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Mega squash Heather Lange Northern News Services Published Friday, August 5, 2011
This year she entered the annual Lawn and Landscaping Competition for the first time and won the greenhouse competition. Spoelder's greenhouse is impressive, bursting with two-foot tall tomato plants and flowering spaghetti squash. This year Spoelder also grew zucchinis the length of her forearm, peppers, cantaloupe, melon and cucumbers. The classroom teacher said the secret to her success was her extended growing season. "I planted with my Grade 1 students at Mildred Hall school before they went on spring break at the end of March and then grew the plants until the end of June. They grew on a window sill in my classroom and then I planted the greenhouse at the beginning of June," said Spoelder. Spoelder said she uses a simple all-purpose fertilizer every week to 10 days and just started using five compost bins to add additional nutrients to the soil. She planted spaghetti squash for the first time this year after tasting one last February and enjoying it. "I knew nothing about spaghetti squash before I had planted it. I hadn't even tasted it until last year," said Spoelder. She kept the seeds in a Ziploc bag to dry out until she was ready to plant, then sowed them along the window sill box in her classroom. The squash grew surprisingly well. Now she worries they have taken over her greenhouse space, and are choking out an area she would normally use for peppers. Spoelder said most seeds one saves from produce bought at the store do not grow, but the squash was a winner. Not to be forgotten is her regular garden that takes up a 12 by 12 foot space in the front yard of her home in Frame Lake South. "I also have a huge garden - probably the biggest garden in Yellowknife," said Spoelder. She is still eating carrots from last year's harvest which she keeps in cold storage space inside her home. It is a lot of work but Spoelder has a lot of free time in the summer to invest. "I'm a teacher so it's perfect. As my neighbor pointed out the other day, all I like to do is weed and plant," said Spoelder. One more trade secret her husband Dave Ritchie couldn't help but pass along was "she talks to her plants," something Spoelder did not deny. Other winners from this year's contest were Jan Wouters in the rock garden category, Anne Hall and the Garden of Hope for the commercial land category, Lenore Dejong in the vegetable garden category, Dale Bouchard in the lawn category and Magdalena Leaker in the container garden category.
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