I've lived here 12 years. This is the 13th summer. Maybe that's the charm. I've planted gardens probably 9 of those 13 summers. Every year it's tomatoes and peppers, basil and parsley. Garlic starting about 6 years ago, and now it's wild in my yard (awesome) and I pick it when I think to.
I've grown a total of two pumpkins and one watermelon. And six cucumbers. No squash at all. Those vines just don't like me. Some years I'll have hundreds of jalapenos, or dozens of tomatoes left over to can and freeze. But those squash-family vines die in my yard. Squash borers, Barb tells me. Use floating row covers. Eh, I can't be bothered. I'll stick to nightshade family plants and the easy herbs.
This year it was time to do some crop rotation. Tomatoes have worn out the east side of the raised bed garden. So I planted them on the west side, where they don't get quite as much sun. Not wanting the east side to just lay fallow, I planted some cucumbers, not really expecting anything. And a yellow squash.
Haven't gotten anything on the yellow squash but blossoms. But the cucumbers are running rampant all over the place. They LOVE my garden. We've had 6 picked just this week. They're a little on the short and fat side compared to stuff in the store, and it's a mystery whey they're yellow-green instead of, well, more of a cucumber green, but they are crisp and delicious.
No squash borers. It's past their time of the year. There are some cucumber beetles, I counted (and killed) 4 last night. I'm debating what to do beyond picking them off and squishing them. I have 10 cucumber plants, all vigorous and producing. I'd like them to stay that way...I read about neem oil. Perhaps that's the way to go....it's always a mystery out there.
5 comments:
Okay, a bit about our garden.
We planted 6 cucumbers, and they were thriving, until about 10 days ago, and everything in the garden started to die: cucumbers, tomatoes, cantaloupe, and green pepper. But not the squash. Your squash is from our bed, yes? We found out our fruit was tiny and not developing, because it wasn't getting pollinated. So now, we hand pollinate, and we're getting beautiful squash. You can do it. The blooms are easy distinguishable between male and female. Just take a tiny brush and take some pollen from the male and brush it on the female. It's the most interesting thing!
We were gone for 5 days, and fully expected to come back to everything dead. The melon is; the cucumber is hanging on. The tomatoes are okay, but the damn squirrels had already stripped it of any fruit. The squash is still producing, but we have to go out and do our thing or it won't.
Before we left, we sprayed all the plants with soapy water, and that may have helped. You might try that on your cucumbers.
Sister
I will do it! I had heard that squash had to be pollinated several times in order to take; my garden is in a cage so it probably doesn't get too many pollinators. The plant is thriving so I'm not worried about that. I wonder why everything started to do over there?
Some other year, you might want to plant your tomatoes in pots. Then you can start them in "new" soil. I started doing it because my husband's watering method (from afar and with a hard stream of water) was washing the soil away from the roots of my plants. It was easier to change my planting method than to convince him to water differently! Anyway, I never worry that I'm planting new tomatoes in contaminated soil, and I've been able to move them to sunnier spots as the trees get older and shade formerly sunny spots in the yard.
Anyway, I'm certainly envious of your crop! We had such a cool, wet spring that we weren't really able to plant until mid-June. We're all planning for big harvests of green tomatoes this year!
Jan, in Portland
I think it's a fungus. Really I doubt anything will live. We'll just have to gut it up and pull it all out. Very sad.
MCH
You know...cucumber beetles like all the plants you just listed. Have you seen any little green skinny ladybug looking bugs? They carry several different viruses and transfer them from plant to plant. This convinces me. I'm heading to the store for neem oil tomorrow.
Jan--we've done tomatoes in pots in the past and probably will again in the future, but living so close to a large park, and with so many trees everywhere, squirrels are a major problem. Major. And so my garden, except for jalapenos and garlic, lives in a cage, like a green house with chickenwire walls.
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