Squashes

So you may have noticed that its been very quiet on the vegetable front this year. Hmmmm.

All I can say is, it wasn't for lack of early effort on my part. But our slimy friends, encouraged by the immense and prolonged wet, flourished and rampaged .. and ate everything. And I mean, everything. Except for things in the onion family - my chives, leeks and spring onions have never looked better!

Even young tomato plants were eaten, albeit not as enthusiastically, but when the munchers had munched everything else they nibbled the tops out of the baby tomato plants as they hardened off. Hmmmm.

My sister has an allotment in south London/Kent border and she got about 75% of everything eaten and she used organic slug pellets AND a nemotode. And I saw an article about the weather conditions creating the perfect breeding conditions for a voracious non-native giant slug on the rampage (can't remember where ... think on Soil Association website somewhere).

So at least its not just me!

Anyhow, I tell you all this because then you will understand the great pleasure and satisfaction I have derived from my one vegetable success this year!

Its a summer squash which can be picked young to eat as a ball courgette or left to grow into large summer squashes. What can I tell you.. its tasty, its good-looking and it withstood everything that it had to contend with!

My other courgette and squash plants were just annihilated as soon as they were exposed. With a couple, I waited until they were enormous.. really big leaves and well-formed plants.. I put one out to harden off under a bell cloche and everything. But as soon as I took its lid off its fate was sealed.

This summer squash was planted in a very tall chimney type pot to give it plenty of room to get its roots in.

When I planted out I put in two garden canes at diagonal corners and then covered with a giant polythene bag which I pegged in place to the canes and the lip of the container. And left as long as I could as protection against the elements while the plant hardened off. But it was by no means slug or snail-proof! If you look at the photos carefully you can see that the stems are covered in some fairly lethal prickles .. this possibly helped!

Well, there you go. This versatile new plant has made a life-long friend in me! So I've positioned it alongside the wooden wine crates of leeks to form a discreet curtain in front of my ENTIRELY EMPTY vegetable patch(!!) and give the illusion of lushness and plenty at this harvest time of the year.

And you know what ... I'm thinking of turning that veg bed over to herbs next year (I'm out of room in the herb garden) and just sticking to containers for veg.

Hmmmm.