Hi Helen, just PM'd you..

A bit of advise on growing Butternut (Cheers Jax and ntg for the advise to grow upwards rather than out!!)

By last year.....

Plant end of March, early April indoors. I planted them out when they had 2 strong true leaves which I think was around May time....

Plantred straight out in the soil, (no prep done on it). They need watering in to start with, but as they trail across the ground they put down more, short thick roots further along the plant.

They mature around October time and keep maturing when stored.

Bits of advise:

1. I found mine needed to be pollenated manually. Their male and female flowersw are both yellow but the female have a tiny fruit behind the flower and male ones don't. Another way to distinguish between them is the female have orange stamen (if that's the right word) and males have yellow pollen. I would wait for two or more females to be open at a time and pick the male flower and waggle it around the stamen to pollenate.
2. Lift the fruits off the ground. I put spare bricks under mine
3. Wear gloves when handling the plants and there prickly
4. Enjoy the fruits of your labour. Especially ovened with olive oil and home grown Rosemary with your Sunday roast!

Sorry if I've not made much sense.... ask me any questions...

__________________
Shortie

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children; one of these is roots, the other wings" - Hodding Carter