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
Like the way you store them.
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?
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
Wow :o Absolutely stunning. Thanks for the pictures - very inspirational.
I just let them wander. When they go too far, I turn the stem round, and it grows back where it came from.
Me too Robert, I find it fun to watch them. This year I was going to take pictures as they grew, XX Jeannine
Jeannine and Robert have inadvertently highlighted one of the problems with raised beds, that of wandering plants that can block paths. Nothing is perfect!