SUPER SOUASHES

Every garden should make space for squashes but with so many to choose from and so many ways to grow them, where to begin? Benedict Vanheems gets us started

- Benedict Vanheems

At a recent dinner party someone offered the most unusual conversation starter: If you were a vegetable, what would you be? I chose garlic, not because I stink, but because of the pungent bulb's total deliciousness and punch of flavour - yum! And our host? She chose winter squash.

I was thinking about this while weeding the other day and I can see her logic. Winter squashes encapsulate the excitement of growing your own, only cranked up to volume 11. They have bags of character - who wouldn't want a 'Crown Prince' at the dinner table? And they can be turned into just about any culinary treat, making for a truly flexible friend in the kitchen.

WINTER OR SUMMER?

Squashes come in two types: winter and summer. Summer squashes are cut as soon as they reach a useable size, in summer, for immediate enjoyment. They have a thinner, softer skin and often lighter flesh. Winter squashes, on the other hand, are left to fully mature then gathered up all at once at the end of the growing season to store and enjoy over winter. Their ripened-to-maturity state means they have a harder skin and typically denser flesh.

Courgettes are essentially a type of summer squash, while autumn-harvested pumpkins come under the umbrella of winter squashes. Between picking in summer and storing over winter and well into spring, it is possible to have squashes to savour almost year round.

One of the greatest joys of growing squashes is the near universe of varieties to choose from, all pretty much guaranteed to pep up the garden with their muscular foliage and fancy fruits. Choose from moody winter squashes with steely grey skin and a deep orange heart, to flying-saucer-shaped patty pan summer squashes that'll give a welcome break from the common-or-garden green courgette.

Sprawling types can be trained onto obelisks or archways with dramatic effect, creating a stunning centrepiece. Squashes, in short, deserve to be celebrated!