Courgette

I dig a decent sized hole, fill it with well rotted muck, finishing up with a bit of a mound on top - top layer covering is with soil. Thus when planted the water runs away from the stems.

I plant two plants per mound. They have a distinct one-way growing/trailing style, so it is easy to see which way plants will run - so I plant them so they will trail away from each other. I sink a 4" or 5" pot into the top of the mound, between them, and water them via that - otherwise when I water them it just runs off the mound, natch!

Not sure about pH

 

We did exactly the opposite, ie made a little well, so the water would run into the roots and not away from the plants :cnfs:

Luckily(?) we have an abundance of baby ones at the moment.

 

"made a little well, so the water would run into the roots and not away from the plants"

Its a good plan for most things, and I have done that in the past for Courgettes too (without problems)

I think the thinking is that members of that family (in particular Cucumbers) hate getting their stems wet and are prone to basal rot.