My Pathetic Garden #8: Wahoo! My Squash Has Powdery Mildew!

Crazy title right? Am I cracked to be excited over a fungus attacking my squash, and even tomato blight turning some of my tomato leaves yellow? Let me present my case.

I have never had a garden vegetable plant of any type over the past ten years of half-assed attempts grow large enough or live long enough to have any problem other than a sniveling, wilting death. True to form, of the twelve squash I planted, one lives a stunted fruitless life, two have grown to normal size with multiple fruits and flowers, and the rest jumped into dead-dead with enthusiasm. And here I am today having to treat typical garden fungus because my plants are crowded and the weather has been cool and wet.

How can I help but be pleased with puppy joy?

I had to put up a crude fence because a chipmunk has been snooping.I

Just look at this mess of crazy, huge rhubarb, a tall pepper, a happy eggplant, and a cucumber and squash duking it out. Even the slow growing strawberries have suddenly joined the grow party!

There is the mildew. This runt won’t make it, but a diluted milk treatment is working to keep it under control on the other plants.

I may end up pulling out this afflicted runt of a plant entirely.

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The rhubarb is turning red stemmed by the way! I can’t wait to see what these three plants do next year if they are this big already. However, I do have to report that one of my for cabbages is being mauled by some snail or insect which is also killing my pea plants.

And for our final update today: compost!

My first compost pile is coming along. I think it needs another three weeks. It just didn’t get that hot for a faster turn around, but it is obviously very dark and rich. I reinoculate it with kitchen scraps in the center whenever I turn it. I decided that it was working so well, that I made two more piles. I didn’t have any grass clippings for the third one, but I figured I would get it started anyway.