There it sits, not unlike the proverbial 'lonely little petunia in an onion patch', only this time it's a lonely little gourd in a vegetable patch. 'It' is a butternut squash, my favourite kind of squash, which is why I am growing it. Or maybe nurturing it would be more to the point at this stage. 'Mollycoddling' Himself calls it .. yes, that's you dear husband, I know you read this at work, on the quiet, whilst making out you are always busy, or it's not your kind of thing. Just like you say you don't care for Coronation Street, yet always manage somehow, to appear for the last five to ten minutes!!! Now everyone knows you are a closet Corrie fan, how will you live it down?
Back to the gourd... at one time, little BS had sisters and brothers, lots of them. But one by one they have dropped orf, died, shrivelled up, gone pale yellow and faded away. What did I do wrong? I am sure a certain gardening gentleman will be only too pleased to tell me where I am going wrong, I await comments!
The plant was watered, talked to, excess non-flowering shoots were removed, and then when we had about half a dozen plants, all the others were taken off so that the mother plant could concentrate on raising this little family. But her maternal instincts seem to be non-existent, and now, she is fading, but this one little gourd hangs on. So, it has been raised off the ground so it won't get too wet, and today it's getting lots of lovely warm sunshine... you can almost hear it sighing with contentment. But I fear BS is going to go the way of the rest. It looks like a giant comice pear at present, doesn't seem to have grown much, if at all, this past week.
I can't understand it, I don't usually have too many problems growing things. We bought a stick masquerading as a contorted willow, for a quid, complete with pot. Now it's the most beautiful 12 foot high tree. A walnut in a pot has produced a massive tree which will give us about two carrier bags full of walnuts this year. And that after I insisted it was brutally hacked about last winter.. maybe it's a masochist and was standing there going 'YES, YES, YES' loving every minute of it, which is why it produced more walnuts this year than before? I grew several passion flower plants from seeds off my neighbours plant, growing through a conifer, and hanging on my side of the fence, so I wasn't stealing, honest guv!
I'm not too hot with lavender cuttings, they seem to shrivel up and die on me, and there are other things, come to think of it, that I'm not as good at growing as I like to think, although having said that, my cutting garden was 90% successful this year.
So maybe it's me... maybe it's not the gourd who has lost the will to live. I shall leave it be, talk to it now and then, water when necessary and maybe it will reward me by growing - or maybe it's destined to forever be the lonely little gourd in the vegetable patch.
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2 comments:
Hmm! I had the same problem with my squash this year. Lots started out but only a few finished. I'm going to try planting them on a HUGE manure heap next year. I've been told that will do the trick.
Likewise with courgettes, not enough sex in the veg. bed methinks. Now I am waiting to be 'outed' by you, is nothing safe? Up to your usual high standard.
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