Seed Sowing
Sow courgette seeds in pots indoors from April and plant out in May, or sow directly in the soil in early to mid-May if your area is mild enough. The plants are very cold-sensitive, so cover them with fleece if there is a danger of frost. For an extended harvest, do two sowings—one in April and another in early June.
Transplanting
Choose a warm, sunny, sheltered spot. Ensure your seed bed is free from weeds. Squashes are hungry and benefit from a good dose of manure or compost added to the soil before planting. Courgettes are tender plants and will need hardening off before planting out, spacing them around 90 cm apart. Water well. Using mulch around the plant will help retain moisture, leaving a gap around the stem.
Plant Care
Courgettes are fun to grow. As long as they are well-watered, the fruits mature pretty quickly, so harvest often to encourage more growth. Once the fruits start to swell, you can give a liquid feed every 10-14 days to boost growth.
Challenges
Powdery Mildew is a common problem. Ensure good airflow by not planting too close, and water the soil, not the leaves. Remove any badly affected leaves when the white powdery mildew appears.
Harvest
Start picking young courgettes early to encourage more growth; they will keep coming. In a good year, you can harvest up to three per week from one plant. The flowers are edible; pick the male flowers and leave the female flowers (you can see the tiny fruits behind the base of petals). The young leaves are also edible, but leave enough for the plant to survive; use them like spinach.
Culinary Ideas
Courgettes are a staple in many Mediterranean dishes. There are many recipes to try, from the classic ratatouille, quiches, and tarts to vegetable bakes and sliced into long, thick steaks for the BBQ. The flowers are great stuffed with cheese, dipped in tempura batter, and fried until crisp; you can do this with the young leaves also.
Seed Saving
To save seed, leave some fruits on the plant and allow them to grow large (they can get huge). Once their colour changes (colour change depends on the original colour), you can cut off the fruits and leave them in a warm, dry place for four weeks to encourage further seed ripening. Cut open the fruit and remove the seeds with a spoon or ice-cream scoop. Wash the pulp off the seeds and leave them to dry in a well-ventilated place in a single layer.
View our best-selling courgette and summer squash varieties
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Courgette – Black Beauty (Organic)
£2.50 – £3.50 Add to basket This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product pageCourgette – Black Beauty (Organic)
A vigorous and prolific courgette producing dark green, glossy fruits over a long period. A classic dark-green summer squash with creamy white flesh. Best picked young when no longer than 25cm. The plants have an open growth habit which makes it easy to pick the fruit and they won’t stop coming! Try battering and frying the male courgette flowers for a gourmet addition to a summer meal.
(Approximate seed count – 17)
£2.50 – £3.50 -
Courgette – Cocozelle (Organic)
£2.95 Add to basketCourgette – Cocozelle (Organic)
Very productive courgette producing dark and light green stripy fruit over a long period. We have grown this traditional Italian variety of courgette for many years and it has become a staple part of our summer diets. It is a prolific producer of good looking and great tasting fruits. It has a bush-type growth habit making it suitable for smaller plots or even container growing.
(Approximate seed count – 20)£2.95 -
Courgette – Solara (Organic)
£2.95 Add to basketCourgette – Solara (Organic)
A bright yellow variety producing an abundance of fruits over a long period. Solara is a fantastic modern open-pollinated yellow fruited courgette. We are really impressed with how productive and uniform this variety is compared to other yellow varieties we have tried and they taste superb. A couple of plants will keep you well fed throughout the summer.
(Approximate seed count – 20)£2.95 -
Courgette – Tondo di Nizza (Organic)
£3.00 Add to basketCourgette – Tondo di Nizza (Organic)
A round pale green courgette with a delicate skin and fine flavour. If you’re looking for something a little bit different in your courgette patch, Tondo di Nizza would be a good choice. It is an Italian heritage variety that provides you with an abundant crop of round courgettes. Best harvested when approximately 10cm in diameter, just before the skin darkens in colour.
(Approximate seed count – 12)£3.00 -
Summer Squash – Lemon (Organic)
£2.50 Add to basketSummer Squash – Lemon (Organic)
A trailing summer squash variety producing an abundance of lemon-sized and shaped fruits. This is a very interesting variety of summer squash which sits somewhere between a patty pan and a courgette. Its flesh is slightly denser than a typical courgette and is extremely tasty. A definite star of the veg patch and will keep on producing until the last frosts.
(Approximate seed count – 20)£2.50 -
Patty Pan – Custard White (Organic)
£2.95 Read morePatty Pan – Custard White (Organic)
Creamy white disc-shaped fruits with a scalloped edge and fine flavour. The plants with a bushy growth habit make delicious flying saucer shaped fruits, 6 – 7 cm in diameter that are classed as summer squash (don’t store for more than 1-2 weeks). The skin of this variety is white and its flesh cream coloured and delicately flavoured. They are best harvested when young, this will encourage the plants to make lots more fruits too.
(Approximate seed count – 20)£2.95
