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Winter squash are fun plants to grow. First up, you can spend hours reading through the catalogs to pick the perfect variety for you. Do you want to grow a giant pumpkin to win a prize at the local show? Are you kids expecting Halloween lanterns? Or do you want enough fruits to feed you through the winter?

Once you've chosen, you need to make sure you have the right spot. Winter squash can be bush or trailing plants either way they need plenty of space to grow. Trailing plants can be grown up an arch or trained to scramble over a screen, especially if the fruits are small. You can even train them to grow around themselves so that they take up less space, but they will still need around a square meter to themselves.

Big, vigorous plants are hungry plants. Incorporate as much organic matter as you can into the growing area you can even grow your squash directly on a compost heap that has finished rotting down. Make sure the plants will be in full sun for maximum growth.

Winter squash are tender plants, so sow seeds outside only after the frosts are finished for the year and the soil is warming up. Gardeners with a short growing season will need to start their seeds off inside for a head start to ensure that the fruits mature before the frosts come again.

Young squash plants will need to be protected from slugs and snails, but once they start to grow strongly they are generally trouble-free. Over-feeding will encourage leafy growth at the expense of fruits, but the plants will need plenty of water.

If you're trying to grow giant pumpkins, or you have a short growing season, then limit the number of fruits on the plant to concentrate the growing effort. For maximum storage life, leave the fruits on the plant until the vines have been cut down by frost. Cutting the fruits with a T-shaped section of stem gives you a handle and can help prevent rotting. Leave the squash to cure in the sun (or somewhere warm and dry) for a few more weeks so that the skin toughens up and they will store for winter use. Some varieties store for longer than others, so keep checking your stored fruits to make sure they are still in good condition.

Learn more about this author, Emma Cooper.
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