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Although our squashes, growing in buckets of bought peat-free compost, in the greenhouse were prolific in growth of stems and leaves, they didn't produce many fruits, and, of those which did appear, few developed and they soon got nibbled or damaged then rotted away. Recently, frost shrivelled all the plants, leaving this single fruit (drawn four times, from different angles) which is about the size of grapefruit. When I'd seen this one growing in the summer, I propped it up on an upturned plastic plant pot, so perhaps this gave it protection against the attacks of slugs, or whatever else was causing the fruits to fail. I expected it to go on and grow but this is as big as it got. There were a few late tomatoes ripening in the greenhouse but they have been nibbled on the vine - probably by the squirrels that are so active in the garden. A likely explanation for the failure of the squashes is that I simply didn't give these plants the attention they deserved. This one got added to a batch of butternut squash soup that Barbara was
making. Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk |
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