What does it mean to plant squash in a hill?
Question:The zucchini package says to plant my squash in a hill. What does this mean? Do i have to raise the soil (or dump a bunch on to make a hill?). Or do i just plant them all next to each other? Won't they get crowded and develop fungus easier if i do that?
Answers:
The "hill" method is almost always used by the home gardener for squash. It means to prepare a small area of your garden into small hills. Maybe 15-18 inches in diameter of well tilled soil. Make them about 3-4 ft. apart. Then plant 5-6 seeds in each hill. When they are about 2" tall thin them to 3 plants per hill. No they won't get fungus from being planted that way.
One of the biggest factors in determining the success of a veggie garden is the ability of the soil to drain off excess water, so the plants' roots don't sit in mucky water (which leads to rot and suffocation). A simple way to give a plant well-draining soil is to build a mound, or hill, so that the water will percolate down thorugh the hill and leave the roots with moist, but not wet, soil to grow in.
It's not necessary per se to build a hill, but it'll be better for the squash. Raised veggie beds can also accomplish the same goals (as far as drainage goes), but simply building a mound of dirt (make sure it's packed well enough to keep its shape) is a good way to give your squash a leg up. The increased drainage should deter fungal growth, despite the closer spacing. Good luck!
build you a mound out of the dirt and put some seeds in it. you need to build several moumds though and not put all of the seeds in just one or you will really have a mess
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