Week 42 - Bed 2

The plants in this bed are coming to an end, both of the remaining courgette plants have been struggling with disease for some time now.


We probably should have pulled this diseased plant out a while ago but we were interested to see how it would develop.

Week 39 - Bed 2

The two remaining courgette plants in this bed continue to produce, but very slowly.


A few small but tender courgettes are harvested from the relatively small Genovese Courgette plant each week.

The Nero di Milano Courgette is looking a bit healthier and the young fruit are less mottled that they have been in the past few weeks.

Week 38 - Bed 2

There is a fair amount of new growth on the Genovese Courgette, but the older leaves are in poor shape.

There is a remarkable number of young and immature flowers forming, and we have already picked 2 courgettes today.

The Nero di Milano Courgette does not look healthy, but it is still producing quite a number of new leaves and flowers.

When these plants are finished, we will add some fertility to the soil and plant some overwintering garlic, onions and peas.

Week 37 - Bed 2

The two remaining courgette plants have continued to grow and from a distance look healthy.

The light colored Genovese Courgette continues to produce a lot of fruit, and is reasonably healthy.

The darker fruited Nero di Milano Courgette still has a lot of mould on its older leaves, but the recent growth of younger leaves is less affected.

The Fruit seems to be affected by the mosaic virus, but the leaves are not showing clear symptoms. This plant will likely need to be removed and destroyed.

Week 35 - Bed 2

The Genovese Courgette has produced a number of fruits but remains quite small, and it has significant amount of white powdery mould on its leaves

The large Nero di Milano Courgette plant has been quite prolific, including a few marrow sized fruit, and also has mould on its leaves.

Mould is fairly common on courgettes and probably developed due to the deficient nutrient quality of the soil and the recent lack of rain.

The yellow courgette is not looking good at all and seems to be affected by a mosaic virus.

The distorted skin of fruit also points to a mosaic virus. This plant will probably not survive and should be pulled out to prevent infection spreading to the other courgettes.

Week 31 - Bed 2

The squash plant that used to occupy the south part of the bed (space in the foreground of photo) has disappeared without a trace! The courgette plants have grown reasonably well considering the wet summer so far, and are starting to fruit.

The Genovese Courgette is a smaller plant but still has several light skinned fruit forming.

The Nero di Milano Courgette is a larger plant with the first dark skinned fruit forming.

The Yellow Straightneck Courgette is not as strong and the fruits are starting to form.

Week 27 - Bed 2

The bed photographed from the south has a lot of room for the courgette and squash plants to grow.

The Nero di Milano courgette plant (second from the north end of the bed) is doing well and there is noticeable growth since last week.

A closeup of the center of the courgette plant shows the small flower buds starting to forms.

The Yellow Straightneck courgette at the north end of the bed is noticeably paler.

Week 26 - Bed 2

This is the healthiest of the courgette plants, the others are still suffering from being transplanted too late (not to mention the bad weather).

Week 23 - Bed 2 Planting

Four planting stations had been prepared the previous week, mixing in compost, with the rest of the bed remaining un-cultivated, but covered with cardboard (which has been in place for several months. A layer of horse manure was spread over the entire bed and then this was covered with one year old autumn leaves. Into the four prepared stations we transplanted 4 week old plants that had been started in pots:

• Red Uchiki Kuri Squash - a medium size winter variety with brilliant orange, tear drop shape smooth flesh fruit with sweet nutty taste.
• Genovese Courgette - a pale, early variety with fine lightly mottled green fruit.
• Nero di Milano Courgette - a dark green lightly mottled variety.
• Yellow Straightneck Courgette - an early maturing yellow variety with smooth yellow fruits.

A four week old courgette plant, just transplanted.