If you want a vegetable that almost guarantees success in Missoula, grow summer squash. Zucchini and its relatives are some of the most productive, forgiving crops you can put in the ground here. They grow fast, they handle our season easily, and most years the only real problem is keeping up with the harvest. The running joke about leaving zucchini on neighbors’ porches exists for a reason.
Variety choice with summer squash is less about beating frost and more about flavor, plant size, and how much you want to deal with. Almost all of them mature quickly enough for our season, so you can pick based on what you actually like to eat and how much room you have.
Plant After the Soil Warms
Squash is a warm-season crop, so the one rule that matters is to wait for warm soil. These seeds want the ground around 60 degrees, which in Missoula usually means planting after our average last frost around May 19 and giving the soil another week to warm. Seeds in cold soil rot easily, so there is no benefit to rushing.
Once they are up and the weather is warm, summer squash grows fast. Most varieties go from seed to first harvest in around 50 days, which leaves plenty of room before our first fall frost around September 22. You can direct seed them or set out transplants for a slightly earlier start.
Best Zucchini Varieties
Zucchini is the most popular summer squash for good reason. It is productive and versatile.
Black Beauty is the classic dark green zucchini, reliable and heavy-producing. It is a safe first choice and easy to find. Raven is similar with a slightly richer flavor and a compact, productive plant. Costata Romanesco is an Italian heirloom with ribbed, pale-striped fruit and noticeably better flavor than standard zucchini, though the plants are larger and a bit less productive. If flavor is your priority and you have the space, it is worth growing.
For smaller gardens, look for bush-type zucchini bred to stay compact. They give you the same harvest in far less space, which matters in a raised bed.
Yellow Squash and Patty Pans
Summer squash is more than zucchini. Yellow crookneck and straightneck varieties have a slightly sweeter, more delicate flavor and add color to the harvest basket. They grow just as easily as zucchini here.
Patty pan squash, the little scalloped, flying-saucer shaped ones, are worth growing for both looks and taste. Varieties like Sunburst, a bright yellow patty pan, are productive and pick beautifully when small. They hold up well on the grill and roast nicely, and they are a fun one if you have kids in the garden.
The Secret Is Picking Often
The most important thing with summer squash has nothing to do with variety. It is harvesting. Squash tastes best and the plant produces most when you pick the fruit small, zucchini around six to eight inches, patty pans when they are a couple of inches across. Left on the plant, they balloon into watery, seedy baseball bats, and worse, a few oversized fruit tell the plant it is done and it slows down production.
In peak summer, check your plants every day or two. They produce that fast. Picking constantly keeps the plant cranking out tender new squash for weeks, which is exactly the problem you want to have.
Give squash full sun, rich soil with compost worked in, and steady water, and it will reward you generously. The big leaves wilt dramatically in afternoon heat and usually perk back up by evening, so do not panic and overwater. Water deeply at the base in the morning instead.
If you want help fitting squash and the rest of your crops into a garden plan that makes the most of our short season, that is what I do. Take a look at the vegetable garden consulting page and reach out.