin he brought me. This is an heirloom variety that produces big, sweet, long-keeping squash. The one he brought up had been in storage for 10 months! It was in excllent shape. This is a very productive variety that is also a vigorous grower. Wayne said it’ll stretch out 30 feet, and will root whereever the vine touches. But a dozen plants he seeded in Africa produced 400 pounds of squash. That’s a lot of good eating.
Sam was intrigued with the squash from the get-go and wanted to carve it into a jack-o-lantern. Instead, we hacked in half and I baked it (oh, the horror!) in the oven for about an hour and a half at 350 degrees. It has a good flavor, and will be a valuable plant to grow. I dried the seeds so I can send some of them back to Wayne. I also planted a couple of hills at the westside community garden, plus I will plant at least one here at home. Winter squash are also good to grow for those of us whose goal is to squirrel away as much food as possible, and I’m tickled to be growing this one. 
Tags: gardening, heirloom vegetables, raised beds, Salmon River pumpkin, Square foot gardening, squash
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