Squashes

Summer or winter, classic orange, green or cream, speckled or striped – squashes are healthy to eat and easy to grow. Graham Rice recommends options for all

- Graham Rice

SQUASHES are an entertainingly mixed group. From pattypans to pumpkins – with the traditional British marrow thrown into the mix – these members of the cucumber family are certainly diverse, but they do share some common characteristics.

First, they’re good to eat. Second, in spite of the fact that some of them are called winter squashes, all are frost-tender plants that grow strongly from early summer until the frost.

Sown outside (or sown indoors in pots and then planted out), all will develop large, rough foliage, and both bushy and trailing types can take up a great deal of space, although some modern varieties are refreshingly neat and compact.

Summer or winter

You can group squashes, roughly, into two. Summer squashes, which include marrows, are either eaten fresh straight off the plant or kept for no more than a month or two. Winter squashes, meanwhile, are harvested in autumn and stored for winter use. They include both the Halloween pumpkin and the monster pumpkin of Guinness World Records fame. However, there are many different types.

Halloween pumpkins are easy to grow. Commercially, they’re cultivated in ordinary farm fields without the preparation that we can provide in the garden. Thorough prep is worth it, though, as it will enable you to grow more pumpkins from fewer plants in a smaller space.