North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>]

> For the last tree years, I have planted a squash or two with each apple tree 
> every year, thereby saving a lot of space in the vegetable garden.


That's a neat idea, but isn't it too shady? What kind of squash do you 
plant?

I like summer squash, but I don't know if they'd fit under my dwarf 
fruit trees. But something like cucumbers might, since they stay low and 
just trail all over the place. Still, as I say, I wonder if they'd get 
enough sun. It's deep, dark shade under most of my trees (they're 
crowded together pretty closely, too).

Another problem is that my fruit trees would be hard to spray, since I 
wouldn't want to kill the bees visiting squash flowers. Last year, I 
removed the strawberries I had around my apples and plums. They grew 
great there, but I couldn't spray the trees when the strawberries were 
blooming - and I couldn't get around the trees to spray at other times, 
without walking all over the strawberry patch.


>  It's an incentive to improve the soil around the trees as the squash 
> requires fertile soil,


In my case, that would be another disadvantage, since the last thing I 
want is more fertile soil around my fruit trees! I have a hard enough 
time keeping them small as it is.

Still, I'm running out of places to plant fruit (I'd like to try 
blueberries sometime) and still have a garden, so I'd love to find a way 
to combine the two, in some locations.

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

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