Growing Guides
Pumpkin and squash growing guides from Kansas. Vine borer prevention, pest control, companion planting, soil prep, and heirloom varieties. Zone 6b tested.
The Best Pie Pumpkin Showdown: Dickinson vs Long Island Cheese
If you are deciding between Dickinson vs Long Island Cheese pumpkin for your pie patch, here is the short answer: grow Dickinson...
Read guide →How Climate Change Is Affecting Pumpkin Growing Seasons
If you garden in Kansas and you feel like the season no longer lines up with the planting dates you grew up...
Read guide →Will Pumpkins Cross Pollinate With Squash? A Seed Saving Guide
Will pumpkins cross pollinate with squash? Usually yes, and usually not in the way gardeners worry about. Pumpkins and squash within the...
Read guide →Pumpkin Butter Recipe: Homemade with Heirloom Squash
Homemade pumpkin butter is the best thing that happens to a pie pumpkin after the puree is made. It is not butter...
Read guide →What Seeds to Order Now for Spring 2027 Planting
If you want to order seeds for spring 2027 planting, the last week of September through October is the quiet sweet spot....
Read guide →How Long Do Pumpkin Seeds Last? Seed Viability and Storage Guide
How long do pumpkin seeds last? Properly dried and stored cool, dry, and dark, pumpkin and winter squash seed stays reliably viable...
Read guide →Best Thanksgiving Pumpkin Recipes Using Heirloom Varieties
The best Thanksgiving pumpkin recipes start long before the oven does. They start with the fruit on your counter. If you grew...
Read guide →Disease Resistant Squash Seeds: How to Choose Varieties That Actually Hold Up
If you are shopping for disease resistant squash seeds after a rough season, the single most useful thing to understand is this:...
Read guide →Mini Paulista Summer Squash: Growing Guide for Kansas
Mini Paulista looks like a little striped butternut, but the way to enjoy it is to pick it young. Its ivory-and-green fruit...
Read guide →Autumn Buckskin Pumpkin: Growing the Tan Processing Hybrid in Kansas
Autumn Buckskin F1 is a tan-skinned processing pumpkin, a Cucurbita moschata hybrid bred for dense, dry, deeply colored flesh rather than for...
Read guide →Calabaza de Castilla: The Complete Growing Guide for Zone 6b Kansas Gardens
Calabaza de Castilla is the big tan market squash of Mexico, and it will grow in Kansas if you give it heat,...
Read guide →Preserving Pumpkin: Freezing, Canning, and Dehydrating Guide
Preserving pumpkin is mostly a question of which form you want it in later. Freezing keeps the most flavor and takes the...
Read guide →Seminole vs Long Island Cheese: Which Pumpkin to Grow?
Compare vine space, harvest timing, fruit shape, cooking uses and seed saving before choosing Seminole or Long Island Cheese for your patch.
Read guide →Seminole Pumpkin Photos: Our 2026 Kansas Grow-Out
Seminole grow-out notes from Newton, Kansas, with styled images based on our own 2026 photographs. Backgrounds, lighting and foliage digitally edited.
Read guide →Butternut Squash Recipes: 7 Ways to Use Your Harvest
The best butternut squash recipes start out in the garden, not the kitchen. The variety you grew decides how sweet the flesh...
Read guide →Chieftain Butternut Squash: Growing the 80 Day Mildew Tolerant F1 in Kansas
Most butternuts want the whole season. Chieftain does not. It matures in about 80 days from sowing, which for a butternut in...
Read guide →Butterbaby Butternut Squash: Growing the Mini Butternut in Kansas
Not every garden has room for a butternut vine that eats a whole bed, and not every household wants to cook a...
Read guide →Heirloom Pumpkin Soup Recipe: One Base, Many Varieties
A good heirloom pumpkin soup recipe is less a fixed list of ingredients than a base you learn by heart and then...
Read guide →Atlas Butternut Squash: Growing the Big Roasting F1 in Kansas
Atlas is the big one. A Cucurbita moschata F1 hybrid bred for processing fields, it grows long, cylindrical butternuts of 5 to...
Read guide →Block Party Butternut Squash: Growing the High-Yield F1 in Kansas
Block Party is the butternut its breeding team nicknamed "Miracle" before it had a real name, because the yield and storage numbers...
Read guide →Yuxi Jiang Bing Gua Squash: The Complete Growing Guide for Zone 6b Kansas Gardens
Most squash make you choose. Zucchini for July, butternut for November, and never the twain. Yuxi Jiang Bing Gua does both from...
Read guide →Magic Cushaw Squash: Growing the Georgia Swamp Moschata in Kansas
Magic Cushaw was not bred by anyone. It was found growing in a Georgia swamp, and the two farms that carried it...
Read guide →Butterkin Squash: Growing the Pumpkin-Butternut Cross in Kansas
Butterkin is what you get when a butternut and a pumpkin are crossed on purpose. The fruit is a flat, scalloped little...
Read guide →Roasted Pumpkin Seeds: 5 Flavor Recipes from Your Garden
The best roasted pumpkin seed recipes all start in the same place, and it is not the spice cabinet. It is the...
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