Kitchen Garden Forum

There was a frost warning last night and one again for next 2 nights. Don't know in which part of country but worth taking precautions, especially with strawberries etc.

We have escaped the frosts so far Jane. A great relief re potatoes and tomatoes. How about you?

Put straw round potatoes and fleece over strawberries and no frost came - thankfully. Suddenly it seems to have warmed up and everything's growing.I have 6 Crown Prince and 6 Sweet dumpling squash in the greenhouse. I took your advice and moved them on - actually into the greenhouse bed temporarily, rather than planting them out. But I've planted out my gem squash and some pumpkin into the compost bin. I've got to discourage the Cat from sleeping there now - razor wire or such like!!! Chez - I have spare pumpkins - Becky F1 - because of my daughter - don't know how they will taste. Do you need any? I got 100 % germination. Jane

We grew Becky about two years ago and it was okay. Back then. We hadn't grown Crown Prince at that stage though and nothing else thus far has come even close in flavour to CP. In our opinion. I think you may find the same.

Thanks for the offer of plants, but we are rather inundated ourselves this year. Not quite 100% germination though! We are trying some other varieties to see how they compare to CP - Sweet Dumpling, Uchiki Kuri, Baby Bear and Buttercup.

Sweet Dumpling was your recommendation, I think. Baby Bear is an orange pumpkin, so I don't hold out much hope for its flavour or its storing capabilities. Must have been free seed. Buttercup is the one we are most hopeful for. In NZ this is a crop with superior flavour - even better than CP. But it is more variable and sometimes isn't as good. I am looking forward to seeing how it does here. Thanks to Lakeview for reminding me of it.

Yes, I was on a bit of a soapbox a few months ago about Buttercup....! Glad to hear that my gardening friends are trying them again!

Let me know how it goes...

LakeView