planting and growing squash and courgettes

Published byJamieoliver.com | May 19, 2009 | In News | No Comments »

Story by Pete Wrapson

/>Pete Wrapson, Jamie's gardener</div> <p> This week we polished off the last of our stored squashes. I made a fine risotto and a beautifully sweet soup. Kept somewhere cool and dry, some squashes, such as butternut or my own particular favourite, ‘Crown Prince’, will keep a remarkably long time, given that they were harvested way back in September, when their rampant vines and huge leaves still covered much of the vegetable plot. </p> <p>Getting all botanical for a moment, despite the huge variation in their colour, size and shape and the many different names we give them, all squashes, pumpkins, courgettes (zucchini) and marrows are in fact closely related, deriving from just four species in the genus Cucurbita. The pumpkin is just a type of squash; courgettes are simply immature marrows. The wider family includes melons and cucumbers, but these are the only ones native to the Old World.</p> <p>It wasn’t until Columbus sailed to the Americas that Europeans began to become acquainted with the others. The Native Americans of Massachusetts taught the pilgrim fathers about the cultivation of squashes after the settlers, ignorant of which plants were edible in this strange new land, suffered terrible losses in their first winter. This is why pumpkin pie often features in the meal eaten at Thanksgiving, the festival that commemorates their survival. The indigenous Americans have a clever way of cultivating their pumpkins, which they call the ‘Three Sisters’. Maize, climbing beans and pumpkins – all American in origin – are grown together. The pumpkins ramble across the ground, shading out weeds, the maize provides the beans with something to climb and the beans add nitrogen to the soil for the others to use. It’s a great system but harder to replicate here, since the modern garden cultivars of maize are not really tall enough for the beans. I tried it with some Bolivian maize seed one year and ended up with plants 12 ft tall, which worked just fine.</p> <p>In Britain, May is the main month for sowing courgettes and squash. Seeds can be started off indoors in pots but it’s wise to delay planting them out until early June when, in theory at least, there should be no more frosts (the plants are not frost-hardy). If frost does threaten, the best thing to do is to cover them overnight with horticultural fleece, or even a big plant pot. Outdoor-sown seeds should only go in the ground towards the end of the month so that, again, they miss any final cold snap. It’s best to buy squash seeds from a catalogue or garden centre because although the seeds from a supermarket fruit will grow they may well have come from abroad and the variety may not be so suited to the cooler British climate.</p> <p>The first courgettes should be ready for picking in July; squash for winter storage will not be properly ripe until September or October and do best in a warm summer. Courgettes are more reliable and are usually prolific. It’s nice to have a mix of varieties – dark green, light green, yellow and striped ridged ones are all available. Three plants should be sufficient for a family of four. Even so, there always seems to be a couple of weeks each year where it’s impossible to keep up with them, in which case a good tactic is to start eating the flowers. A delicacy in their own right, they can be stuffed, then battered and deep-fried. Regular picking ensures a continuing supply but it’s important to be thorough when you check the plants, as it’s all too easy to miss one and then discover an enormous green zeppelin lurking there a few days later. </p> <p>I know size isn’t everything, but if you do fancy a shot at growing a monster, then the variety you want is a pumpkin called ‘Atlantic Giant’, though the bar has been set rather high: in 2007 a man from Rhode Island grew a pumpkin that weighted in at 766 kilos!</p> <p>© Peter Wrapson 2009</p> <p>About the Author: Pete Wrapson is a very experienced gardener who lovingly takes care of Jamie’s garden in Essex. To find out more about how to cook courgettes then check out Jamie's videos on how to make <a href=courgette chips, courgette risotto and courgette salad.

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