How to treat a squash

[allaboutliverpool]

I have just given my butternut squashes the most amazing love.

If I were to do things to have cheap vegetables, I would give up the allotment, buy carbon heavy veg and get a job in MacDonalds.

See the love given on :-

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments_Vegetables_squash_butternut.html

[allaboutliverpool]

[Tin Shed]

Like the way you store them.

[antipodes]

Lovely! I like butterbut squash too, if I can get one or two plants at the nursery, i might try it (for that amount I wouldn't bother buying seeds). How much space would you leave around each plant? And how do they spread out?? Is a 4 foot square enough?

[allaboutliverpool]

Mine were planted in a 4 foot square frame last year. If you do not contain them, they are massive and spread everywhere.
I was a little anxious at the time and wondered if the covering of leaves and the closed in sides would prevent pollination, but all was successful.
I have looked at them today, a few days after adding the extra sides, and they are touching the polythene already and I need to add the next module to raise the sides. Last year they reached 5 including the top polythene, that is 2 foot 6 inches high.

Each frame costs about £75 so the cost for 3, to grow 6 plants is over £200. They will last 20 years if painted with preservative and the polythene will need renewing each year.

Assuming 30 squashes a year for 20 years, it is about 50 pence a squash. The modules however are used on other crops each winter so the cost is reduced appropriately.

If you take into account the cost of a squash in 20 years time it is not expensive. , I just hope I am still around and gardening in 19 years at the age of 80.

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments_Vegetables_squash_butternut.html

[cmorningstar]

Wow :o Absolutely stunning.  Thanks for the pictures - very inspirational.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I just let them wander. When they go too far, I turn the stem round, and it grows back where it came from.

[Jeannine]

Me too Robert, I find it fun to watch them. This year I was going to take pictures as they grew, XX Jeannine

[allaboutliverpool]

Jeannine and Robert have inadvertently highlighted one of the problems with raised beds, that of wandering plants that can block paths. Nothing is perfect!