courgette bewilderment

[madamez]

Well I've somehow managed to grow some, but I'm not sure when I should pick and eat the. And isn't there soemthign edible one does with the flowers? And if a plant has produced 2 courgettes will it produce any more?
All this gardenign stuff is a bit incomprehensible to me. And all my lettuces have flowered which I think means I can't eat them.

You can pick and eat the courgettes when they are 20 -25cm long I guess. Leave them too long and they turn into marrows, which is what I tend to do!! The more you pick the more you get. We are sick of the damn things by the end of summer.

I wouldn't eat the bolted lettuces if I were you!!

YOu can stuff and fry courgette flowers - I've never tried it, but apparently it tastes v nice.

stuff with cream chees then frythem

They keep going till about the first frosts keep picking as if you let them grow to marrow it will slow down the growth of and new courgettes. They need lots of space as they get to be big plants. A bit plant food every few weeks and plenty of water they are thirsty plants.

They are thirsty all right. At the moment I have two planst, each sharing a tub with a lot of completely ballistic bolted lettuces. One courgette plant has produced two huge flowers and two (diddy so far but I am wathcing them) little courgettes with more buds. The other seems to be thinking about it.

Oooh, and can anyone advice on my sage plant, which seems to be suicidally depressed? Mostly looks dead but puts out a few reluctant green leaves now and again (which I promptly pick and dump into the chicken risotto).

ah good, courgette experts. mine have been badly mauled by snails and only one of them is putting out flowers, which drop off with no courgettes left behind. i don't think the others will survive i have bought another one but no flowers yet, do you think i have got the wrong sex or something? i know it matters in cucumbers. i even tried pollinating them myself but no fruits.

I had badly snail attacked plants in past years and they have growen to big plant with plenty of courgettes. Just try and stop the slugs and snails, feed, water and wait. It's still quite early for courgetts in less you have them in the green house.
The flower do fall but wait and more will come and you will get courgettes. This is about my 5th- 6th year growing courgettes slow branching off in other veg too but not really a gardener just experience has taught me with courgettes as they were the first veg I tried to grow.

try digging up the sage plant and bringing it onto a sunny windowsill inside for a bit of intensive care. Mine rallied and is now back outdoors and flourishing - a splash of baby bio too maybe?

or you could buy yourself a new sage for about 99p at a farmer's market, and immediately take cuttings. soon you will be wondering where to put them all.

Rip out your lettuce and plant some more, although lettuce do like a shadier spot than courgettes and the cougettes will get HUGE so maybe sow your lettuce elsewhere. Or plant Rocket with the courgettes, likes the sun and grows really fast.

TFB: someone suggested it's actually Not Safe to eat the lettuces when they've bolted.. is this true? Actually, my "lettuces" are mostly rocket and some frilly thing and a red thing - the packet said Mixed Leaves so I threw them all into a couple of pots with the courgette seeds... oh, and some tomato seeds which clearly didn't want to engage in the competition at all and have not done anything.

you can eat bolted lettuce but it tastes like it's been sprayed by the local tomcat

you can eat rocket flowers and stems, although I can't find any taste in them

having a crop come and go over by June is good gardening - well done. now start again and eat them this time, or if you aren't going to eat them then don't bother growing them!

TFB: I'm more of an Inadvertant Gardener. The packet said that the "mixed leaves`" would be pickable all summer, so I picked and ate quite happily - and then they all kind of went mental and flowered and exploded a bit faster than I thought they would. Maybe it's the compost my mum bought me - she did say it's super-compost...

You have to keep planting more to keep going all summer, plant some every week or 2 to have a constant supply