Winter squash ....... and asparagus?

[ourarka]

I had a thought today but wanted to garner some opinion. Having perused my asparagus bed, which has been very disappointing this year (they are a good 25 years old, so I think just need replacing) it got me to thinking about this huge bit of sun drenched land I have, with nothing growing ...... and no prospect now until next year.

Then I thought, since winter trailing squash will happily share with sweetcorn ..... why not use the asparagus bed too? All harvesting of asparagus is done by mid-June, before the squash will start putting on too much growth, and after that can't it just trail through the feathery foliage? You need very few squash plants per site, so won't have the problem of it competing for nutrients, other than at the point where it is planted. Plus, it will help keep weeds down over the summer/autumn.

Any thoughts? It would really give me a nice, big, sun drenched plot to grow some great squash ..... as opposed to squeezing a couple in around my small block of sweetcorn.

[snakeshack]

I would think that sqush would seriously deplete the bed of nutrients possibly killing your asparagus into the bargain.If the bed is already drained ,which is why your asparagus is looking dodgy,then you may not get a great squash crop as they are particularly greedy anyway.

[ourarka]

A fair point Snakeshack, but as I am lucky enough to have a pretty big area for my asparagus (approx. 8 sq m) I am thinking that a couple of squash plants in the corners wouldn't deplete too much (other than in the immediate vicinity) and nothing that couldn't be made up for with the annual winter mulch. The squash would also be fed when watered ........?

[snakeshack]

go for it then,possibly tip a bucket of compost or fym as a hill to plant them on & feed in the initial stages,some will also root from the stems to gather more nutrients