Butternut Squash

I usually save and dry the seeds from pumpkins and squashes to mix with the food for my daughter's gerbils - but I've set aside a few for the garden.

The seeds inside a butternut squash are embedded in a mass of slimy strands - I picked some out and set them aside in a small dish on the window sill.

When they were dry, I put them in a paper envelope ready for planting later.

Squashes and other members of the cucumber family don't like their roots being disturbed - so I'm growing my seedlings in cardboard pots - they can be planted directly into the soil and the roots will push through the pot walls.

I planted one seed about half an inch deep in each of six pots.

I put the pots on a tray on a warm window sill (alongside my seedling chilli peppers) and laid a sheet of polythene over them to prevent them drying out too much.

They should germinate quite fast.

29 April 2010 - the first seedling is peeping through the surface.

08 May 2010 - the seedlings are all looking really healthy and strong, just starting to develop their first true leaves.

I've moved them out into the greenhouse where it's a little cooler - as the first stage of hardening them off, ready to plant out.

11 May 2010 - The roots have started growing through the bottoms of the pots - time to plant out.

I've prepared the patch where they'll be growing by digging in lots of well-rotted garden compost and preparing a shallow depression for each plant (this helps make the watering more effective.)

I planted out the six seedlings with about a foot between them - this is closer than recommended, but the soil is deep and there is plenty of room for the top growth to trail.

I bought a pack of really cheap wire lawn edging arches - made of really thin, feeble wire - useless, except for what I have in mind...

I used the arches to support some agricultural fleece, to protect the plants from cold and wind while they get their roots properly into the soil.

I've been a little bit non-organic here too - a few slug pellets next to each plant, or they will just get eaten up.