Courgette All Green Bush

The British heritage courgette, reliable and entirely without pretension. All Green Bush has been a kitchen garden standard for decades because every plant produces a steady supply of dark green, faintly mottled fruits from July until the frosts.

Bush is the operative word. It forms a compact upright clump taking about a square metre, rather than the sprawling vines of the trailing varieties that can swallow six. That makes it far easier to net, to inspect and to harvest, and it is the reason this is the courgette for a small or medium garden.

Pick small and pick often. A fifteen-centimetre courgette eats like a different vegetable to a thirty-centimetre one, and leaving a few to grow large slows the whole plant down sharply. Most people end up picking three or four times a week through August, and two or three plants feed a household comfortably.