My African Keyhole Bed - The Pumpkin Patch 🎃🌿🥒

A very warm and humid morning and the weather looks set to stay this way for some time .

  I decided to plant out my Courgettes , Butternut Squash and a couple of Pumpkins ( for the children to carve for Hallowe'en )

I spent most of the morning  pulling out bindweed roots .

 I worked hard to get as much as I could out ..every last little bit of it ...hopefully .

      Then flipped over the paving slabs to make two fairly level steps .

 One on pointe at the back , this should allow me to step in and water everything .

A watering hole in the middle . Watering into this centre hole will encourage the roots of the plants to go down deeper .

 I have chicken-wire all around to keep the bunnykins out .

      

                     Planted them all out !   Time for lunch and a flop !

                                                     🌿☀️🌿

Thinking about Butternuts !

 

   

                                                                 Sigh .......

                          Been thinking about it all night . Time to get on with it !

I have sown my Butternut seeds . They are on my bedroom windowsill .Just waiting for them to germinate . 

After all the months of rain , the ground is nice and soft and fairly easy to prize out the weeds and clumps of grass right now .

I did try to cover it over with cardboard to keep the weeds down , but the bindweed and nettle roots  just go crazy running their long spaghetti roots under it all . 

So my back is aching just a bit from bending down and scrabbling about in the earth to grab and chase them along as far as I can to get them out . Trying not to break or leave any broken roots behind that will carry on growing . 

When the bonfire heap has dried out , we will burn this lot  . Oh no not the cardboard . I will put that down again until I come to plant out my Butternuts . 

I am growing Butternut Hunter this year . Also found several packets of different Squash varieties , way past their date ,but thought I'd have nothing to lose . If they grow, then I'll squeeze them in hither and thither ....but not in this bed . This is just for the Butternuts .....oh ...and that clump of perennial Egyptian Walking Onions  .

                                                Egyptian Walking  Onions

        I got that done all before 10.30am . Feeling very pleased with myself ! 

                                           🎃🌿🎃🌿🎃🌿

                                      (if a just little bit aching )