Rob Smith takes a rest from watering to get planting out!

Now I‘ve more time to get on with some planting out

After all the hot weather we’ve had over the last few months, it’s been nice to have the odd cooler day, especially if it involved a bit of rain! Thankfully it has meant I haven’t had to spend quite as long watering and can spend some time planting out.

If you want to get some lettuce plants in the ground but don’t want to sow seed, try buying some cut-and-come-again living lettuce from the supermarket, then divide it into six and plant out behind runner beans. This will give the plants some well-needed shade and allows you to get them growing away quickly.

I’m also planting out some kale that I’ve had growing in small pots. This is because I’m still in the process of filling my raised metal beds with soil, compost and manure. While it sounds like an easy job, barrowing 15 tonnes of the stuff up a sloping garden is pretty hard going and I’ve only just finished it. I’ll make sure the kale is well firmed in and covered with netting and hope they grow quickly to catch up with earlier sowings.

Now’s also the best time to start inspecting your squash and reducing the fruit they’re producing. If you’re growing larger winter squash or pumpkins, I normally select the three biggest and best fruit. If they’re smaller winter squash, like my ‘Honey Boat’, I select five or six, then remove the rest and give the plant a good feed and a top dressing of organic compost (my plants are in raised beds which can get depleted of goodness quite quickly). This allows the plant to put all its energy into creating a few very good fruit that’ll ripen before the frosts, rather than lots of small fruit. It’s also a good idea to make sure the fruit are resting on a tile or brick rather than the bare earth, as this can encourage fruit to rot. While you’re doing this, remove leaves from around the fruit to allow the sunlight to get to them, so they ripen quicker. It also improves the airflow around the fruit and can help stop any fungal problems before they start.

Kale is finally going in after a mammoth effort filling raised beds Winston’s helping me plant out some cut-and-come-again supermarket le uce

I’m picking off excess squash fruit now