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  • #1

    Making a squash arch?

    I have a few squashes to grow this year (smaller Munchkin climbing variety so perfect for vertical growing), but am not sure what the best way to create a stable arch is for them? I am on a really tight budget but would like something that isn't too much of an eyesore and that I could potentially uproot and move again if the spot I've chosen doesn't prove to be the most productive. I've seen a lot of US-based building guides that use cattle panels but I'm not sure you can find these so easily in the UK?


    Any advice or experience/pictures welcome!
    Tags: arch, diy, squash
  • #2
    I use the cheap Botanico arches from here: Botanico Standard Garden Arch on Sale | Fast Delivery | Greenfingers.com and twist/tie green chicken wire over them to provide support. My marketmore cukes love it and have come to no harm - you can sink them fairly far into the ground to make them more stable, and they are very movable if you want to shift them. The downside is that they do only last about 3 years before the lower legs rot enough to snap. One of mine is held together with sturdy bamboo cane. But you don't see it when it's covered in foliage...pic below.

    Attached Files
    Last edited by sparrow100; 09-04-2015, 01:28 PM.
    http://mudandgluts.com - growing fruit and veg in suburbia

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    • #3
      Love your coloured raised beds Sparrow
      The love of gardening is a seed once sown never dies ...

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Hans Mum View Post
        Love your coloured raised beds Sparrow
        I thought the same thing when I saw the picture and forgot about the arch.

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        • #5
          Thank you v much.
          http://mudandgluts.com - growing fruit and veg in suburbia

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Hans Mum View Post
            Love your coloured raised beds Sparrow
            Could be a great idea for planning crop rotation or for telling the oh where to find the leeks - "They're in the pink bed"

            I've used two of those arches with a 90 cm garden fence roll tied onto them and grew baby bears up them. Sorry, don't have a photo. One of the problem with these arches is that the nut can pop out of the horizontal bars but I've found that once wired onto the mesh (or with a single arch wiring Tony a vertical, then around a horizontal to the other vertical) keeps them together.

            I'll be using one or two of these as an entry arch to my plot possibly with sweet dumplings on them.

            New all singing all dancing blog - Jasons Jungle

            �I have not failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb."
            ― Thomas A. Edison

            �Negative results are just what I want. They�re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don�t.�
            ― Thomas A. Edison

            - I must be a Nutter,VC says so -

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            • #7
              You're bang on, it's so much easier to describe where stuff is. And I live in a 3rd floor box with minimal outside space so this is where all my gardening experimentation/exhibitionism goes.

              I have sweet peas and CFB on the arches by the entrance to my plot.

              Just ordered another couple while they are on offer.
              http://mudandgluts.com - growing fruit and veg in suburbia

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              • #8
                I get mine from Wi1k0s in September when they clear out the gardening stuff to make way for Halloween. The arches went down to £3 each and the mesh £7 which does two dooubled up arches

                New all singing all dancing blog - Jasons Jungle

                �I have not failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb."
                ― Thomas A. Edison

                �Negative results are just what I want. They�re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don�t.�
                ― Thomas A. Edison

                - I must be a Nutter,VC says so -

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                • #9
                  Wow, thanks all! Sparrow, those arches are just what I was looking for and I think we probably have a roll of mesh hidden somewhere, so will use that. We have the large bed and a grass path between that and the asparagus so plenty of space to scramble the munchkins over. In future I think I'll get on it earlier and get down to a local farm that sells hazel bean poles and pea sticks and construct something that way, but for the interim those arches will do nicely. Thanks for the info

                  Now on the hunt for space-saving solutions for my Rondo peas... I got a bit overenthusiastic with the seed buying this year and now want to put EVERYTHING in somewhere. So trying to be a bit more creative with my growing spaces...

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