Oportus blog December 2023

There’s a season for everything…

This will be the final butternut squash update of this year – in fact, the final update of 2023 full stop.

A few days ago, I and my wife went to the polytunnel to clear out the squash vines (which had decided that the tunnel was theirs and theirs alone, spreading themselves out everywhere at the expense of most of the other plants).

It was with a fair amount of sadness, given it was the second year we’d planted squash with only a couple of thumb-sized fruit to show for it. What is especially annoying is the amount of greenery put out for such a meagre harvest – we’d spent a good couple of months watching these plants take over the tunnel, produce male and female flowers and climb up the walls and still didn’t get a meal out of them!

That said, we were encouraged earlier this year to even get those two little squash in the end; they were more an encouragement to keep trying than anything else.

We aren’t planning to do any polytunnel growing in the next year due to other commitments; one thing we have learned is that, like many other things in life we need to count the future cost of planting, weeding, tending, watering and harvesting. I get more wound up than is probably healthy to realise I’ve missed the (sometimes very brief) window of opportunity to pick fruit or vegetables and they are left to rot or feed little creatures who are more proactive than me.

So it was, on a wet, grey and windy day we set about clearing away the growth to bring this year’s season to a close and feed it to our neighbour’s cattle. I was shocked but delighted to find a potato-sized squash about halfway along the bed, with another one a few inches away. By the end of the exercise, we had four decent-sized ones and a handful of tiny squashes that are too small for anything…but they do have seeds in them, so we’ve thrown them in the ground and will see what happens.

There’s a season for everything, and this, the darkest time of the year, is when things are taking a rest from growing…at least, that’s how it seems. Looking closely at fuchsia at this time of year, there are tiny new green leaves fighting against the brutal Wild Atlantic weather, and things are clearly happening under the soil as green shoots (and weeds!) emerge timidly from the earth.

Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn; each season has its own characteristics with times of resting and renewal, growth and harvesting clearly evident – even if we do sometimes get four in one day here in Ireland!

It’s with this in mind that I’ve taken the decision in this season to slow down on the output of this blog. I really appreciate everyone who’s commented, asked questions, liked and shared and really don’t want to add to the avalanche of content you all get. I also believe you would get more meaningful content if I post less often, so I’m going to be posting once a season (i.e. every three months). If it’s good enough for Creation, it’s good enough for me!

As always, I really enjoy receiving comments, thoughts and questions, so please feel free to interact when you want.

Till next time, let’s keep learning…