Planting Pumpkins & Butternut Squash
Hello!
If you know yourself as someone who gets to late September or early October and finds themselves spending many pounds on decorative gourds and pumpkins to carve, then this is for you. Now is the time to get planting your pumpkins, and in my case butternut squash too as I love it baked.
One of the myths surrounding growing vegetables ( although botanically pumpkins are fruit due to the seeds) such as these is that you need acres of space. I think this is because the plants produce a crop of such a size that folk are mislead in to believing that they don’t have a big enough garden or allotment. I have planted four pumpkin plants and two butternut squash plants on a plot that is the same size as my broad bean plot and I have noticed that folk are more than willing to plant beans, so if you feel like it DO give these chaps a go!
Granted, I won’t get hundreds of meals from these six plants but I’m not a producer so it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that by doing this I am learning more and more about growing my own food and making the smallest of dents in my journey towards being more self-sufficient.
Although the six plants that I put into the ground don’t need a huge amounts of space on top they do need the ability to spread their roots. My Dad and I built a very basic raised bed as part of the Projects with my Dad series (full instructions on this are in the process of being written) and I planted them in that. The bed was built on top of a small patch of garden that had some grass growing there.
Having turned the lawn over within the confines of the bed we then had to lay a weed barrier over the top to stop the grass growing back through the soil contained in the bed. Weed barrier is similar in look and feel to the frost fleece that one might use in the winter months.
However, using this barrier and therefore stopping anything growing UP would have also stopped any roots that my plants wanted to produce from growing DOWN. This was remedied by cutting a cross into the lining and putting the peat pot containing the plant directly into the ground. I may have to contend with a few weeds or blades of grass coming up as a result of doing this but I’ve seen the most beautiful antique hoe, for only four English pounds, in a shop near to me and may have to use a small invasion by some weeds as an excuse to buy it!
There we go, its sitting nicely in its spot ready to be surrounded by earth richly mixed with lots of compost.
That was two weeks ago, when the weather was warm and the word on the street was that it would be a summer to compete with with 2003!
This picture was taken about twenty minutes ago in the pouring rain on a day that resembles February. Waaahhhhhh, where’s my summer gone???
On a brighter note this is great for the garden and in particular this bed. The rainfall means that I don’t have to get the watering can out and feel bad about using so much water on a few plants. Which leads me on to a point that I have been thinking about since we moved in to this new house about a month ago – water butts. I should be collecting all of this rainwater in receptacles and never having to turn the tap on again (well, not as often). I leave my empty gardening trugs out in the rain to collect but I think I may do some research in to some proper equipment, dustbins for example! That way, if we do have a long hot one, I’ll be able to avoid the INEVITABLE hosepipe ban (which I think is still in place from last year!!)
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