The highlight of the Autumn calendar for most gardeners is the long anticipated pumpkin harvest, and this year didn’t disappoint! 2024 was a rubbish year for our butternut squash, I think we only harvested around 4 whereas the Crown Prince and Jack be Little varieties were prolific. The only regret I have for this year is not growing any of the munchkin varieties, I’ve been growing them for the past 10 years so it felt very strange not harvesting the little beauties.
We planted 6 butternut squash plants in the brassica bed, allowing them to grow amongst the sweetcorn and giving them enough space to produce those golden fruits. In return we were blessed with 20 medium sized butternut squashes which will hopefully be a nice amount to keep us going through the Winter… Although Peter makes a delicious butternut squash risotto so I can see them disappearing quickly!
Along with the squash I also couldn’t resist popping in one pumpkin ‘Halloween’ plant. Last year me and Peter visited a pumpkin farm and had such a great time picking through all the hugh pumpkins to find one each to carve. We made it our mission to try and grow our own this year so I was beyond pleased to harvest 4 relatively large pumpkins from our patch. That means we have two each to carve for Halloween and I can’t wait to get the tools out and see who can create the scariest face! Stay tuned for an update and to help vote who’s is the best…
