Winter and Summer Squashes

 I'm having an amazing crop of Queensland Blue pumpkins this year.  The funny thing though is that none of these are seeds that I nurtured and carefully sowed in pots in the cozy greenhouse propagator. All these Queensland Blue pumpkins are volunteers which sprouted from piles of kitchen compost! They are doing great all over the place. These are brilliant Winter keepers and survive storage for months.

 In fact, I have noticed that at this time in the season the ratio of female flowers ( the ones with pumpkins attached) has increased tenfold. There is a baby pumpkin now at almost every third leaf joint.

 At the beginning of the year it was about fifteen male flowers to every female flower. I still have to make sure the whole plant can support the growth of the fruits, but the season has been amazing and the plants are healthy and sprawling everywhere.

 The male flowers are still being produced so that they pollinate the female flowers, and the bees simply love them!

 Meanwhile these Lebanese squash are going great guns too. These are a Summer squash, they are softer and have a higher water content. They do not store for any time at all, and are best eaten young.

The same applies for these lovely Tondo di Nizza squash from Seeds of Italy. Lovely round squash that can be stuffed or just eaten whole. This time of year it is hard to keep up with all this produce!