Zucchini (summer squash)

One zucchini plant, honestly managed, feeds two people from July through September. It earns a 15 to 20 gallon bag or a bed corner and repays the space in absurd volume.

Growing

Direct sow in late May, or start peat pots three to four weeks ahead in late April, since squash sulk when their roots are disturbed. One plant per 15 to 20 gallon bag, or in ground with compost worked deep; it is a hungry plant and says so with pale leaves and a stalled counter. Water deeply at the base rather than overhead; overhead watering wastes half of it and splashes soil-borne disease up onto the leaves. Pick at six to eight inches every day or two; miss three days and the result is a club and a pause in production.

Varieties

Dunja and Green Machine are productive and shrug off mildew longer; Costata Romanesco trades some yield for the best flavor of the type.

Pests

Squash vine borer is the killer: the moth lays at the stem base in early summer, and the first symptom is a wilted plant with sawdust frass at the soil line. Wrap the lower stem in foil at planting or keep row cover on until flowering, and tuck in one insurance sowing at the end of June; the borers fly early, and a later plant usually escapes the worst. Striped cucumber beetles and squash bugs turn up too; crush the bronze egg clusters and drop adults into soapy water.

In the kitchen

Grilled in planks, grated into fritters, and folded into bread when the counter overflows. The blossoms are a crop of their own if picked male and early.