As spectacular as they are productive, summer squash occupy a special place in our vegetable gardens. Explanations with Hervé Michel, landscaper in Langres, Haute-Marne.
Apart from the southern regions, they are of fairly recent introduction. In the past, winter squash was mainly grown, harvested when ripe before frost to serve as a winter staple in soups and stews.
It has been at most a generation since summer cultivation became widespread throughout France, first with long green courgettes. Then the shapes and colors diversified:round, yellow, white, even variegated zucchini.
And, in recent years, patisson has become a fashionable vegetable. Its tormented shape has earned it many evocative names:priest's cap, elector's cap, imperial crown, Jerusalem artichoke... It is classically white, but there are other varieties:variegated (green and white), orange, yellow or almost black green. Zucchini hybrid varieties have invaded catalogs. If this allows professionals to have better calibrated products, it is not really interesting for the amateur gardener, especially since traditional courgettes are at least as productive. To maintain diversity, amateur gardeners should therefore seek out these old varieties.
The growth rate of cucurbits is truly amazing:in a few weeks, they occupy a considerable volume and space with their almost tropical vegetation. They are greedy:bring them at least two buckets of good compost at their feet.
As they are chilly, they should only be sown or planted when all risk of morning coolness has passed. To save time, it is best to install young plants. This limits weeding.
The bushy varieties are planted with a spacing of 1 m to 1.20 m, the trailing varieties at 1 m x 2 m. They are also very thirsty, who need a very regular water supply. To keep the soil fresh, weed quickly, hoe then spread abundant mulch between the plants. Do not water anyhow! Wet the foliage as little as possible, as this favors diseases (oidium, mildew).
And don't water at the end of the day while the plant or soil is still warm. This could cause the fruit to sag. Water preferably at the foot (channel or drop-by-drop) abundantly, late in the evening or in the morning before the big heat.
In the countryside, we have sometimes kept the habit of harvesting the largest possible fruits. They are then hard, the flesh fibrous and the seeds formed. To have tender and tasty fruits, they must be harvested at an early stage.
Very small, when the flower is still attached to the fruit, they are delicious raw, or stewed whole. A little bigger, no need to remove the skin, just pass them in water, remove the ends and cook them in a pan with garlic and Provencal herbs. You can make donuts or stuff the big flowers. It is necessary to use for this only the male flowers, which do not bear fruits. They are those that are located at the end of a long peduncle.
As they take up a lot of space in the garden, they can be combined with other plants. Lettuces planted at the same time as the zucchini will be ready to harvest before they take up all the space. You can also make an association in height:corn or sunflower between the courgette plants, for example in pockets of 3 or 4 sown in staggered rows with respect to the courgette plants. And, for the pleasure of the eyes, you can install fairly tall tufts of flowers between the courgette plants (Nicotinia, Zinnias, Cléomes, etc.) by choosing fairly tall varieties (from 70 cm).
Not everyone is lucky enough to have a vegetable garden. If the latter is essential to ensure real production, the pleasure of growing vegetables and eating them can still be found on a simple balcony, Both a technical guide and a suggestion box, this little book presents such beautiful compositions so tasty.
Also read :What if your balcony became a vegetable garden?
