A UFO

UFO in this instance is an Unidentified Fruity Object. If you look at the squash in the photo, you'll see that they look nothing alike, though they've actually both been grown as patty pans - Sunburst and the seeds came from the same packet. They should look like the squash on the left of the photo. I wonder if a different seed has been included in the packet or if cross pollination has occured, either as it's been growing as I'm growing other squash and courgettes in the same bed, or before the seed was harvested. Sue from Our Plot At Green Lane Allotments wrote about her courgettes undergoing transformations recently on her Are Courgettes Promiscuous? post. I've never had anything like this happen before. I didn't get to eat the mutated squash as it was full of seeds, but I wonder if it would have tasted like a patty pan. I shall be interested to see what further fruit the plant produces, whether future fruit will look as it should, or not. I'll keep you posted.

I'm intending to have a go at growing some potatoes for Christmas again this year, in fact, I really need to get them planted up in the near future. I'm going to use some of the Arran Pilot potatoes which I've grown as first earlies this year and just replant them in new compost. If I get them planted now, there should be some decent enough weather to get them started off before the containers have to be moved in to the cold greenhouse and covered in fleece when the bad weather arrives. I've tried this experiment on a couple of previous occasions with mixed success, so I hope they do well this time as it makes Christmas dinner a little special having home grown veg on the plate.

I have a bird feeding station in the front garden, it's positioned in a flower bed which is a little inconvenient at times as birds are such messy eaters and seed is often dropped. I have to hoe the area regularly to stop the dropped seed from germinating, but I happened to notice that a sunflower had sprung up. I decided to leave it, even though it looks a bit out of place where it's situated. I'm glad I did now as it's blooming away. It's not a huge sunflower, probably three feet in height, and it's not growing in the most convenient or pleasing place, but it's flowering it's socks off and making me happy.