Butternut Avalon

First picking of winter squash. I decided to cut the large ones to encourage the smaller ones to swell to a decent size in the last couple of good growing weeks. These are whoppers, haven't weighed them yet but much larger than any butternuts I've grown before, more like the over-sized ones available at the supermarket, weighing in at about 1.5 kg each. So much for being 'compact' as described in the catalogue! Not perfectly matched for exhibition purposes, but I suspect I might enter them in the village show anyway.

The stalks were quite compact, I hope they are a good keeping variety. 

Poultry greens, weeds and other poultry stuff

The poultry yard has many uses. As well as a provider of the ton or so of composted manure I need for the soil, the birds also consume a large proportion of the weeds I pull every day through the season. Most of the annual weeds that infest my beds are palatable to the birds:Sow thistle, Fat hen, dandelion, hairy bittercress, rough Hawk's beard. I should make a photographic record, but this site covers most of the edible weeds, albeit listed for tortoises rather than poultry.

Greens should be an important and regular part of laying birds' diet. They improve the yolk colour and improve levels of omega 3; research by Artemis Simopoulos published in the New England Journal of Medicine has shown that eggs from birds fed on a varied died rich in greens (purslane) have a much higher ratio of Omega 3 to 6 than ordinary supermarket eggs (1:3 as opposed to 19:4). They also get bolted lettuces and brassicas, beetroot leaves etc in season.

The run is also proving useful as a support for a 'Jack O Lantern' pumpkin variety, which has started setting and swelling fruit since clambering up the run apace.

Pumpkin support

Last year the poultry run proved to be a very good support for squashes, so this year I'm encouraging a pumpkin variety to cover the wire. I would have expected something to set and start developing by this point in August for there to be any hope of decent, fully ripened fruits, but yet again the season has been disappointing. The biggest pumpkin I ever grew was in my allotment in Wolfson College. I remember going into college on August bank holiday to work, and finding someone had tried to steal the nearly-mature fruit. It was too heavy for them to move, so they had hacked out a slice. We decided to take it home and use it ourselves before the thieves came back for some more. It took two people to move and filled a small wheelbarrow. I doubt my current pumpkin will produce anything like this in time for this year's bank holiday.

Squashes

The squash bed around the 'duck sump' has become a jungle in my absence. I'm sure the irrigation helped them establish during the brief heat wave, but constant rain throughout July hasn't helped the fruits to set without rotting off. Some leaves showing mildew. Normally I'd put this down to being too dry at the root, but I suspect the drip from the duck bath plus the rain might have been a bit too much. Now the vines are attaching to fences and other supports, hopefully there will be enough air to allow some to set without rot from the blossom end setting in.

You might notice some sweetcorn interplanted between the squashes. I've done this before with some success. However, none of my sweetcorn is looking very vigourous this year, the later-planted ones not in the squash bed being the weakest.

Winter Squash bed

Last year I stuck in a couple of winter squashes (my favourite squash, Marina de Chioggia) next to my 'duck sump', which is the overflow from the duck bath which is on continuous drip from a hose, flushed out once a day.

I was amazed by how well they did, climbing several metres into neighbouring rose and plumb trees, producing several very large fruits each. Previously squashes have done very poorly, and I'd rather given up on growing them.

This year I've extended the area that the water flows to, to irrigate and fertilise a larger number of squashes. So far they've taken off very well, and are looking healthier than in previous years, in different beds. Time will tell if this experiment will be a productive one.

Varieties grown this year: Winter Festival F1, Jack be Little, the intriguingly-named Pumpkin SC4-15 F1, Avalon A1 (butternut type) and one Jack o' Lantern pumpkin. It's possible there's the odd other variety, as I hang on to packets for years, and usually have a couple of ancient packets left.