A WASH WITH SQUASH

No room to grow big g pumpkins? Monty Don has found a tasty little alternative that’s been thriving in his garden

For the past fortnight I’ve been in the United States, on the last filming trip of my American gardens series, which will air at the beginning of next year. Halloween celebrations were in full swing, almost matching our Christmas on a commercial level.

One big difference between the two countries is that, for us, pumpkins are almost exclusively reserved for carving faces at Halloween, while in the States they are one of the major features of Thanksgiving (in late November) and pumpkin pie has the revered status that we reserve for, say, Yorkshire pudding.

This year I didn’t grow a single pumpkin, but my squash have done very well indeed. All pumpkins are squash, but not all squash are pumpkins. Squash come in many shapes, sizes, colours and textures but pumpkins all tend to have a smooth but thick skin, are some shade of orange and have edible flesh and seeds (whereas the seeds of most other squash aren’t edible).

If size is your goal then go for a pumpkin every time, but I grow squash to eat, and taste always trumps size. This year I grew just one kind of squash, called Uchiki Kuri (also sold as Red Kuri or Orange Hokkaido). It comes from Japan, is bright orange and about the size of a melon or large coconut, though it looks like a giant onion, with its pointed ends. I think the butter-coloured flesh tastes better than any pumpkin’s and the size is manageable and practical. It ripens early, stores well and is a superb addition to any veg plot.

Like all squash, Uchiki Kuri fares best in warm, sunny conditions with the richest soil possible and lots of water. Thankfully, my clay loam fits the bill perfectly, and the wet Herefordshire weather means that most years I don’t even have to water them. But if you live on sandy or chalk soil, or in an area of low rainfall, you will need to add as much compost or manure as you can spare to each planting pit and give your plants a good soak weekly until the fruit have reached maturity.

The secret is to encourage them to grow steadily and continuously, so I sow my seeds in March, pot the seedlings on and plant them out in early June – do it any earlier and their growth could be checked by cold nights.

These squash are best grown as climbers, which look great and also save a huge amount of space – usually, pumpkin or squash plants each need about 10 square metres of ground to develop, which is out of the question for most of us. I have grown them up tripods, which works, but this year I constructed a sturdy climbing frame for them made out of 8ft chestnut stakes and cross poles of the stoutest hazel bean sticks I could find, all lashed together with strong, tarred twine. It needs to be really strong because even these smallish squash can be heavy and will bring inadequate support tumbling down.

Each plant will produce three or four fruit. Once they reach full size, you should remove any foliage that’s blocking sunlight or stopping good airflow, as mould is the biggest enemy (albeit not a serious one). By the beginning of October you can have taken off all the leaves without damaging the crop at all.

To harvest, cut off the vine with as much stem as possible and, handling carefully, leave them in the sun as long as you can because this will harden the skins – and the harder they are, the longer they will store in a cool (but frost-free), dark, well-ventilated place. n

Monty with his Uchiki Kuri squash plants