Winter squashes, pumpkins, butternut, courgettes and sunflowers

Gardening to 'grow your own food' from square foot to half an acre !!
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lancashire lass
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Winter squashes, pumpkins, butternut, courgettes and sunflowers

Post by lancashire lass »

The perfect time to sow those seeds if you haven't already - the next few days are forecast warm so should germinate quickly. If you haven't got a sunny windowsill, try leaving the pots of damp compost in the car - even on a cloudy day, cars seem to get warm inside and encourage germination (better still, if you can put the pots / tray inside a big clear plastic bag which helps to warm up the compost, and then remove the bag as soon as the first seedlings start to emerge.

Winter squashes, pumpkins and butternut store well over winter and one of the easiest plants to grow providing they are grown in fertile soil, are kept well watered particularly in hot weather, and are sited in full sun. With the rapid cost of living rise (and prospect of even higher fuel bills in autumn), winter squashes are versatile and can be used in different dishes. My garden unfortunately has a lot of shade from the fruit trees and privet hedge so not an option but I've been giving this a lot of thought. Last year my neighbour cut their huge ash tree down which shaded the shed and (currently not occupied) chicken run with a corrugated plastic roof that I had built on like an extension of the shed, so is now in full sun (all day). I still have some big plant pots that should be okay to grow the squash plants in and not too heavy for the shed roof and plenty of roof space to spread out on, so I'm going to give this a go (fingers crossed)
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