How big is your squash bed?

[tai haku]

So there have been some awesome squash harvest photos from a number of members which has got me wondering, how much space do most people here devote to squash?

[tai haku]

[Digeroo]

The squashes were rambling over large parts of my allotment there were no paths left.  I suppose about a quarter to a third of my allotment had courgettes pumpkins and squashes though some shared that with sweet corn and beans and peas and tomatoes.  But part of this was because unable to dig over the whole allotment so I covered anything undug with pumpkins to keep down the weeds.

The blue hubbard ended up 20 metres long.

Hope to be eating squashes and pumpkins for some months still.  But then I am totally nuts about them.

PS I have even more in the garden!!!

[tonybloke]

I usually grow squash / pumpkin / courgette plants
a, on top of compost / muck heaps,
b, as an undercrop in my sweetcorn beds,
c, as a follow - on crop when i have lifted some of my early spuds,
d, as part of my my rotation.
'd'  is probably the bit you are interested in,  I garden with 4 ft wide fixed beds, and probably use about 40 sq ft 'just for squash'
(they also grow along paths, and sometimes I grow them vertically)
;)

[Sparkly]

About 20x30ft on one plot and the same on another...

...this and they were still taking over the brassica patch.

[elvis2003]

my 3 plants took over three quarters of my greenhouse,we grew them up trellises,ive spelt that wrong? next year im gonna do the same,but outside,maybe just one inside .

[realfood]

At the moment, I am using a large 4 m X 5 m bed created by digging up a path between two beds. I allow about 1 sq m per plant and allow/train the shoots to trail past other squash as far as they want to go. The advantage of big beds is that you can grow big plants!!
I also use Lidl poly tunnels to give protection for the first month. One will cover two rows of squash for 5 m.

[tai haku]

At the moment, I am using a large 4 m X 5 m bed created by digging up a path between two beds. I allow about 1 sq m per plant and allow/train the shoots to trail past other squash as far as they want to go.

So 20 plants in the 4 X 5? Many different varieties?

[Deb P]

I plant about a metre apart, but try and use as many vertical surfaces as possible to keep the foliage off the ground. I used two large bean frames this year and even quite big squashes were OK and grew to a good size! The smaller ones like Jack be Little I grew on a smaller wigwam of canes and got an excellent crop.

[chriscross1966]

I was using them as part of my ground clearing this year, but the genetral plan (which would see me growing as many if not more plants) is to have them as part of the rotation, I have a 200m² lottie and I plan on running 7 areas, spuds, brassicas, roots, beans, onions, squash and polytunnel..... salads and things can catch-crop, there will of course be some overlapping etc and things like a row of first earlies in the squash bed, overwintering onions in next years brassica bed cos they'll be out when the brussels go in, that sort of thing.....

chrisc

[bedrockdave]

I'm filling a couple of the builders bags that sand is delivered in with all my kitchen and garden waste ,then top up with stable manure then cover with black membrane and put 3 in each .then I've got matured compost for next year too

[1066]

That's a good idea Bedrock dave !

This year I used about a quarter of my plot for squashes and I grew about 22 plants with 12 varieties on the go.
Next year I will be more selective as this year was all about clearing some ground and then finding out which ones I liked best, which ones grew well, and now it's about which ones will store well.
But its very compulsive this squash growing malarky, and I keep doing swaps, then see other seeds that I "must" have, then sometime in early Spring I'll start sowing (Bring it on!)

1066

[chriscross1966]

I'm filling a couple of the builders bags that sand is delivered in with all my kitchen and garden waste ,then top up with stable manure then cover with black membrane and put 3 in each .then I've got matured compost for next year too

Make sure you water adequately... the ones I had in builders bags this year had problems with not enough water....

chrisc

[realfood]

tai haku, I grew 11 different varieties of Winter squash and butternuts, and managed to squeeze in 4 different types of courgette, as I was doing trials for taste and ease of growing in Glasgow!!
Some of the results of the taste test are already on this thread http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,56147.0.html and the others will be added when I eat some more squash.