[Teen76]

I'm just learning about catchcropping and intercropping and would love to know what I can grow around these plants safely, as they take up a lot of space and it seems a bit wasted in my little garden (I hastened to add they will be bush varieties of the above).  Many thanks to anyone who responds.

[paintedlady]

Cucurbits may take up a lot of space, but they also need the room as well as not have to compete for the nutrients in the soil with other crops - they tend to be hungry feeders requiring very fertile soil.  Personally I wouldn't grow anything in between otherwise you'll end up with 2 crops with very little yield from either 

[JayG]

You could certainly get away with a quick crop of salad leaves or radish before the cucurbits shade everything out, but my experience of the "3 sisters" method of growing (or even 2 sisters!) has not been too great, which is probably partly due to soil fertility issues as PL says, but also because sweetcorn and beans (the usual other 2 sisters) both also need plenty of sun throughout the summer. How's yer luck?   

[prakash_mib]

I tried squash (calabash to be specific) with sweet corn. With the hot weather we had this summer ( ) the calabash did took over the whole plot when I was away for a month. But it didnt harmed my sweetcorns. I got around 1 3/4 of corn per plant (which I consider a monumental success for my first year). the calabash on the other hand had a wonderful produce upto a point where I had to give them away  .
The secret is I manured the patch last autumn. manured again 10 days before planting them and added couple of handfull of BFB on 1st and 15th of June.
Remember! our calabash were all grew fruit just out side the sweetcorn boundary. (none whatsoever in the middle) so I wouldnt suggest bush type marrow which would suggest in the middle and do nothing.

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=65867.msg752254#msg752254

I did started a thread on this and received very little response! but I dont blame anybody because I am one of the people who has just half a plot and try to gain more 

[Teen76]

Thanks Prakash and everyone else.  Its good to get any advice/info.  Its a good way to learn, even if its others mistakes.  The salad stuff sounds a safe bet, never even thought about beans if I'm honest.

I've got a few raised beds at home in my garden so I'm fighting for space, and trying to make the most of it.  Any advice is good advice so thank you all.

[mumofstig]

If you plant some sweetcorn in the middle of the bed, you can plant  pumpkins/squash around the outside and let the leaves grow between the corn a bit without a problem.
Just make sure that the roots of corn and the roots of the pumpkins are spaced well away from each other, or they do not have to compete for any nutrients in the soil.

I've done this successfully for the last 2 years

[compostqueen]

I've done a mass planting of sweetcorn, squash (Sweet Mama), sweet peas, sunflowers, runner bean Painted Lady or Scarlet Emperor (I forget which) and some frilly red lettuces all around the outside. I piled a load of cow muck on the ground and grew them round a central tripod.   The squash was a well behaved variety and it didn't swamp everything

The mass planting grew absolutely fine  but cramming things in like this makes the beans more tricky to pick.  You can get a quart in a pint pot but the soil needs to be rich

[Teen76]

I feel like I'm learning to grow veg all over again, and I never really learnt properly the first time around lol

I have realised if I'm going to try and squeeze lots of stuff in then I'm going to have to overdose the soil with lots of yummy manure/compost.  I've just put on all my compost which I made for the first time over this last year, but wondering will that be enough.  Might have to pinch a few bags from work as well.

[compostqueen]

You can never have enough muck and home made compo 

[Zippy]

With a well behaved and smaller leaved squash like Butternut you can have a stand of sweetcorn and run a bns around the edge or through the middle with no probs; just make sure the soil is well fed with manure or home made compost as suggestions above.

I plant the squash away from the sweetcorn and then train the stems towards sot he roots are far apart from each other.

[chimaera]

This year I did this in 2 beds; in one i put squashes in the middle of the bed and close to the edge had corn, and by the time the squash shoots reached the corn it was already too tall to be smothered and both did well. In the other I did the same but with narrow wigwams of french beans at the edge of the bed and leaning out over the path a bit to ease picking, and this also did well.

Charlie