Gardeners' World Monty Don

SUMMER is here and there is no better time to grow pumpkins and squashes, according to gardening expert and horticulturist Monty Don.

“Water into this to ensure the water goes down to the roots and doesn’t sit around the neck of the plant, which can lead to rotting.” He added that after “popping” the pumpkin into the ground, he usually makes “a slight circle around it so that when I water it, the water doesn’t run off away from it”. The pumpkin was a “lovely greeny-blue”. Monty explained that “squashes and pumpkins are the greediest and thirstiest plants that you could possibly grow”. Monty’s pumpkin of choice was the “Marina di Chioggia” variety, which he said is “one of my favourite pumpkins because it’s so beautiful”. These need to be “really strong” because the vegetables can be “quite heavy”.