Ac Baker

I find the abstract a bit confusing.  The eventual size of the storage roots seems to be bigger in the 20-30 C range?

Jane Mulberry wrote:Our UK garden is too small and our Bulgarian garden is too hot and dry for them to survive without someone there to water them more regularly.

Empathy.  This year I will have a bigger, sunnier, and moister UK garden. So this sounds like a great opportunity to try again.

Jane Mulberry wrote:For the UK, I expect there will be faster maturing (possibly smaller) squash varieties. Maybe look for varieties especially bred for more northern growers in the US. Hopefully someone will have a better answer!

Very good advice. Thank you!

I know that squashed very easily cross, so if I am trying multiple varieties, they must be well separated to come true.

I read that winter as well as summer squash can be direct sowed after the last frost - estimated from the averages.

I think sowing saved seeds - which are likely to germinate better, and where you'll have larger numbers - is more likely to successful.

I know that squashes are quite hungry feeders, which seem to grow well in people's compost heaps in England too.

I have some Delicata squash seeds which I have saved. That was a lovely squash I got in my veg box "zero waste" lucky dip this Autumn.

I have older packets of seeds which a friend gave to me.

I am ripening a Lady Godiva squash on my windowsill which I was given. This was grown in the same suburb as I'm gardening.  It clearly didn't fully ripen on the vine, despite our long hot summer this year. But it's virtue is that it is supposed to have hull-less seeds which are easier to eat as a crop in their own right.

So I think I have the germs of a plan here!

Any more cultivation tips, for grosing squashes successfully when you don't live on the land to which you have access, gratefully received!

I've never reliably been able to grow squashes, and I'd like to start next year. I need a low maintenance approach even though I'm only 10 mins walk from our garden.

We're in central England, so roughly zone 8, 51 Deg N.  So the summers are slightly shorter than ideal for winter squash.  Climate change means we're tending to hotter, drier summers and more torrentially wet winters.

Any advice on varieties & techniques, much appreciated.

A bit late, but apparently: yes, pumpkins can ripen in a sunny spot off the vine.

I am sad that I was not taught much younger that the ultimate foundation of any worthwhile endeavour is strong relationships across whole communities.  

But I am very grateful to the teachers who, on the last 20 years, have conveyed this message to me.  

Professor Margaret Robinson of Dalhousie University: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/margaret-robinson-veganism-and-mi-kmaw-legends

and Dr Robin Wall Kimmerer: https://plantbabyplant.com/

have been two of the most famous people from whom I've absorbed this teaching.

My feeling is now, almost any constructive community project is worthwhile in equal measure to the strength and resilience of the relationships we build through it.

But helping local communities to eat more (if possible, locally grown) vegetables and fruit, inclusively with the most marginalised members, is where my passion lies.

The best time to start a community vegetable and fruit food project is 30 years ago. I wanted to when we moved here c 25 years ago, but my dear late mother's health collapsed soon after.  I have no regrets about devoting myself to her care for the past 20 years.  

But the second best time, is now, and Mum lived long enough to see and support the start of the project & design and create our logo too!

So my actual regret is that Mum & I didn't seek & get more support with her health much earlier in our lives.

Applying the light touch, circular approaches to Permaculture design to get our community garden project was the right way to start 12 months ago, was definitely the right decision. It's like making stone soup!

Project thread start: https://permies.com/t/40/262302/Plot-community-forest-garden

My immediate thoughts parallel others above:  generally, built-up areas need more open earth to reduce rainwater runoff.

But I've been worrying more recently about what contaminants are left behind after concrete or other "industrial" built surfaces are removed from urban soil, too.

If, as you hypothesize, funds allow, after cleaning back to soil, I would also like a soil analysis for persistent contaminants.  

The results would inform my decisions about what to do next, in remediating the soil.

But I would definitely want most of the concrete gone if at all possible.

Best of luck.

Here's the folded 'tent' polytunnel cover we've been gifted ..

Still no sign of frost, which is getting relatively late for the Midlands of England.   Outdoor tomatoes and runner beans still quite green, and the toms are still flowering.

We have also been gifted a one year old 'mini polytunnel" cover, that's almost like a frame-tent with four hitches for guy ropes.  All that's wrong with it is that the two zips on the door flap have gone.   We have a plastic tube frame the previous plot-holders constructed as a net tunnel, which is almost exactly the right size for the polytunnel cover.  So our wonderful volunteer C is offering to help us convert the net tunnel into a polytunnel.  Watch this space!

C is also offering to make plant labels, to help other people who are learning to identify vegetables, green manures, and other beneficial plants.  Go, C!

I must remember to take some photographs next time it's sunny!

So it seems that there's quite a range of Phaseolus coccineus varieties, with different colours of flowers and mature beans, and seed patterns and colours.  

I was brought up in England exclusively eating the young sliced pods more like a 'mangetout pea', calling them runner beans.

But it seems lots of cultures eat theature bean seeds too, made edible as with the removal of lectins from red kidney beans e.g. a long soak, a minimum 10 mins hard boil, and then a long simmer in fresh water.

Exciting! Anyone here found any variation in the flavours of the cooked beans from the visibly different colours & patterns of seeds? Thank you!

Lots more info & important caveats on Plants for a Future:

Evening Primrose,
Oenothera biennis - L.

https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Oenothera+biennis