Climbing courgettes

Climbing courgettes

We eat quite a lot of courgettes during the summer and autumn, in addition to slicing and freezing a lot for use in winter stews etc. So we can easily use a 150-200 pieces.

At the same time, the kitchen garden has been redesigned in the last few years with better space between the beds and thus somewhat less total cultivation area. The courgettes should no longer be allowed to spread as they see fit at the expense of other crops, which we do not exactly want to have less of. So the courgettes have been given 2 small beds of 0.75m2 each - and they just have to get used to it.

But luckily the kitchen garden is three-dimensional - so when you can not spread either way or the other way, you can then choose the third way: upwards!

So you have to try climbing courgettes. The dark green black Forest has been on the market for several years, while the yellow Shooting Star is shown fairly new.

The weather forecast is ready for planting today (after a softening), where a hole has been dug for each plant and filled with compost and a sprinkle of eggshells to counteract stinging rot.

The tubes are for watering later in the season so the drops reach the roots rather than bouncing off the leaves. Then, at the end of the season, it can be compared to the yield of common horizontal-growing varieties that were planted in the same place last year - 128 came into being, and that was not enough!

Written by Peter Norris, May 12, 2018