I am excited

ejsmom 8/13/2013, 10:42 am

Just found this forum and I am excited to be a member. Getting actual feed back from gardening questions will be a great help. I have 6 garden beds and i did one in the SFG method and was pleased. Hopefully next year i will be able to convert them all. Squash though i think are going to be relegated to the front yard. They are beautiful but so invasive and since i am in the process of converting my whole yard to food production I think they will thrive out front.
Looking forward to hearing from everyone

**gwennifer** 8/13/2013, 12:12 pm

Hi ejsmom and $glad you\'re here$ to the forum! Glad to hear your excitement over your gardens and happy to have you find us here. Plenty of friendly folks around here to answer your questions!

By the way, the SFG foundation often has contests where you can win cash prizes and/or gift certificates to the SFG store. And often one of the contests is for the creation of a front yard garden. So be sure to check that out!

bnoles 8/13/2013, 12:22 pm

Welcome to the SFG forum ejsmom, we are glad to have you aboard.

**sanderson** 8/13/2013, 3:44 pm

Ejsmom, Welcome to the SFG Forum! $glad you\'re here$ Even though this is a SFG site, I think this is an excellent place for all kinds of information and support. Don't forget to take photos! We love seeing what others are up to,

Regarding squash, it is possible to grow them vertically, even one per square foot. Here are 2 of the many links to the subject. The YouTube video is very good for explaining training vertically.

Also, use the Search box at the upper left and lower left for subject searches. Also, the YouTube search box. So. Much. Information. Out. There!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ogPfOrJM0Ho#!

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t15786-spacing-for-vertical-summer-squash?highlight=vertical+squash

grownsunshine 8/13/2013, 5:28 pm

Welcome from So Cal! And ditto on the pics. Everyone loves to see them. Sounds like your garden is doing well. Good job!

Marc Iverson 8/13/2013, 8:20 pm

Welcome, ejsmom!

Re where to put your squash, I guess you know what the varieties you're growing are like, but be sure that your new experiments fit your spacing needs too. Just a few days back we were discussing how some of the squash I planned to train vertically turned out to be ones that bushed out rather than vined! So much for saving ground space by going vertical!

WriterCPA 8/13/2013, 10:56 pm

Welcome to a great group of people. I'm all for tearing out front lawns, but half of mine went to flowers (see my avatar), not food. I love my neighbors, but I don't need two-footed marauders eating my bounty along with the 4 and 6 foot varieties.

It will be cool hearing you discuss an active transformation from rows to SFG.

Triciasgarden 8/14/2013, 9:18 pm

Welcome ejsmom! If you do the whole front area of your front yard in zucchini, you won't have anybody bothering them, lol. You know the story of people putting their extra zucchini in people's unlocked cars at church and for three blocks around because they have so much! Being in Idaho, you probably won't have much problem with people taking before asking I would think. Of course there would be the kids playing pranks or just taking.

Marc in the years to come that story about training bush zucchini up a trellis will be funny! I don't even know if I have seen vining zucchini but I have heard of others having them. That is something new for me to look up!

**donnainzone5** 8/15/2013, 11:45 am

Planting squash in your front yard, from what I've read, will also deter deer. They apparently don't like to cope with spiny plants.

Pollinator 8/16/2013, 4:13 pm

donnainzone10 wrote:Planting squash in your front yard, from what I've read, will also deter deer. They apparently don't like to cope with spiny plants.

I don't think so. They have hard mouths just like goats.

At least our deer aren't that fussy. They nibbled squash, beans, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, and especially peanuts, until I put up an electric fence with an offset upper component, which was simply string about six feet high and three feet inside the fence itself.

Pollinator 8/16/2013, 4:19 pm

Triciasgarden wrote:You know the story of people putting their extra zucchini in people's unlocked cars at church and for three blocks around because they have so much!

Hehheh, we used to do that. We'd leave them on front porches, drop them through opened car windows. Anything to keep from being overwhelmed.

Those days are nearly over. Zukes used to be a failsafe crop. That was when we had plentiful bees. I am on many gardening groups, and you'd be amazed how many complaints there are, of new gardeners who have squash rotting on the blossom end, and can't figure out what's wrong. Many don't recognize the symptoms of inadequate pollination.

More experienced gardeners have learned to hand pollinate zukes and other squashes.

One thing for sure - with the decline of pollinators - it isn't Grandpa's garden.

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