Italian courgettes offer beauty, flavour, and abundance in the summer Cornish garden. Discover how to grow them from seed — with tips on soil prep, watering, harvesting, and the joy of edible flowers.
There’s something utterly joyful about growing courgettes — especially the Italian kind. They’re never shy. They arrive with wide, brash leaves, golden flowers opening to the morning light, and fruit that swells almost audibly overnight. One moment you’re admiring a glossy green shape just forming under a bloom, and by the end of the week, it’s ready for the kitchen.
These are plants for gardeners who like to be rewarded, and in a Cornish garden, where long daylight hours and warm, sheltered spots abound by midsummer, Italian courgettes thrive.
Courgettes can be sown directly outdoors once the weather turns, but to get a head start in Cornwall’s changeable spring, it’s best to begin indoors. April is the traditional time, but anytime through May is fine too — just allow for two to four weeks before your last expected frost.
Fill 7.5–9cm pots with seed compost and tuck a single seed into each, placed sideways, around 2cm deep. This small detail — the sideways position — helps prevent rotting, particularly if compost stays too wet in early spring.
Keep the pots warm, ideally around 18–21°C on a sunny windowsill or in a propagator. Within a week, two seed leaves will push through. A few days later, the plant will unfurl its first true leaves, and from there, growth is swift.
Once the roots begin to outgrow their pots and the threat of frost has passed (late May to early June in most Cornish gardens), it’s time to transplant.
Courgettes adore warmth and sunshine. Choose the sunniest, most sheltered spot you have — by a garden wall, along the edge of a south-facing bed, or tucked into a well-composted no-dig border. These are hungry, thirsty plants. Their Mediterranean roots mean they need good drainage and good moisture retention.
Before planting, prepare the soil. Courgettes thrive when the ground has been enriched weeks in advance with well-rotted manure or compost — one to two bucketfuls per square metre. For heavy clay soil, lighten it with sand or grit. For sandy soils, enrich with extra compost.
In the final planting holes, create what’s often called a “pocket” of goodness: mix equal parts compost, well-rotted manure, and soil. Plant each seedling at least 60–90cm apart — the leaves will reach far, and air needs to circulate freely to prevent mildew.
Italian courgettes grow fast. Once they settle in, they stretch outwards with vigour — almost like vines, especially in the case of Tromboncino, a charming climbing variety that prefers a trellis or sturdy fence to wander across.
Watering should be regular and generous, especially once flowering begins. Always water at the base of the plant, not over the leaves — this helps prevent the powdery mildew that often creeps in during muggy Cornish weeks.
Mulch is a friend here. Lay compost, bark, or straw around the plants (but not touching the stems) to conserve moisture and suppress weeds. This will also help stabilise the soil temperature during fluctuating weather.
Once flowering begins and the first fruits start to form, feed plants every 10–14 days with a high-potash liquid fertiliser — tomato feed works perfectly. This boosts fruit production and supports flower development.
One of the delights of Italian courgettes is that both the fruit and the flowers are edible. The male flowers, which grow on slender stalks and don’t form fruit, can be picked and used fresh — stuffed with ricotta, dipped in batter and fried, or scattered raw into summer salads.
Fruits can be harvested young — around 15–20cm long — for the most tender, sweet flavour. In fact, regular picking is encouraged. If you turn your back for even a few days, the plants will shift their energy into growing marrows.
During high season, you may find yourself picking every 2–3 days. Keep a knife or pair of scissors in your trug — snapping the stems can damage the plant.
Even in a well-cared-for Cornish plot, there are a few things to watch for:
Italian courgettes aren’t just productive — they bring diversity and flavour to the summer kitchen:
Grow more than one variety if you can. The differences in taste and texture make for a varied harvest — grilled, spiralised, roasted, or eaten raw.
Growing courgettes in a Cornish garden is a lesson in attention and timing. These plants respond to care with abundance. Give them warmth, space, and rich soil, and they’ll repay you daily with something to pick, cook, or admire.
They are, perhaps more than most vegetables, a plant of rhythm. They remind us to check the garden often, to water in the morning, to visit in the evening. And by August, with armfuls of glossy fruit and a garden buzzing with life, the rewards feel endless.
