A Bit Of A Squash

 

Winter squash is a big hit with us. Harvest time is approaching and there is the usual mayhem in the cucurbit patch. A forest of leaves but what lies beneath?  While every plant has been labelled at the planting point the vines have travelled the width of the patch and well beyond laying down fruit at random intervals. 

Every plant is labelled at the planting point but has developed fruit after scrambling across its neighbours.  The conditions this year mean that fruit has not set reliably and the slugs have had a field day on a lot of immature fruits resting on the soil.  My strategy of planting parts from a bunk bed at either end of the patch for the vines to scramble up has proved a crop saver as the fruit in the best condition is raised off the ground.

This year I have grown:

Crown Prince

Buttercup

Uchiki Kuri

Marina Di Chioggia

No sign of the last one yet - although it was grown later than the other three. I have started harvesting at risk fruit to season at home in the dry. The Crown Prince is 4.5k so harvesting and transportation from the allotment has to be done a bit at a time.

Crown Prince and Uchiki Kuri

Harvest - 1st July

It's a new month - and harvesting has started!  The Raspberries competed with the lettuce thinnings but now the big guns are out:

First Early Potatoes

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Three courgettes do not a glut make.  But once you have three it won't be long before you have 30.  The raspberries in this picture represent those that ripened overnight between two rather wet and dull days!

Vertical Urban Food Initiative

Here's a little experiment

The school garden had a couple of grow bags over and we also had 6 spare runner bean plants, after planting out the wigwam in the garden.  Put the two together in a public space available right outside the front entrance and what have you got?

A success!

There has been a lot of excitement as the plants grew up the strings.  The strings were cut once but that was soon repaired and the plants have survived to maturity despite being on a public pathway.

Here is a picture when it was in flower:

The wall is south facing but there is the small matter of the school building to the south.