plant out day: Squashes and beans

With the end of May, being the closing of our frost window; today was plant out day. This was the result of plants being hardened off over the last week or so in quiet anticipation. Plus the plants were starting to get a bit too big to be stashed in the 4TB.

First thing first, three of the metre square beds had to be filled up, these were filled with well decayed farmyard manure. Then, sixteen squash plants, yes, sixteen, have been sunk. There’s half and half split, with some being plugged into raised beds, with the others being plugged into open ground. These were the seeds sown the second time around as the first batch had become cold and damp. Compared to what squashes have looked like at the same time in previous years, they are a bit smaller. I haven’t managed to sow and germinate pumpkins or butternut squashes, so this may be a jet episode.

Next came the beans. We had about thirty plants. These were the traditional scarlet emperor runner bean, as well as cobra and blue lake french climbing bean. All of these three varieties have in the past been very productive. I have another tray sat on the window sill germinating, so I may need to make some more wig wams at somepoint.

9 thoughts on “plant out day: Squashes and beans”

Your beans look in a better state than mine!

double checked this morning that they were still there

I think I put mine out a bit early!

I waited, deliberately. Also I had to sow a second batch. I don’t tend to plug them out til the very last day of may. We have frost until yesterday usually. Have been lucky that it stayed warm.

I don’t know when we last had frost. It’s been a bit nippy at night but not that cold for quite a while. Still, they had previously been in a nice sheltered and warm house, so had got a bit leggy.