Vine borer destruction aka The Zucchini Killer

Over at the vegetable garden the zucchini was going very nicely and first one then the other wilted.

With no obvious wound I was dumbfounded and looked around and asked.

What was suggested is the vine borer.

SQUASH VINE BORER  From: http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef314.asp

"The squash vine borer is a key pest of winter squash, gourds and pumpkins in Kentucky. Unfortunately, it is usually noticed only after it has done its damage. Symptoms appear in mid summer when a long runner or an entire plant wilts suddenly. Infested vines usually die beyond the point of attack."

Sounds like it exactly.

Upon investigation, the stem of my plant looked like this.

Split like a fish!

I hope to get to to get another few plants in the ground as the reproductive cycle is past the point of plant damage. What is your experience?

Keep digging!


My garden blog  http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/ 
My cooking blog   http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/

Make your bed!

So we keep on keeping on. Now was time to make the beds. The plan is to make seven 3'x15' beds separated by 2' wide paths.

Here is the planning grid.

The shaded area are the paths, unshaded the beds. I want raised beds so we will shovel the paths and move the material to the bed on the right. This should create raised beds of decent material.
 
My friend was able to identify what likely broke the tines off off the tiller. A steel 2' i-beam mounted vertically in a column of cement. It took me about 15 minutes of shoveling and sledging with an 8 pound maul until I was able to get it out of the way. I guess you'll never know what you will find.
 
Anyway, with the tiller repaired, we went over the plot again. More rocks! It's amazing, I wonder if somewhere there is the former landowner laughing in their grave, maybe we're trying to till a former driveway.  The bed although rather small definately has diffent soil within its boundries, while a large portion is very nice the upper center section is extremely rocky and primarily clay. Having had good luck amending soil before, I turned to adding peat to the plot. We added 12 2.2 cubic foot bales of peat moss - that's 26 cubic feet of fluffy goodness.
 
We tilled that extra material in and then it was time to start shoveling the paths. Ugh! Rows 2 and 3 were brutal. That's right - more rocks. The homeowners wife paid me a compliment -"You are so systematic about setting up garden beds".  - Yes, yes I am.  Hopefully the work will produce (ha a little veggie humor for ya!).  We kept at it, digging paths putting the material on the bed to the right.
 
On the paths we put wet newspapers which we will then cover with straw - the theory being keep weeds  and mud at bay on the paths as well as being compostable at the end of the season
 
Finally we persevered and here are the results, I love it when a plan comes together.
 

Looks pretty good to me! See those blue barrels? - Another project - rain catchment!
 
Until later Dear Reader. Comments? Complaints? Suggestions? Requests?

The Veggie plot is turned.

Ok - we're about to go over to the group garden location in Winfield. It's on private property so I won't say where exactly.

Yesterday it was all turned - a neighbor has a tractor with a "flailer" - so I'm told we're tilled to about 8-10". Plan is to make 2'-3' rows with 2' between. If we dig down the 8" for the paths we can mound that up in the rows for raised beds. Line paths with newspaper and straw to keep the mud down.

Also have to set up the irrigation system. I obtained 3x55 gallon barrels we'll set up for rain catchment.

Oh and the tilled area is quite rocky so we'll do some rock picking today too. The soil however is old pasture, so what dirt is there is fertile from years of horse poop.

Stay tuned!