Help with squash & melon patch

[CrealCritter]

Next year i'm wanting to put in a third garden for melons and squash. Which I would rotate other veggies in every other year or so - like sweet corn for example or maybe tomatoes and peppers.

So I was thinking about a 50' x 50' but I'm not sure that's enough space. Both melons and squash need a lot of room. I have my squash and melon rows in a 30 x 30 now with 4' inbetween rows and you can't walk in there now without stepping on vines.

I like to grow sugar baby watermelon, musk melon green flesh, cantaloupe. For squash, zucchini, yellow summer, winter acorn, butternut and every couple of years small sugar pumpkins.

I would really like to expand into some different squash but I always find myself running out of room in my 55' x 100' summer garden and my 25' x 50' spring / fall garden has spring veggies in it at the time melons & squash seeds need to be sown.

This year I didn't have enough room for potatoes either - I ran out of room in my summer garden I really need a third garden.

If you had your way... What would be a good size for a melon & squash patch for you and your family and would you do anything special like trellises or just let the vines run on the ground?

Thanks

 

[sumi]

It does sound like you can do with another garden, if you can manage it all, I'd go that route. I've only grown melons once and then only a few plants, so I can't advice you on space needed…

For potatoes, stack up old car tyres and fill it with a mix of compost and soil. Start with two, then when the potatoes take off, add another, fill with soil so only the tops of the plants stick out, wait for it to grow more, repeat… Keep it out of the sun as much as possible. You can stack them up to 5-6 tyres high and when they are ready to harvest, remove the tyres one by one, shake out the potatoes. Easy peasy and it saves a lot of garden space.

 

[CrealCritter]

It does sound like you can do with another garden, if you can manage it all, I'd go that route. I've only grown melons once and then only a few plants, so I can't advice you on space needed…

For potatoes, stack up old car tyres and fill it with a mix of compost and soil. Start with two, then when the potatoes take off, add another, fill with soil so only the tops of the plants stick out, wait for it to grow more, repeat… Keep it out of the sun as much as possible. You can stack them up to 5-6 tyres high and when they are ready to harvest, remove the tyres one by one, shake out the potatoes. Easy peasy and it saves a lot of garden space.

Love this site + I learn something new every time I visit. potatoes who would have thought this?

 

[NH Homesteader]

That's what we've done also. I will never do potatoes the "conventional" way!

 

[CrealCritter]

That's what we've done also. I will never do potatoes the "conventional" way!

Really... Just keep piling dirt up as the potato plant grows? Do this tire method work for sweet potatoes also?

 

[NH Homesteader]

I haven't grown sweet potatoes, they don't love my climate! So I can't answer that. But it worked with potatoes!

 

[Britesea]

If you don't have tires, you can stack up scrap lumber and maybe some chicken wire to help keep it all together. I've heard of people using trash cans with holes drilled in them, but I wouldn't do it because of the chemicals they put in the plastic to kill bugs and stuff

 

[NH Homesteader]

I've heard of peiple using trash bags and leaves.... But I have no idea if that works or not.

 

[baymule]

I wouldn't use tires, they are in the way the rest of the year. You can use the plastic feed bags that chicken feed comes in. One year, I raked up leaves, mixed with horse manure, sprinkled with lime, and let it set over the winter. Come spring, I planted potatoes and got the best crop ever from a leaf pile!

 

[CrealCritter]

I wouldn't use tires, they are in the way the rest of the year. You can use the plastic feed bags that chicken feed comes in. One year, I raked up leaves, mixed with horse manure, sprinkled with lime, and let it set over the winter. Come spring, I planted potatoes and got the best crop ever from a leaf pile!

You mean 50 lb bags? If so I knew I was saving them for a reason...