pumpkin parade

Pumpkins and summer squash are easy to grow, need little care and store through the winter. I’ve grown the smallest ones vertically and larger ones sprawling on the ground. You can even grow them on a rotting compost heap. Kings Seeds has a wonderful selection to tempt you but if you want to save seeds from your favourite pumpkin and sow them next year, they’ll work very well (Otaki Supreme and Alderton Green were both from saved seeds). You can’t guarantee you’ll get exactly the same pumpkins as the parent but that’s half the fun. This year I have neither watered my pumpkin plants nor weeded them, thanks to the cocoa husk mulch, laid on top of hessian sacks when I planted out the pumpkin plants at the beginning of November. Here are some pumpkin recipes to use your harvest. Or substitute pumpkin in a zucchini and corn self crusting quiche. Store pumpkins in a cool dry place out of the reach of hungry mice (that’s about all of them).