With all this rain we’ve been having the last couple of days, followed by the sun, stuff in the garden has gone nuts. It’s my fave gardening time of year as there is so much to go outside and have a look at after work!
I’ve planted a couple of the usual bog standard ‘Defender’ courgette plants, just ‘cos they are so easy to grow and give lots of reward for very little effort. The other two plants are a pumpkin kinda-thing called a ‘Gourd.’ I see a lot of inedible ones which can be used for decoration, but this is a variety called ‘Uchiki Kuri,‘ and is more like a Squash than anything else, and can be eaten.
I think the thing that attracted me to this was the nice bright orange skin, but also its apparent nutty flavour. The fruits also store well, not that we will have a huge amount from the 1.2 by 2.4 metre bed dedicated to these little beauties.
The plants went in late as the bed was being used for early potatoes and Japanese Onions. It didn’t matter in the end, as the courgettes have pretty much caught up with anything i could have put in earlier. The Defender is above, while the Uchiki Kuri plant pics are below. I had to remove the flower yesterday and was worried that the first fruit of the season would rot, which would be good (mum!)…
I’m having to use canes to peg the plant inside the boundaries of the bed this year, so that it doesn’t disappear onto the slate or provide a ‘bridge’ for slugs and snails to cross the copper. In the bed also are a load of lettuce variety plants to fill the space while other stuff is growing, and 4 sweetcorn plants which are tall and growing nicely.
July 11th, 2008 at 4:10 am
very nice.
July 11th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
They look good, my courgetts suddenly seemed to take off a few weeks ago and now we’ve got far more than we can eat!
I’ve got apumpkin too, one donated by someone else on our site, I’ve got no idea what kind it is, or even what to do with it (feed it?) so I’m just letting it grow and seeing what happens… It’s starting to look like it may flower soon…
July 16th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Ta Deb! I would feed it Paul, old beer works good apparently, and those flowers stop the Mrs. from buying otehr flowers!
July 20th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
I have been trying to grow courgettes in the greenhouse however, the usual straight green ones are not producing although they have flowered but then fall off and no fruit behind. I also have some Tondo Di Piacenza courgette which is growing nicely however, I do not know when to harvest. They are now about the size of a golf ball and a branch behind it is beginning to develop. Do I cut it off now or wait a little longer?
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:14 am
Hi there, i’d let the ‘Tondo’ grow to about twice the size of a golfball, or you’ll never end up with enough to eat! The other plant…’Defender,’ i’m guessing, should come good within time. The ones without fruit behind them are male flowers, the ones with fruit behind are female. Have you tried feeding it with a liquid feed?
August 29th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Uchiki Kuri will climb so may be grown vertically which can be quite a space saver