I have always failed to be first at anything and make an art of being behind, so why change that behaviour with courgettes? It is the one summer vegetable that, once you’ve cleared the windowsills of everything else, you can finally get round to sowing with little worry that other people are already boasting of putting theirs outside. The most flavoursome courgettes are small, and they will come quickly with lengthening days and warmer nights.
You can even sow outside, direct into the soil, if you want, though I’d wait until the first week of June to do so. If you’re sowing indoors or in a greenhouse, then sow one seed in a 9cm pot or larger. Their roots are so quick at racing to the bottom that you don’t want to be repotting.
If sowing outside, there’s the gamble of slugs, snails and errant beastly weather, so sow three seeds each on their sides, to prevent rotting off, a few centimetres apart. Water in and cover with a large jam jar or cloche; leave this on for as long as you can. You’ll need to thin to the strongest seedling once you have the first true leaf.
If you are sowing in containers outdoors, you never want more than one courgette plant per pot. They are hungry things and need the equivalent of a king-size bed to themselves. The bigger the pot, the more courgette you’ll get. Often, if the weather is cold, then you get only male flowers, and thus no fruit. If you get young fruit but it falls off, this is poor pollination. Be patient: the weather will change, the bees will come.
Courgettes should be somewhere between 60-90cm apart from their nearest neighbour. Once the plants are established and have put on a little growth, it is well worth mulching. Grass clippings are great, as is well-rotted compost, leaf mould or farmyard manure. Straw can also be used, but it does tend to harbour slugs in wet years. Once the plants start to flower, it is worth feeding them, particularly if they are not growing vigorously. Comfrey or seaweed feed is ideal. You can also feed again at the end of the summer if growth is slowing down.
There are hundreds of varieties, but yellow-skinned ones are firmer and said to have more flavour: try Burpee’s Golden Zucchini. For pot culture, ‘Supremo’, ‘Midnight’ and ‘Romanesco’ are compact in size. If you are a fan of stuffed courgette flowers, then you want ‘Da Fiore Toscana’, which produces mainly male flowers and very few fruit, ensuring many pickings.
