MooreHaven, may I ask a question...I am trying to plan my garden, and I have a small space about 8' by 5', inbetween my garlic bed and my pea trellis. I was thinking of putting maybe 2 or 3 squash plants there. Giving the nature of squash to GROW and sprawl, do you think this is a good idea? How tolerable is garlic of potential garden bullies like squash? Should I play it safe and put something else there?

Went and check the garlic tonight and it looks fine. Must be some hardy stuff cause it's still green and growing. Of course it's been growing in this type weather for years now so that might help. It's now been cold here for two week but like someone else said it's suppose to be in the 60s this weekend.

Muddy, you can ask me anything you'd like....it'd be nice if you offered me a pint of your finest stump-water when you did though....
I'd plant it.
Your garlic will be harvested before the squashes really get to sprawlin'. And even if your squash really takes off on a run, the garlic is still going to be standing up over them, so you won't have a problem finding them. Keep in mind, we harvest garlic BEFORE all the leaves have turned brown. Now walking among them without stepping on a vine is going to be another matter.
It's true that garlic doesn't like competition when it comes to feeding, due to it's shallow rootedness ( is that really a word?), but most of that line of thought comes from our attempts to control our enviorment and make it asteticlly pleasing to our sense of orderliness. You'll notice Mother Nature doesn't worry about "spacing". You'll have more problems with them climbing your pea trellis than over-running your garlic. In a 5'x8', with the thought being to letting them run, I'd have 16 squashes in that area. If I wasn't going to let them run, I'd be letting them flower, then nipping the terminal end to stop the run. Or since it's such a small area, you might just re-direct the runners back into your patch.
Good luck to all on your deep-throated flower crops this year, with the honey bee problem in this country (squash won't self-pollinate) it's going to be tough. If you've got only a small patch, you might want to start thinking about hand pollinating.

....and now I'm off to TRY and get finished planting me onoins....

All good here, I didn't even get any burnt leaves and now they are getting bigger again! Just goes to show nature can pretty much take care of its self (and maybe a few positive thoughts).

Thanks MHG, I'll do it then...I was having a bit of trouble deciding where the squash was going, I have 2 winter varieties and a summer scallopini variety...and I don't think I have the garden space!
I did not realise the space required for squash, I had a zucchini last year that took over, I had to move my peppers and I couldn't get by on that stretch of pathway. So you would put 16 in a 5' by 8' space?
Where would I find info on nipping the terminal end to stop the run? I'm going to google that now.
And you are most welcome to a pint, actually sometimes I wish for a visit from one of the experienced folk on here to walk around the garden and give me advice and knowledge....
that would be great!

Muddy, I should clareify on your squash, I'd have 16 in 8' lineal ft. of a 200' long double row, thus giving my runners the length of the row to stretch out in, I should have thought about your space constraints more before I spoke; you're gonna be routing runners in your space to keep them confined to it.
Nippin' the growing end of your vine you'd want to do after it has set the number of fruit your space/vine length will allow. Now I've never actually done this with squash, I work in volume so it wouldn't be to my benefit, but it's a common technique used by pumpkin grower's to limit the number of fruit to a vine, thus increasing the amount of nutrients fed to fewer pumpkins, thus giving them greater size. People buy big pumpkins, but they won't monster Butternut squash.
Kool, Alex......I envy you, my garlic looks like.........well, like it got frost bit hard..........but, some positive thoughts, a little rain, and then some sunshine, it'll be ok.....the field just looks ugly right now by my standards.....hmmmmmmmmm....it does make for a good side-by-side field test for cold hardiness among the varieties.
Off the top of my head- the German White and Metachi look the best out of the eight, followed by the Music and German Brown, respectively. The Elephant wasn't up that far, so didn't take much of a hit. The Chesnok Red, Montana Roja, and my lone softneck ( a local variety that I salvaged from an old homestead near me ), they all are showing the bite the worst.

A week of sunshine, then .25" of rain yesterday - this morning they all show a noticeable improvement in vigor and color. It was sooooooooo nice to see the blue-green of the field as the sun rose over it this morning as opposed to the yellowish-pale green of last week. Weather lady just said maybe 1-3" again tomorrow, I should see a real growth-spurt after that. ( insert crossed fingers here ).

And welcome to the group, Canadiyank.

I've got SHOOTS! (At least a couple of 'em.)

I have 1 inch shoots!
20 out of 20 cloves sprouted from last season's harvest.
Hey,a few more than last year-next fall I will plant 3 dozen cloves (I promise Lisaan!)

Liz1 and Franeli,

WOO HOO! I know you both are pleased, and I'm happy as all git out for ya!

Harvest is on the way, right after another snow storm or 2! I hope I'm just kidding!

Hey all!

I mulched my garlic 2 days ago!

What appears to be the "volunteer" garlic is too close together, so....should I dig it up at this point & separate it?

Rainin' today....greenhouse is back in order after battling fresh-hatched baby grasshoppers that were felling tomato seedlings like lumberjacks slaughtering an old-growth forest yesterday........which was followed by a free-range hen that got in and worked her way thru I don't know how many flats of peppers and eggplant seedlings just starting to sprout, like a turkey going down a spring-time soybean row. She even found my desk to poop on.....Think I'll just sit here today and watch the posts while I do "bookwork"....

Sprout - if thy garlic offends thee, pluck it out.....otherwise, you could dig it out as a bunch, rinse the clump under water to ease the seperating of the roots, and then "re-dirt" and water in well. It won't even know you moved it. I don't recall if you have more than one variety going, if so, keep it seperate at harvest so not to "contaminate" your seed stock for planting this next fall. Strictly food stock. And how did you get volunteers, may we ask..?....hummmm....did we pull instead of digging last season....??? hahaha !!!

Hi!

Sorry about your "slaughter situation"!
Didja have to re-plant all of it?

We've had this conversation before, I think.

I don't know how I got volunteers...didn't pull.
Ya know what? It's driving me crazy...wouldn't it be a hoot if it wasn't garlic at all? Gotta be, though!

I gotta go out & dig some up to see what the heck is there!

They were "store" garlic from last year...at least they are in the EXACT spot where I dug it out of!

I planted the Russian White right behind it, and it's lookin' good! Does that variety get the scapes on it?

What I had last year did not grow scapes.

Hmmmm...I am getting ready to go on a trip to Portland Thursday, but I think I gotta go dig & check it!

Thanks for the post! I'll let ya know what I find!

.......it's been more than 24hrs. since she said that.........think maybe the Russian's grabbed her....???