One thing that I didn’t mention about my trip to Clumber Park, a National Trust property in Nottinghamshire, on Sunday is that I ended up buying butternut squash seeds. I’d already purchased some earlier in the year (from a different place), so I didn’t need anymore.
However, if it encourages seed-saving rather than Big Pharma, in my eyes that is no bad thing. Except that I don’t know where I am going to put all these plants, taking it they all thrive.
Who knows if they will but continuing my experiment to see what works in the shed, I’ve left one of the pots with a butternut squash seed in it, in there. By all accounts, the tomato seedlings seem to be quite happy. So much so that I have moved one of them to a bigger pot.
I’ve never done that before – which to be honest might have been a limitation. Three inch pots don’t have much legroom, so hopefully the ones that can go into bigger pots will be more robust before going into the garden.
Another first is Silene dioica, common name red campion, which I have sown in the front garden. I haven’t had much luck with direct sowing out there. However, since other plants such as borage and marigolds have happily self-seeded, the latest herb might grow into something our pollinators like.
I doubt I will need them for snakebites, however, which is a claimed medicinal use for this plant. I’ve never seen one of our three native snakes, much less been bitten by an adder, the only venomous one. Still, there is always a first time, I guess!
Growing out of chaos 
Butternut Squash is a lovely vegetable, and versatile too. I am sure that it will be exciting to grow them, they are not easy in my experience but then I only tried it in a very wet summer years ago. Wishing you lots and lots of yummy squashes Helen 🙂
Thank you, Agnes. It is exciting to try something new, isn’t it!
Yes Helen I love it too 🙂
I wish my eyes were bigger than my belly 😉 Seeds are so hard to resist, aren’t they. I always over-buy and regret it. Now that I save seeds, it’s equally problematic at times. A few years back I made pretty cards and attached packets of cosmo seeds as a Christmas gift. I need to plan more of that…but of course not everyone gardens like us. Have you ever given any thought to vertical gardening? You can really increase your yield by going up.
What lovely ideas for presents you have, Alys 😊.
I am planning to grow the butternut squash upwards if I can. That will be fun – finding a way of doing it!
Yes! That’s half the fun of gardening, isn’t it, discovering new and interesting ways to make it work. Have you ever read Vertical Veg? He’s based in the UK, possibly London.
Yes, I used to follow him when I had a Facebook account 😊
Ah! Glad to hear it.
You could always save the seeds for next year. I’m sure they will last that long if you keep them cool.
Yes, I did think about that but I wanted them to be as fresh as possible. Anyway, there were only 3 seeds in the packet at £1 so I haven’t broken the bank 😊.
I first saw an adder in the early 60s – it had been caught wriggling down the pavement in Blackburn. Still don’t know how it got there. Only ever seen grass snakes since then and had to check Wiki as I didn’t know there was another species!
Somewhere in the back of my mind I have a notion that I may have seen a snake but it must be a memory of a tv programme that has transformed into action with me in it!
Anyway, a mystery how an adder could have been wriggling down the street. Unless someone had purposely released it?
It’s a mystery where it came from. We’ve seen a few grass snakes around over the years, and several dead on the road. Also had a few false alarms with slow worms. 🙂
Lol!