Cute Curcurbits



Green Bush Courgettes
Gold Rush Courgettes
Patty Pan Squash

 Don't you just love this family of veg.  They give of their best all through the growing season, and the patty pan squash, a new one for me, is a little beauty.  They are all prolific fruiters and of course anyone who grows them knows this, and I am sure we all have similar 'glut' problems of what to do with it all.  The vegetable marrow came from the Americas to Europe probably in the sixteenth century, but didn't reach Britain until the eighteenth.  Later cottage gardeners enthusiastically adopted it, not just to eat but to show off their gardening skills by growing huge specimens.  The courgette is a very recent introduction and it is simply a small marrow.  Trailing types can be grown over an archway or pergola or even an arbour in small gardens.  The cucumber which is part of this family was grown and introduced by the Romans, the Emperor Tiberius ordered that he should have one every day.  They were originally called 'Cowcumbers' and that if bowls of water were put under the fruit they would stretch and straighten to reach the water.
My butternut squash haven't done as well this year, on having a 'furtle' amongst the leaves this morning I found two tiny squashes about 2in long, so I doubt they will get to any size before the first frosts.