Planting in the compost heap

Enthusiastic seed sowing earlier in the year, when it was finally warm enough to get in the garden after our cold Spring, meant I had to play vegetable plant Tetris in the garden and squeeze plants in wherever I could.
I’ve grown courgettes in pots with unfinished compost  topped with potting compost in the past and then saw Vera Greutink at Grown to Cook had successfully planted directly into compost heaps in the Netherlands so I thought I'd give it a go.

I had a spare Waltham butternut squash (I think- it had lost it’s label) and so I created a small pocket of multi purpose peat-free compost and covered the whole of the heap with cardboard. The squash is planted through the cardboard into the multi purpose compost and so far looks very happy. The compost has sunk by a foot or so as it slowly rots. I’ve watered it occasionally but it has needed far less water than the squash in the raised beds.
The seed was from Real Seeds  and is an early fruiting variety of butternut squash, essential for the UK as other varieties may not appreciate our typical fairly short, damp and mild growing season.
My main concern has been that the compost bins are in a fairly shady position but I’m hoping this year the unusually hot weather we’ve been having will make up for that.

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