Don’t you just love these plants!  The speed with which they grow, the versatile meals that they help make. The fact that they can be grown in containers or large pots a bonus. It was a love affair from the start with these plants. We started growing them over 30 years ago, and have done so ever since.

 They are some of the simplest seeds to grow and certainly some of the fastest. Some gardeners will soak the seeds overnight before planting. However, this is not essential as once they are planted and watered in the same thing occurs.

Plant them in pots or trays and grow on for approximately 4 to 6 weeks until they are big enough to be hardened off and plant outside. Choose a large container if you plan to grow them on a patio or balcony.  Alternatively, provided the weather and soil temperatures are warm enough, plant the seeds directly into the garden. Doing this requires monitoring, as the hungry slugs will eat anything that is fresh and tasty. The slug bait is a necessity in stopping this. 

Growing them indoors allows an early start to the season. They are ready to be hardened off once they have the two initial leaves and the third just starting. All hardening off is putting the trays or pots outside and slowly extending the time, they spend out side before planting into garden. 

Courgette plants grow readily in most good soils, but in less pleasing surrounds, they will most certainly require fertilizers or a good compost mix. An overabundance of  compost that has not rotted will produce huge leaves at the expense of the fruit. They will need a good space between plants, as the leaves are very big. Plant in a good sized container if going down that road. 

Once in the garden as they almost grow before your eyes and within two or three weeks the fruit starts to appear. If it is early in the season, you can help fertilize the fruit by brushing the pollen from the male plants on to the female. The male plant is the one with the long stalk; the female is the one with making of a small fruit. 

Once the fruit start to form they really need to be watered most days but with out overdoing it. When picking begins it really needs to be thorough and is best done in the early morning. The reason for this, the fruit will be cool and firm. Overlook a fruit for 24 hours the next day it will be on its way to a marrow.

Everything about this plant apart from the leaves and stalks is edible, from the flowers, progressing from smallest fruit, zucchini through the courgette stage to a marrow. The larger 4-6inch fruit a courgette, and the forgotten fruit a marrow. The marrows grow rather large if they remain on the plant to the detriment of the growing fruit. Container plants require a liquid fertilizer every 2-3 weeks while growing.

A recipe I eat all summer is as follows

Slice zucchini/courgettes into a pan, and sauté in butter for a few minutes or your preference. Add garlic flakes/fresh while in the pan. Put in flat ovenproof dish, cover with cheese and grill until brown. Yummy!