Welcome to Matron's Squashblog!

Welcome to Matron's Squashblog. Many thanks to all of you who contributed, I have posted them below with a link to your blog. I hope you enjoyed my contribution above, he's got a face only a Mother could love, hasn't he?

The origins of Hallowe'en date back over 2000 years to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). This festival, which means the end of Summer, celebrated the end of harvest and the beginning of the Celtic new year on November 1st. All Saints' Day is said to fall on this day when souls walked the Earth. In early Christian tradition souls were released from purgatory for 48 hours on All Hallow's Eve. Spooky!

Here is a contribution from Hels Blogspot quite an amazing feat when you consider that she has only a small window box and a balcony in her flat. What a gal ! Here you can see she has attempted yet again, to spell out her name in pumpkins.... better luck next time Hel !

Here is a row of little soldiers from Petunias-garden in Western Washington, what a wonderful example of the variety in size shape and colour.

I can't claim credit for this picture! It was taken by DaVikka at Mogblog. There was a pumpkin and squash exhibition at Kew Gardens last year. Missed it. Incidentally, I have found a great website for interesting seeds, and a particularly good selection of pumpkins and squashes at Seeds of Italy so give it a look!

Thanks to Stan, my blog-mentor at Naive Zebra, for this contribution. I was given an answer when I asked the question, "What happened to the other eyebrow?" - can you guess what the answer was?

I really hoped that someone would send me a photo of one of these! Thanks to Judith at everything in the gardens rosie for her contribution! I think this is an Italian squash Tromba de Albegna - it is supposed to taste supberb. Has anyone tried it? It looks like you might be able to break into a car with it !

What a stunning display from Magic Cochin at purple podded peas. I marvel at the amazing variety of pumpkins and squashes we can grow here. I wonder which one tastes the best? Which one is Humpty Dumpty, I wonder...

Here's a scarey offering from Jim at plot48. I wonder if this method could be used as a sort of night time scarecrow to keep the cats and pigeons off my patch. Hmmm

Here is an interesting shaped offering from Billie Jean at bjs allotment. Always a good idea to give them a comfortable layer underneath, to prevent damage as they grow. Otherwise they might end up just like Matron's pumpkin!

Here is a wonderful coloured pumpkin from Anita at ein-stueck-garten . These are such a rich amber colour, makes the mouth water.