Cucurbita pepo 'Zucchini' is a Half-Hardy Annual and the archetypal courgette variety — the Italian word zucchini (the diminutive of zucca, meaning gourd) describes the fruit at its finest, harvested small and young before the seeds develop and the skin toughens. It is a bush-habit plant rather than a trailing vine, producing a compact, upright crown of large, deeply lobed leaves on hollow stems from which the fruits and flowers emerge in rapid succession throughout the summer.

Monoecious Flowering: Like cucumbers, courgettes produce separate male and female flowers on the same plant. Male flowers appear first, often a week or two before female flowers, and cannot produce fruit — they exist solely to provide pollen. Female flowers are distinguished by a tiny, immature courgette at their base. Both are edible, but harvesting female flowers does reduce fruit yield. In poor weather when pollinators are scarce, you can pollinate by hand — simply remove a male flower, fold back the petals to expose the pollen-covered stamen, and brush it gently inside a fully open female flower.

Prolific by Nature: A healthy, well-watered 'Zucchini' plant at the height of summer is one of the most productive plants in the kitchen garden — a single established plant can yield three to five fruits per week at its peak. This productivity is the reason courgettes have achieved almost legendary status as a generous crop, and why leaving even a single fruit to grow unnoticed can result in a marrow of surprising dimensions within a few days.

Courgettes are among the fastest and most satisfying crops to grow from seed — quick to germinate, rapid to establish, and extraordinarily generous once the season gets underway.

How to Sow:
Sow indoors from late April to mid-May. Sow seeds individually into 7–9cm pots of good-quality seed compost, placing each seed on its edge approximately 2cm deep. Sowing on the edge prevents rotting at the seed's base. Maintain a temperature of 18–25°C for germination, which typically occurs within 5–7 days. Courgette seedlings grow fast — pot on into larger containers as soon as roots begin to circle the base of the pot, and handle the rootball gently as they dislike disturbance.

Transplanting:
Plant out after the last frost from late May to early June, following a thorough hardening-off period of 10–14 days. Space plants generously — at least 60–90cm apart, as the large, spreading leaf canopy of a mature plant needs significant room. Prepare the planting hole with a bucketful of well-rotted compost or manure — courgettes are among the hungriest and thirstiest plants in the kitchen garden, and investing in soil preparation at planting time pays back in fruit quality and yield throughout the season.

Ongoing Care:
Water deeply and consistently at the base of the plant — courgettes need large amounts of water to support their rapid growth and abundant fruiting, and irregular watering causes bitter fruits and poor setting. A thick mulch around the base of each plant helps retain moisture and keeps the large leaves from sitting on bare, drying soil. Feed weekly with a high-potassium liquid fertiliser once the first fruits begin to swell. Remove any fruits that have been missed and allowed to grow large — they drain the plant's energy and suppress further production.

Harvesting:
Begin harvesting courgette fruits from June to July, depending on planting date, and continue until the first frosts of autumn. Harvest at 15–20cm for best flavour and texture, cutting cleanly with a sharp knife. Check plants daily — fruits grow with remarkable speed in warm weather. For flowers, harvest male blooms in the morning when fully open, leaving the female flowers to develop into fruits. A plant visited daily and harvested regularly will produce continuously for three to four months.

'Zucchini' needs warmth, generous pollinator activity, and consistent moisture — these companions from our range deliver all three while making the productive garden look as beautiful as any flower border in high summer:

• 🌼 Borage: The Pollination Specialist. Borage is the single most important companion plant for courgettes and all cucurbit crops. Its electric-blue flowers are irresistible to bumblebees — the primary pollinators of courgette flowers — and a generous clump of Borage planted nearby creates a continuous stream of bee activity around the courgette flowers throughout the day. Poor fruit set, where the plant flowers abundantly but produces few fruits, is almost always a pollination failure, and Borage resolves it reliably. The visual contrast of Borage's rough blue flowers and silver-green leaves against the bold, architectural courgette foliage is genuinely striking — and the edible blue flowers taste distinctly of cucumber, making them an outstanding companion garnish alongside the courgette flowers on a summer plate.
• 🌼 Nasturtium 'Tom Thumb': The Pest Decoy. Nasturtiums are a classic and well-evidenced companion for courgettes — their pungent foliage deters the aphids and whitefly that target cucurbit crops, and as a trap crop they draw blackfly with remarkable effectiveness away from the more valuable courgette plants. Their vivid orange and red flowers at ground level beneath the bold courgette canopy above create one of the most dramatic colour contrasts in the summer kitchen garden — and the edible Nasturtium flowers alongside courgette flowers in a tempura batter makes one of the finest summer starters a kitchen garden can produce.
• 🧡 Calendula 'Art Shades Mixed': The Beneficial Insect Bank. Calendula planted around the edges of the courgette bed sustains a continuous population of hoverflies and parasitic wasps whose larvae prey on the aphids and spider mites that trouble cucurbit foliage in warm, dry weather. The warm apricot and amber tones of Art Shades create a beautifully warm palette alongside the deep green courgette fruits and the golden trumpet flowers — three plants sharing a colour story of green, gold, and amber that looks entirely deliberate in a cottage potager. All three flowers — Calendula, Borage, and courgette — are edible, making this the most garnish-rich corner of the kitchen garden.
• 🌿 Basil Classic Italian: The Italian Kitchen Garden. Courgette and basil are cornerstones of the same culinary tradition — both peak simultaneously in midsummer, both belong to the Italian kitchen as naturally as olive oil and Parmesan, and both thrive in warm, sunny, well-watered conditions. Basil's aromatic oils deter the aphids and whitefly that target courgette foliage, and the kitchen argument for growing them together is overwhelming: courgette flowers stuffed with ricotta, lemon zest, and torn fresh basil and fried in light batter is one of the finest dishes the summer kitchen garden produces, and growing both together means the ingredients are always at their peak simultaneously.

Sow indoors in late April for transplanting in late May — then enjoy a continuous harvest of both glossy dark fruits and spectacular golden flowers from June right through to the first frosts of autumn.