SQUASH

Squash (also called zucchini or courgettes) are funny plants. I planted two of them in my kitchen garden, but only one has sprouted. I have been following its development closely.

It's a pretty big seed - though still small in comparison with the end product - and you plant it a bit deeper than normal. Not much happens for a while, until something pokes through the soil. That then divides into five or six different stems; though there is still not much happening. Eventually, however, those stems turn into big leaves, a bit like rhubarb. At which point, big yellow flowers start breaking out. They only last a day or so; but when they wither, they provide the starting point for the actual thing that you eat.

I have had a half dozen or so flowers to date, and the first one has turned into a real squash, which I picked today. I took the opportunity to harvest all my carrots, some of which were huge, took up the last of the lettuces and pruned the rhubarb. All that's left in the kitchen garden now is the rest of the squash, the rhubarb plant (which will sit there for years) and a single budding leek, the only survivor of two rows of seeds.

Someone gave my wife some squash from their garden over the weekend, so I packed mine up with two large carrots and the lettuce, and took it round to my mother-in-law, who was very pleased with the gift. She promised to bake a squash cake, which I will probably get invited to share sometime over the weekend.

Walter Blotscher