• Courgettes like a fertile soil. Add compost and a general fertiliser a week or two before sowing/transplanting.
• Sow seeds indoors (in a tunnel, glasshouse or a sunny windowsill) in 10cm pots at a depth of 2cm in late April or May.
• The seeds are large and germinate and grow quickly, so don’t put them in modules or very small pots.
• Also, don’t sow too early as courgettes are frost sensitive and hate cold weather, so you don’t want them ready for transplanting before May.
• Seeds can be sown direct into the soil in May, but this tends to be less successful than transplanting.

Grow

• Courgettes should be ready for transplanting in May.
• Space plants at least 60-80cm apart.
• Courgettes are often transplanted through a ground cover, like perforated plastic. This helps conserve water in the soil and suppresses weeds.
• Courgettes like the soil moist, so don’t let the soil dry out.

Harvest

• Courgettes can be harvested at any stage from small fruits (6cm long) with flowers on upwards.
• Male flowers (those with no fruit behind them) can also be harvested.
• The more you pick, the more fruit the plant will produce.
• Don’t leave big marrows on the plant, as it will reduce the production of new fruits.