COURGETTES UNCOVERED

If you follow Martin Fish's advice and top tips you can expect a summer of copious courgettes, plus there's another succulent dish from wife Jill

- Martin Fish

Although courgettes have been grown on the continent for a long time, it wasn’t until the 1960s that they started to be grown more widely in the UK. As a child of the 60s I remember marrows being grown in my grandma’s garden but can’t remember seeing courgettes! Nowadays they are a very popular summer vegetable (technically a fruit), whereas the poor old marrow has taken a back seat and is grown much less. Marrows and courgettes are in fact the same and the courgette is simply an immature marrow with soft skin.

SOIL CONDITIONS

To grow well, courgettes like a sunny position and a fertile soil. Whether your soil is light and sandy or heavy clay, it always pays to add in some organic matter in the form of home-made compost, well-rotted manure or old potting compost when preparing the area. This will open up heavy soils to aid drainage and improve the moisture holding capacity of light, sandy soil. Just before planting, I also sprinkle a few handfuls of a general fertiliser such as Growmore or blood, fish and bone over the area to boost the nutrient levels in the soil.

SOWING AND PLANTING