Hi. Pictured to the left are things I picked this morning; various squashes and one cucumber. The cucumbers finally seem to be declining after an amazingly productive period. My green beans barely survived the hot, dry period but have now burst into full life once more and I'm getting a daily crop again. My chest freezer is rapidly filling up with frozen produce!

I've been preserving my crops by blanching and freezing. With green beans this involves top and tailing the bean pods (I pick them young before the beans have grown too much), snapping them in half and then boiling for three minutes. Immediately after taking them out of the boiling water I immerse them in iced water to stop the cooking process. Then I put them into ziplock bags and freeze. The process is the same with squash, you cut them into one inch pieces and put them through the same blanching procedure as the beans. Works pretty well I've found.

I am having a problem with squash bugs. They bore into your squashes and eat the flesh. I've read that looking out for egg clusters on leaves can help; if you knock them to the ground the local beetles think 'oh look! Brunch!' (I'm pretty sure beatles eat brunch). There's other solutions so I'll try a few. The bugs only really seem to like the spaghetti squash . . one of two crookneck squashes have been affected but that's all. The butternuts have, so far, been left alone. I want to find the most effective methods before my pumpkins begin to flower and fruit. Speaking of which, here's a photo of one of my vines growing at an almost frightening rate. Honestly, it's like something out of Little Shop of Horrors. All the wet weather has given the young plants all the impetus they need and the vines are barrelling along. I'm going to enjoy waiting for the Great Pumpkin to show up at Hallowe'en!