Competing Plants - Lesson Learned !

16 years ago

I mentioned in a couple of follow-ups that I got a free ladder on trash day and painted it yellow, then started a couple of our garden's vines up along it: a squash and a cucumber.

No doubt experienced gardeners who are reading this are thinking "Uh oh, big mistake." And it was. The setup worked well until this weekend, when I could hardly get down the path to one side of this ladder. The squash had covered the ladder, gone to the fence and just about strangled our mandarin honeysuckle, covered the top of a nearby tomato plant, and gone over the fence and across the patio. Most importantly, I discovered when I climbed under the vines to take a look, that it had overwhelmed the cucumber plant which now could get hardly any sun, and had many baby cukes on it.

I attribute this very fast growth to the heat we have had (quite extreme here this summer). I have watered and fed the garden faithfully also. We have another squash plant, so I took out this squash plant completely and am hoping the cucumber will recover.

Obviously I made the mistake of having two potentially large plants too close together. This has probably been my biggest lesson this summer about a potager: that although it's great to plant things so that they are intermingled, the reality is that some plants absolutely need plenty of their own space down the road, even if you have vertical supports. I should have seen ahead with the squash and cukes and the space they would need. So next year I will most DEFINITELY plant them spaced properly in a bed by themselves on the outside edge of the garden!

In addition, I have a bee balm that is in the tomato jungle. It was my first attempt at interplanting perennials and vegetables. It was great until the tomato plants grew to their current height. Now the bee balm gets hardly any sun and can't be seen. I will move it when I know where to put it. So, another lesson - think ahead to the final height of plants you plan to plant closely together.

Oh well, live and learn -

Donna

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Comments (4)

carol6ma_7ari
16 years ago
He he! I also experience the Squash Vine that Took Over the World! Fortunately I planted the 3 cucumber plants near the outer fence and past the eggplants, so the cucs. are going up the fence, and the eggplants just being their bushy selves.

But I did put 3 acorn sq. plants, 3 zucch. plants and 3 butternut sq. plants in the long central bed, and those greedy vines just took off and snaked across both side paths into the other beds. I pick up new vine length every day and toss it back onto the rest of the plant.

The tomatoes: I got an idea from the book "Square Foot Gardening" and interplanted lettuce between the tomatoes. The lettuces grew faster and could be leaf-harvested, and got enough sun. When we reached July and it was hotter, the tomatoes were big enough to shade the lettuces and keep them from bolting. That was good companion planting. Do read "Square Foot Gardening" for ideas involving close planting.

Carol
chickadeemelrose
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks Carol - I will definitely take a look at that book.

This isn't the first time I have planted this potager but you'd think it was! I appreciate all the good-natured help I have received here.

Also - I'm also in zone 6 MA (my profile says 5 but it's 6)

- Donna
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lavender_lass
16 years ago
I'm having the opposite problem, as it's been too cold for the squash to really take off...and I think the birds ate my pumpkin seeds. I bought a small watermelon plant that has barely grown at all.

Next year, I'm going to have to put the squash/melons in their own area, maybe with black plastic underneath. The good news is that the tomatoes love being by the metal arbor/pergola and have grown like crazy. Maybe I'll actually get tomatoes this year! Fingers crossed, since first frost can be as early as end of August.

The more I garden, the more I think that with our short growing season, perennials are the way to go. More raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and maybe some grapes. Also might put the asparagus in next year (too many weeds this year) and more herbs...and roses, of course :)
Donna
16 years ago
I made a similar mistake this year. I planted 4 kinds of squash and 2 kinds of cucumbers all in one raised bed. My idea was to have one vine of each, divided into two hills that were four feet apart. Sounded logical....
But, what happened was two of the squash plants were so huge that they shaded out the cucumbers and smaller squash types. Fortunately I have a long growing season, so I tore them out and started over. Squash in one hill. Cucumbers in the other. Left out the squash that were supposed to be bushes but weren't. We should be picking in a couple of weeks. :)

Lucky for me that lots of my friends had squash to share early on. I am hoping to return the favor late. Maybe they'll be ready for more by then.