3 Squashes Every Gardener NEEDS To Grow

I absolutely love growing squash and there are three types I come back to every season that are easy to grow, productive, and incredible-tasting. One’s perfect for storing, one gives fruits all summer long and one is especially resistant to pests. What are they? Let’s dive in!

1. Butternut Squash

Beautifully bold butternuts are the crème de la crème of winter squashes! Sweet and nutty flesh with a distinctive texture that lends itself to everything from soups to stews to baking: Deeelicious!

My variety pick for this year is Waltham Butternut, with its smooth skin and fine-grained, deep orange flesh. This variety also stands up well to powdery mildew, which is a common issue with many squash plants. What a trouper!

All squashes love a sunny position and, of course, extra-rich soil, so improve your planting area with plenty of compost prior to planting to supercharge growth.

There are two options for growing these guys: let them sprawl along the ground, or train them up onto supports. I like growing butternut squash up obelisks because that means I can plant them a bit closer – about 2ft (60cm) apart, rather than 4ft or (1.2 m) – so it makes better use of the space I have, and it gives a really rather stunning vertical accent.

I add a half bucket of garden compost into each planting position along with a generous handful of blood, fish and bonemeal, then scoop out a hole, pop in the plant, and gently fill back around it with soil.

If you saw my recent video on growing courgettes you’ll know what comes next – build up the soil in a ring around each plant to create a bowl shape that will capture water and funnel it down to the roots.

The vines will produce tendrils that help them grab onto support, but I still tie them onto my obelisks as they start to grow just to help them up and on their way. The obelisks are made of metal which is hard for squashes to grip at the start, so tying them in really helps, but if you’re growing them up something that has a naturally rougher texture (such as wooden trellis), your vines should be able to find their own way up a lot more easily.

Butternut squashes are really vigorous, which makes them a reliable choice for most climates – even mine! Each plant should produce up to four fruits weighing in at up to about 4 lb (2 kg). They’ll be ready to enjoy from autumn, right at the end of the season, and they’ll store for up to six months, meaning delicious fruits right through to the following spring.

2. Patty Pan Squash

My next pick is the patty pan or scallop squash, so called for its scalloped edges and slightly flatter form – kind of like mini flying saucers! They’re a lot smaller than butternuts, and because these are summer squash (like courgettes), we can expect to harvest fruits throughout the summer months. They’ll keep on pumping out fruits so long as we keep harvesting them.

Patty pan squashes are highly prolific, and both flesh and skin make great eating, so there’s no need to peel them. The plants have more a compact growing habit than butternuts, which makes them ideal for growing in containers or where space is more limited.

Patty pans are commonly available with pale green, yellow, or white fruits. They’re all charming and magnificent as far as I’m concerned! I’ve opted for a yellow variety called Sunbeam this season, which has a rich, almost creamy flesh and, like most patty pans, is more tolerant mildew than your average summer squash.

Space is tight in my main vegetable garden, so I’m planting patty pan squashes in containers to add a bit of cheer on my patio. Into the bottom of each container I add some rough, part-decomposed compost (just to save on potting mix), then a layer of torn-up comfrey leaves for the roots to grow down to. Comfrey is rich in nutrients, including potassium for flower and fruit development, so this really gives plants a boost. On top of that I add standard potting mix, which I’ve cut 50:50 with fully mature garden compost to help support all that growth. And finally, I blend in a handful of blood, fish and bonemeal at the top.

Like all squash family plants, pollination is best when there are at least two squashes flowering nearby, so plant up two or three containers and place them close together so that bees can easily flit between the flowers of different plants and help those fruits to set. Make sure they’re in a sunny spot, and keep them well watered. You should expect the first fruits in just six to eight weeks.

Harvest fruits nice and young to keep them coming. Patty pans have a denser flesh than courgettes, which makes them ideal for slicing, grilling, or even stuffing. They’re also great with meats, grains and pasta.

3. Red Kuri Squash

Have I saved the best til last? I reckon so! Red Kuri (also known as Uchiki Kuri) has a vibrant, bright orange skin, and inside is super-intense, dense flesh that translates to epic flavours. Try it in curries, casseroles, or even in pies, tarts and breads. This is the poster girl of the squash catwalk! I’m probably getting a bit carried away but, trust me, if you’ve not tried it, you’re in for a treat!

Red Kuri is a Japanese-bred variety of winter squash that produces handsome, portion-friendly, teardrop-shaped fruits with a sweet and nutty, creamy golden flesh. It will store for months and is a great source of so many good things, from vitamins A and C to fibre. Lovely!

As with other squashes, make sure the soil you’re growing in is nice and rich, with plenty of compost added. They can be planted about 3 feet (1 m) apart to give them plenty of space, though they’ll soon grow into each other. And finally, bank up those little bowls of soil around them to capture water.

I can’t tell you how much I agonised over this third squash by the way. For me, it was a close call between Red Kuri and Crown Prince, an equally tasty, dense-fleshed winter squash with a dusky, glaucous skin. So if you can’t find Red Kuri or Uchiki Kuri, get yourself a few Crown Prince – my honorary fourth top squash today!

All being well, you can expect around five to six fruits from each Red Kuri plant, which is pretty impressive when you think about it. Once they’re ripe and the vines die back in the autumn, right at the end of the season, they can be cured and then stored for months.

How to Sow Squash Seeds

If you haven’t already got squash plants growing, don’t worry – you can still sow them up until early summer in many areas. Because it’s nice and warm at this time of year you can sow them direct where they’re to grow. Just prepare your planting areas with compost as described above, then nestle a couple of seeds into each spot, on their edges and about an inch (3 cm) deep. Water them well and keep them moist to coax them to germinate as soon as possible. They’re astonishingly fast-growing, and within just two weeks will already have grown into ready-to-take-off fat young seedlings.

Choosing my favourite squashes was tough! Each variety has its own very special character and uses, so deciding which ones work best for you is very personal. Perhaps you have a completely different set of squashes that make your top three? Let me know which ones in the comments below!

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