[Zippy]

Just a thought - where you are supposed to plant squashes, corgettes etc at 4 feet spacings - is that:

A) because each plant will take the nutrients from 4 feet of growing space or is it
B) because the rambling varieties make it difficult to get anything else to grow because of lack of light?

If it is A) then I have a problem because I only have a half plot and that's a lot of space taken up.

If it is B) then I can get around it by potting on and planting in larger plants that can get above the rambling squash leaves.

I am thinking of interplanting with low demand veggies like lettuce, beetroot, spring onion. Lettuce would actually enjoy the shade and is not nutrient hungry.

When space is at a premium you have to consider multiple planting like this to fit everything in.

[tam]

The 'three sisters' is companion planting squashes, with sweetcorn (which is tall enough to get light above them) and beans (to go up the sweetcorn). I think picking beans regularly  in the middle of squashes might be tricky but you could try sweetcorn. You could get quick crops of stuff like lettuce in before they fill the area too.

I don't think courgettes need 4' spacing do they? I thought it was about 2' square, I'm growing mine in a big pot.

[mumofstig]

squashes pumpkins have fairly big leaves on stalks that don't lay flat on the ground. They would very quickly swamp stuff like lettuce, thats why climbing beans or sweetcorn are used for intercropping. Have you got any tubs that you could stand in that area to grow stuff in, cos at ground level I don't think there is much hope for low growers.

[SUTTY1]

if it helps i grow squash and pumkins threw my sweetcorn and they all do well.
Someone on our site even grew peas up the sweetcorn at same time, they did well too.

[DD.]

Your courgetttes in a pot won't get as big as those allowed free space.

I allow 6' between plants and there is very little space between them. Interplanting is out of the question.

Last year I allowed 40 sq m for 5 trailing squashes. Not even a weed would grow between them, the ground was absolutely covered.

You have to cut your suit according to the cloth and decide what will be productive for the space you have. If you don't have a lot, squashes, etc. even my beloved peas don't have a good return.

[zazen999]

I wouldn't bother interplanting anything with squash that doesn't stand proud of it - it will get wiped out.

However, how I do mine is to plant 8 inches in from a corner of a bed.....then the squash gets the nutrients, can ramble over the side of the bed and along the path and other crops can go in alot closer.

[Salmo]

You can interplant with low growing crops but you have to plan a long way ahead. You are too late to plant them now.

If you mark the planned planting positions of your squashes on the plot with a stick in early Spring you can then plant all sorts of crops in the spaces between. As long as they will ready to harvest before the squashes demand the space you are OK. I am thinking of things like lettuce, spring onions, radish, salad leaves.

I grow my squashes following late brassicas i.e. purple sprouting broccoli, spring caulis which are in the ground until April/May anyway. In turn the brassicas have followed broad beans and peas so I effectively get 3 crops in 2 years.

[deannatrois]

Thank u so much for this post, I have a similiar problem.  Someone sort of kindly took it upon themselves to do me a favour and planted some pumpkins on my new plot.  I am not particularly fond of pumpkins and was flabbergasted at how much space they took up ha ha.

Now I know I can put my sweetcorn in the bed. So thanks for that!  I would have done the same and put lettuces or some other low flying crop thinking I could direct the pumpkin growth around them.., but probably would have been a bad idea reading this unless u plant them before the pumpkins.

Off to find some recipes to see if pumpkin can be made edible.

[Zippy]

Thank you everyone. As it seems to be shading out that seems to be the problem rather than competition for nutrents (although that is a factor as wellto a point) i like the idea of training the trailing squashes around the bed edge and considering the final shade zone of the standing ones and planting accordingly.

I already have a Three Sisters going on another bed which is going well because the Butternut Squash is a slow grower and not so rampant.