@Adagio – I spent most of the summer working a pretty big veggie garden, so I picked up some handy knowledge. What I learned about tomatoes is that you should trim them back and you’ll get better tomatoes; actually you’re supposed to trim off the “bastards” which are offshoots of the main branches and stem. You should also trim the bottom branches off so that none of the foliage is touching the ground; this and watering only the ground will keep the blight away. Apparently, it’s transmitted through the foliage from the ground.
I don’t know what kind of zucchini my mom was growing, but it got somewhat crazy like the tomatoes tend to, it spread out and the curly viney parts did wrap around the other plants and in some cases where I didn’t catch it early enough, damaged the plants.