Allotments 4 All

How did the plot work out over the season Debs?

Here the weather is crazy too.  Have never known 37C in my childhood before I came to England.  We got to go home from school early if it was 28C!  Well the kids would not be in school at all these days.  Having said that, we also had a very autumnal spell like you are having at the moment, Jeannine, before this crazy heat broke out. 

The weather definitely is changing in front of our eyes and it will test which of our varieties can adapt and which will not. 

And your racoons do sound like a pest you could do without.  Fingers crossed. 

Racoons are visiting regularly now for the grapes and I see they have been picking my crab apples,fingers crossed they don't decide to try my squash.
I am  relieved the beans are flowering. Our weather has gone from roaring inferno to rainy and cool overnight so am a bit worried that this might be it for us, it is only mid August but it is not unknown, as long as we don't get frost we should be OK

Yes, it is less of a struggle here, I will freely admit.  But I managed to keep almost all of my varieties going in Rushden too, at times resorting to growing them in the greenhouse.  So I sympathise.  Most parts of Britain are at the edge of what squashes love in terms of growing conditions. 

This was my rationale when I bought these Straightneck squash seeds from an Alaskan seed company.  If they succeed there, surely they also do in Rushden!  And they did.  So I hope all will go well with this fruit.  It has changed shape, put on at least another 2 inches in length and is now getting fatter at the bottom, more club shaped. 

Congratulations on getting the Hungarian to work for you, Jang.  It is so frustrating to have several male flowers and waiting for a female, or when we have a heatwave, it is the opposite, the plants develop female flowers, but there are no males.  it is nice when it all comes together. 

By the way, that Golden Marbre Squash was still perfectly edible in March, when I harvested the seeds.  I cut it into wedges along the bumps and fried them.  Almost like winter squash, - patty pans do tend to keep reasonably well. 

It will be great to have your Golden Marbre squash, Galina. I've become more and more of a fan of pattypan squash over the last two or three years. One cuts up and roasts so easily for two or three people as an accompaniment for summer vegetables.
It seems to take a lot of application in the UK to catch any cucurbits for hand pollination,so that I'm lucky if I succeed with more than one or two a year. This year I have one large hand pollinated courgette from your Hungarian zucchini, galina, which I think I successfully hand pollinated. It's a courgette I value for being early and productive, so I hope to have those seeds ready in time to contribute.

Just noticed that RealSeeds retail this too, but a different strain of it.  Mine were from Denali Seeds in Alaska, bought when getting seeds from the USA was still widely possible some twenty years ago.  This strain has the number 353, but its history also goes back nearly 90 years. 

Here are both urls, first RealSeeds
https://www.realseeds.co.uk/courgettes.html

then Denali, my source of seeds
https://www.bestcoolseeds.com/collections/squash/products/squash-summer-early-prolific-straightneck-353

Here is the Early Prolific Straightneck Squash also growing this year.  This fruit is isolated/handpollinated and I hope its seeds will be ready in time for the circle distribution. 

This is the isolated/handpollinated Golden Marbre that I cut up earlier this year.  It was grown last year, but too late for the seed circle.  It is producing true offspring from a few seeds I used this year to verify that handpollination.  A candidate for the seed circle. 

Yes my late flowering beans are now starting one by one too.  Glad yours have also started. 

I got finally got flowers on my Don Olson bean, thank goodness. My Gigantes have lovely pods on and still lots of flowers, the pods seem to get  much bigger every day..we will have Plaki this year after all.