Squash and other veg

[Melb]

Learning lots of tips from everyone :-)

Have a question regard squash.
I have 1 butternut squash, 1 little gem squash both about an inch tall. Should I really have 2 so of each so they can pollinate?
I have got 2 aubergine and 2 courgette.

I don't have a huge allotment as its my first year. I thought that I could trellis them up so they don't spread.

Want to grow the above
also
broad beans
dwarf french beans
peas
onions
salad crops - lettuce, salad leaves, radish
toms
cucs
leeks
swiss chard
maybe a caulifower or 2 (romanesco) for a trial
carrots
beetroot
turnip

will put companion plants around.

got a separate area for my gooseberries (south facing fence) 4 bushes. going to put rhubarb against an east facing fence? only 3 plants.
not sure where to make a herb bed might fit next to rhubarb.

a bed for potatoes (not yet made!)

any suggestions please?

[Kristen]

I have 1 butternut squash, 1 little gem squash both about an inch tall. Should I really have 2 so of each so they can pollinate?

They can pollinate from flowers on the same plant. They might come Male & Female at slightly different times though ... particularly initially when thy only tend to only produce Male flowers for a while - but don't worry about that, by the time the Pollination Season really starts they will be carrying both genders.

Squash are very promiscuous so will cross pollinate with anything else nearby [from the same family] - e.g. Courgettes.

any suggestions please?

Try to sort out a Crop Rotation, so that like-plants are grouped together, and you move the groups round each year so they don't grow in the original zone / soil for 3 or 4 years

[BertieFox]

Just a quick response on your squash. You don't need a pollinator as squash of all kinds (courgettes, marrows, butternut, even cucumbers... all of the 'cucurbits' family) will pollinate each other. This is why it is so hard to collect seed that will give you the same thing when you sow the next year.

If you trellis the squash (most courgettes are bush types and this won't work so easily) then treat them like a melon, stopping the leader when it reaches around five feet and tying in the side shoots on the trellis where the fruit will form. You'll need to be fairly brutal with pruning it back when it gets going.

In a limited space, French beans are one of the best bets if you keep them picked without any old beans forming, then they will crop for many weeks. Try baby turnips which you pick after a few weeks and then resow, as with baby beet, as this gets more from a small space.

Swiss Chard is a good crop as you can cut the leaves and leave it to produce more, but cauliflowers are a lot of hard work and water to get just one small head after a very long wait. I'd say grow something else in the space. For example, most calabrese produce a largish head and then lots of sideshoots which you can go on picking for several weeks, and are much easier to grow without so much coddling.

I'd grow spring type onions rather than main crop as these take up a lot of space over a long period of time, while you can harvest lots of small onions and make fresh sowings throughout the summer with spring type. Likewise leeks take up a lot of space for a smallish crop. If you grow peas, grow the mangetout type as you get a much better harvest which lasts for longer, and as the pods don't mature you don't get problems with pea moth weevils in the peas.

Good harvest!

[Two_Sheds]

Squash are very promiscuous so will cross pollinate with anything else nearby [from the same family] - e.g. Courgettes.

... which is a problem if you're wanting to save seed, but not if you just want to grow veg to eat

[Kristen]

... which is a problem if you're wanting to save seed, but not if you just want to grow veg to eat

My favourite pictures of the result of sowing seeds from Pumkins that got "friendly" with Marrows

[batman]

Those look lovely, Kristen!

Were they tasty?

[Dorothy rouse]

How interesting, they almost don't look real!

[Kristen]

Those look lovely, Kristen!

Were they tasty?

Not mine, so I don't know how they turned out, sorry.