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UPDATE! Weird & Wonderful Pumpkins & Squash – My Little Allotment

We LOVED Kirsty's, guest post that she wrote for us this spring! All about her plans to grow pumpkin and squash and the long list of varieties she wanted to try. We are so pleased that she has written us an update and provided us with beautiful photographs of the weird and wonderful pumpkins and squash that came out of her little allotment this season!...

I can safely say 2018 has been a successful pumpkin & squash year.

It's been a long hot summer and I'm not going to lie, trying to keep the pumpkin and squash plants happy has been a challenge. While they have thrived with the heat they most certainly needed water every other day, making them quite the attention seeker this year!

Pumpkins and squash have been my favourite thing to grow for the two summer season I've had on my little allotment, and that certainly won't be changing for next year, It's only going to get bigger and better.

After setting a big target of growing 11 types of pumpkins and squash this yeah I can tell you that I definitely exceeded that number and grew more varieties, I just couldn't resist.

So let's go straight in and start with the pumpkins. My first pumpkin plant produced two rather small pumpkins and unfortunately the other two plants on my allotment were broken a couple of days after planting, I think the damage may have been from animals. I popped another pumpkin plant in later in the season and managed to get a nice looking pumpkin from it.

I also decided this year that I was going to grow a MAX pumpkin using max pumpkin seeds from Lidl. The growing journey of growing max from seed to a hefty 55lb Pumpkin was amazing and he was part of the family, but unfortunately during the really hot weather the skin on the pumpkin started to harden in the sun and the pumpkin split. The split then got mouldy and Max the pumpkin rotted, gutted is an understatement!

He was a perfect looking Cinderella pumpkin and I will show you some photos of him below.

Here are a few pictures of the other pumpkins and squash I have grown along with the names incase you want to give any a go next year.

Crown Prince

Queensland Blue

Harlequin and Festival

Baby Boo/Jack Be Little/Munchkin

Turks Turban

The stand out squash for me this year is has to be this warty beauty Galeux d'Eysines, what do you think?

I already have my list and my seeds ready for next year, I have a much bigger list but aim to use the space better by growing some vertically and using up space when crops have been harvested and removed from the allotment like my onions and garlic.

It may seem a bit excessive but growing squash and pumpkins brings me so much joy. I will be using up most of them for Halloween fun with my two young daughters, giving some away to friends and family and using the rest to make tasty soup for those cold winter months.

2019 pumpkin and squash list:

Big Max

Atlantic Giant

Baby Boo (vertical)

Jack Be Little (vertical)

Pumpkin

Turks Turban (vertical)

Crown Prince

Queensland Blue

Jumbo Pink Banana

Honey Bear

Marina Di Chioggia