Do You Grow? Forest Garden Plan to Escape Squash Bugs!
I have decided to go a new, crazy route for my squashes. Instead of planting them in my existing two gardens, I am planting them further away in a clearing in our forest. I am sick of battling squash bugs and vine borer. After a winter of research and lots of questions to farmer friends, here is my plan!
Starting squash seeds! We have some really cool varieties this year, check out the list below!
I put 3 seeds in each 4" pot, thin to 2 good plants and plant them together. Keep the soil moist until they sprout. Squash is super easy to grow
Candystick Dessert Delicata
Galeux d'Eysines
Pinnacle Spaghetti
Baby Blue Hubbard
Thelma Sander's Sweet Potato
Uchiki Kuri
Orangetti Spaghetti
White Boer Ford
Rouge Vif D'Etampes
So. The bugs that love squash and cucumbers are the worst. They overwinter, they breed like crazy, fly and last for 3 life cycles a summer here. I have grown zucchinni, winter squash and cukes in my 2 gardens 3 years in a row now. Despite moving the crops around each year, I had so many last year that we did not harvest one single cucumber.
Some cucumber beetles happily munching on a zuchinni blossom while a bee is getting pollen
Some people use pesticides, that isn't an option for us. Neither is row cover for the amount we are planting. Diatimatious Earth is out as well since it can also harm beneficial insects.
My plan for the forest garden is hopefully going to work for two reasons.
- I know for certain that no squash has been planted there for 20 years, if ever. There will be no squash vine borer larve/eggs overwintering there.
- Squash bugs that hatch in my garden can only fly straight across distances with nothing in the way. The 100 feet of forest between my last garden will hopefully prevent them from finding my squash patch!!
An actual squash vine borer larve inside one of my acorn squashes
I will be interplanting Mammoth Russian Sunflowers throughout the area among the squash plants and rim the whole area with tobacco plants to deter deer. I will also be hanging cans with bolts in them from the trees to spook them. Weed smothering will be with cardboard and thick straw mulch until the vines take over, as well as broadcasting clover seeds in areas to keep weeds at a minimum.
These sunflowers!
The final stage of #operationnosquashbugs is to plant a "bait crop" of Blue Hubbard Squash in the centre of my garden that is furthest from my forest garden. The reason? Of all the varieties, the bugs LOVE the Hubbard! They should devour the plants and stay in that row where I can attempt to control the numbers by squishing and drowning them all summer.
I will be documenting this whole shebang. Hopefully it all works out! These seedlings will be ready in 3-4 weeks and the plan is to get them the ground the last week of May with the tobacco plants and sunflower seeds.
Fingers crossed for #squashpatch2018!
Grow babies grow!!
Thank you for reading! Take care of you and yours ❤
HEY! Do you have gardens to feed your family or community or do you grow plants? Please feel free to use the #doyougrow tag for any of your gardening and plant loving posts! I would love to see what you grow and where you grow it 🌱
I am always looking for new tips and inspiration. I believe it is so important to learn how to grow food as food security and our health is so important. Plus, gardening is rebellious!! Save money and put the healthy back in your food ❤ I will check the tag often to upvote and comment, so let's grow good food for our families and earn Steem together!
Sounds like you have a great plan started. I wish you success and please do let us know how it goes!
Thank you for the wishes <3 I will!!
Good luck with growing your squash! It will be interesting to see how it pans out. Don't forget to add some rotted manure/ liquid comfrey tea to the straw. The nitrogen levels drop a lot as it starts to break down. I really hope those bugs stay away for you. :-)
Thank you for the awesome tip! I will apply it to my other gardens as well from previous years straw usage. I hope they stay away too!
That sounds like an amazing idea. I think it would be fun to have a garden and also food growing on the land around it. Be well!
I have dreams of a perennial garden in the forest too...and mushrooms. Hopefully it works! I hope you are having a good night <3
The night was great! Still adjusting to being back on the homestead after being gone for a month. It had been big. We met with @bowentroyer and @thefarmerswife and @papa-pepper was here yesterday
Thats sounds epic! You all must have had the best time! A month away, now home sweet home <3
It was great. Now we are back and our homestead is up for sale and we are looking to hit the road full time.
Good luck! I have a friend who did lasagna gardening and she ended up with the worst infestation of squash bugs I have ever seen. They loooove mulch.
Aaahhhh that makes sense! I am now rethinking using any straw....thank you!!
I'd stay away from wood chips too. That's what the majority of their garden is made of.
What about companion planting? Like dill? Marigolds? Nicotina?
My old neighbor use to wrap strips of of aluminum foil at the base of the stems(the main stalk at the dirt level), i think it kept the eggs from being laid?
I haven't had this problem... looking forward to the updates !!
Oh yes! I do the companion planting, tobacco this year as well, I've tried the foil and paper towel cozies around the stem....we have a lot of plants and they just always win!
I can imagine you have tried it all!! Lol nature always finds a way! Lol looking forward to your future squash blogs!!
That is so true. She always finds a way;) I mostly just co-exist with all other insects. These guys are just so prolific!! I hope you have the best weekend <3
I also battle squash bugs each year. It's one plant that has not yet responded to the increasing balance soil in the garden. Until it gets to be too hard, I use duct tape wrapped sticky side out around my hand and pluck off the eggs from the leaves. This works until the area is so overgrown I can't get into it.
Yes! I should have written that method, I actually love it!! Very satisfying. That is my plan in the hubbard row and out back if i need it. They just always seem to win halfway through the season!!!
Good luck with your squashes @karenfoster, you certainly are passionate about gardening, something I find one of the most rewarding activities, getting your hands into Mother Earth.
Here in Bali, we have two composts going simultaneously being fed kitchen scraps.
Once we clean out a bed, we spread the rich compost on top and let whatever comes up, to come up!
"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get!" - Forest Gump
We allow natural weeds to grow amongst the vegetables, which equates to companion planting.
Nature sorts out what we are to receive!
What a great system, you must have such rich, complex soil! I companion plant with lots of flowers, trying clover this year as well. Thank you for sharing, I can picture how lovely your space must be! And bali must be beautiful weather!!
Hi Karen,
Yes, with loads of warm tropical rain and rich, fertile, volcanic soil, it makes growing plants and vegetables a breeze!
Where I struggled to get anything to grow in Western Australia, with dry, sandy soil, here we "struggle" to stop the plants taking over the place!
We border on primary jungle, which has its eye on my vegetable terraces!
I want to come visit!!! That is incredible to me....your gardens are beautiful! Haha yes, I see the jungle sneaking up on your yard!!
Thanks for you kind words Karen and yes, this is truly living in paradise!
Good luck Karen, I know you will knock it out of the park Green Thumb MAMA!!
Love you Lynds <3 <3 <3 who knows if it'll work hahaha!
Wow! What an exciting initiative! And so well thought-out... even to the point of setting up a "diner" of Hubbard Squash to keep the bugs satiated and away from the (ssh-hh) secret squash garden. It'll be interesting to see how this all turns out!
(I saw your post on the #nobidbots posting.)
Good news for you because ...
But are 3 pumpkin seeds in one pot not too much?
His ordinary 2