Members of the Cucurbit family are taking over my backyard!! I am some what new to gardening and this year added a variety of plants from the Cucurbit family to my garden including cucumbers, butternut squash, pumpkins, muskmelon, and watermelons. I didn’t read much about them initially, just planted them and hoped for the best. I did; however, have the foresight to attempt some vertical gardening with my cucumbers.
They all started out so small and so cute. Little did I know that they would eventually try to take over my entire garden. The small trellis I bought for the cucumbers was not enough and they began to spill over into my butternut squash. My butternut squash could not be contained in their small raised bed. Oh no, they worked their way out of the bed and snaked their way out through my tomatoes and cucumbers and clogging the walkway between beds. My pumpkins are trying to take out the corn but were coaxed to occupy the walkway instead. My cute little garden now looks like a crazy jungle where you don’t know where one plant begins and the other ends.
And did you know that those super squash have spikes? Yes! I found out the hard way, by reaching my hand into that mess of foliage only to be rewarded with skin irritation.
Lessons to be learned from the attack of the super squash:
- Give members of the Cucurbit family some space. The vining type just keeps growing and growing and growing.
- Go vertical with a better trellis. The basic trellis from the home improvement store proved to be too thick for my cucumbers to latch on to.
- Wear gloves when messing with those buggers.
- Do some research on what to expect before you plant.
- Show them some water. They love them some water…especially in the Arizona heat.
- The Cucurbit family is super cool!
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