Garden activity

[jansman]

What varieties do you favour for squash out of interest? I grow a lot of pumpkin and butternut but struggle to keep them past February unless frozen or canned

Old fashioned marrows and our favourite- spaghetti marrow. A wonderful vegetable that literally has a spaghetti- like texture. We dice it into my wife’s all- time favourite; spicy lamb stew ( it’s actually a primary ingredient) - a meal that my wife credits her rapid recovery from cancer to! Praise indeed. It’s a rambling plant and takes a lot of space. I let it grow up the fences and into the fruit trees. A sight to see.

[jansman]

What varieties do you favour for squash out of interest? I grow a lot of pumpkin and butternut but struggle to keep them past February unless frozen or canned

Is it just me that has no concept of what squash and pumpkins taste like? if this is an easy grow, high food value food, is it time to discover them?

Yes, do. Buy a butternut squash, find some recipes and discover!

[British Red]

our favourite- spaghetti marrow. A wonderful vegetable that literally has a spaghetti- like texture.

How well does it keep in a cool building?

[jansman]

our favourite- spaghetti marrow. A wonderful vegetable that literally has a spaghetti- like texture.

How well does it keep in a cool building?

Very well. The last two of our 20 harvested started to soften up at the end of February, which I diced and froze.

[British Red]

Good info, thanks

[jansman]

You are welcome.

[GillyBee]

I have growen the Anna Swartz hubbard squash from Real Seeds and found that it keeps well - just sitting in my kitchen veg rack all winter The only problem is that i am still learning when it comes to squash growing and do not always get as many squash as i would like.

Has anyone tried growing Trombocino and know how they perform as squash/ i know they can be used as courgettes when young but my efforts last year came to naught. They rambled along the fence between us and next door setting fruit and then next door's son decided to apply the mass destruction rule of "gardening" and strimmed the lot! I ike the idea of growing them vertically to get the best out of my limited space.

[British Red]

Out of interest do you hand pollinate your squash? I find it made an enormous difference to growing pumpkins once I figured the difference between male and female flowers!

[GillyBee]

I will give that a try this year! Anything that helps me get more produce is worth a try.

[jansman]

Out of interest do you hand pollinate your squash? I find it made an enormous difference to growing pumpkins once I figured the difference between male and female flowers!

Occasionally I do. I keep an eye when the plants flower to check the females are fertilised,but as I grow lots of flowers in and around,as well as wigwams of Borlotti beans,there are usually plenty of pollinators flying around.