Here is what I do when I have say squash or whatever that takes a lot of room..I plant the plants and then I use up the excess space with other things that grow and mature quickly...like lettuce or radishes or mustard or turnip greens...the worse that can happen is that the squash or whatever gets overgrown fast and I don't manage to harvest very much...but what I do have is a few good meals maybe and green manure that in the end enriches the bed...I plant my potatoes for instance and then just toss in a handful of spinach seeds or mustard seeds and in the end, most of the plants are trashed in my hilling of the spuds but I always end up with two or three cuttings of my green stuff and the rest goes back into the soil..

fred in maine - yes, that will be plenty to fill out that bed! And so sorry to inform you that a crookneck is not going to be trained to climb ANYTHING. That is a bush type squash. it will sit and spread out in a big star fashion - it is not a viner. And don't forget to mulch! Have a great season!

Really? I tried growing 8-ball squash last year, and they took up about as much room as a potato plant. They didn't spread out much at all.