My Tiny PlotSquash Leaves
My Butternut Squash plant has been putting on a spurt these last couple of days. It seems like it’s growing about 5 or 6cm a day! I have planted it just next to my sweetcorn (spaced out in a square) so that once the Squash gets big and rambling (as it certainly will) I can train the plant around the bases of the sweetcorn plants. Sweetcorn like to have their roots in shade apparently so this, two-thirds of the Three Sisters approach, will hopefully work well. I didn’t go for the full Three Sisters (Sweetcorn, Squash & Climbing Beans) because I just thought that the beans growing up the sweetcorn would look too messy. In a very Monica-esqe kind of way, I like my plot to be neat and tidy. Heck! I even decide which lettuce to pick based on how it will effect the overall look.
I haven’t yet got around to growing Butternut Squash but for a few years now I have been growing Summer Squash as a substitute for Courgettes. After initially impressing all my friends with a more than sufficient supply of produce, they now expect me to supply them with plants, which I grow in toilet roll tubes, they propagate really well in these, and cheap too!
I’m doing 2 out of 3 Sisters as well. My French beans are over 7 feet tall and I’m having trouble reaching the tips nip them them out. I can’t see how sweetcorn could cope with them. It would be a huge tangled mess. Imagine trying to get in to harvest anything. Could turn out like The Little Shop Of Horrors.
I love the photo! I am tempted to buy a camera with a macro lens, there are so many stunning close-up images in the vegetable world. My butternut squash are doing well at the moment too. It seems that there is a female flower and a squash at every leaf joint. Other squash varieties seem to be all male.
I’ve got a couple of small squashes, about the size of marbles. Though they seem to growing somewhat faster after a few days of sun.
Squashes and pumpkins are really fun to grow – they may even be my favourite vegetable to grow (looks wise anyway).
Apparently, you can prune squash plants as they are growing to make them bush out a bit and produce more. It’s advisable to nip out the growing tip once the plant has set 5 or 6 fruits. It you let the plant go on and on you will get lots of small fruit so it’s best to let it concentrate on just a few.
I’ve got a few squashes myself and my partner would spend hours on those funny pumpkins. It is real pleasure to do gardening and the squashes are amazing. Great Post.
I love Butternut Squash I have tried some ready grown from the local Garden center earlier but it didn’t grow well. Could you update some more information on exactly one could be grown. Thanks in Advance.