Squash Curcurbita

2 mounds of "Pumpkin: Kuri Red" aka Potimarron. The mounds are by the back fence. Each mound is a load of lawn clippings, with a pit dug in the middle and a couple of bucketloads of compost (from Clarissa, one of our compost bins) put in the centre.

Planted 3 seeds per mound. This is what everyone says to do. What they're less clear on is whether you thin them to the one strongest, or let all of them live?

Because we have mynah birds who like to dig up our garden, I've tented over each mound with a recycled translucent plastic shopping bag: 3 bamboo skewers, point down, surround the seeds as a frame, then I put the plastic bag over them. Then I use three more skewers to pin the bag in place, offset in the gaps between the first skewers. I'm hoping this will protect the seeds/seedlings until they're established.

It's early to be planting these but I'm impatient, and it looks like we're well past the risk of frost. This means we'll probably have squash in high summer. Might plant some more in ~2 months time for an autumn crop.