After just a few days ago posting about how my garlic seems to like being planted much earlier than conventional wisdom, today I found an errant garlic that escaped harvesting last year, and has decided all of its own accord that it is garlic planting time. Nice to have a vegetable agreeing with me!
Oh that is good to know.. 🙂
I love this photograph. The zucchini is strong and healthy and the mulch layer looks fantastic. The garlic a green feather in your cap. It’s the kind of image I want to keep in the front of my Bible! You know, like something worth living for… My zucchini on the other hand, is covered in downy mildew (I must confess that I just haven’t done anything about it, because the fruit is all stung by pumpkin fly). I get to harvest a month’s worth of zucchini in early summer before the pests descend upon the plants. Do you have any suggestions I can follow to chase away the pumpkin fly if I do not want to use an insecticide? Maybe revitilize the mulch layer and tackle the downy mildew…?
Terrific! I planted half of mine and was going to do the rest mid April…but seeing as your garlic is telling you mow is the time, this impatient gal might stick the rest in! 🙂
Hi Emilia, I don’t think I’ve had pumpkin fly. I had to look it up and I don’t recognise it. With flying pests like that, I rely on insectivorous birds for control Downy mildew I do get, worse some years than others, but this has been a wet year and I haven’t had trouble with it. In general, I think the healthier your plants, the better their resistance to diseases. Once you have a pest or disease outbreak, most “cures” are more work than they are worth. But seaweed brew as a foliar spray does help against powdery mildew if you get it early. I mulch heavily every summer, at least 10 to 15 cm mulch cover. It protects and insulates the soil, conserves water, and over time adds to the organic matter in the soil. This squash has had a good double handful of compost and a couple of waterings with diluted seaweed brew in its pot, another good double handful of compost at planting out, and lots of mulch. It’s a bit of work to put into it, but it’s been bearing for a couple of months now – I’ve had a good run with it so it was worth it. I’d probably try a different variety in your position too – and keep changing variety and building the soil till it all comes together.
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