mech1369dlw
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Joined: Mon Jun 13, 2011 2:22 am
Location: Junction City Kansas Zone 6a

What to do now for next year veggie garden

Greetings. Long time lurker, first time poster. Late April this spring, the wife gave me some seeds and said to plant them. I ain't a farmer, I'm a mechanic. She gave me some kind of Korean cucumber, squash and Early Silver line melon seeds to start. Started them in yogurt cups with Miracle Gro Potting Mix. 4 cucumber, 4 melon and 3 squash plants made it to about 5 inches high. Then I used my trimmer to make bare spots on the ground, dug up little holes and put them in the ground. The plantings were around the middle of May.

The cucumbers gave me an overload of fruits, the melons did 3-4 per plant and the squash only gave up 2 each before the plants were covered with little gray bugs. I looked up the pics of the bugs and they were squash bugs. They were the first plants to die off. Cucumber plants gave up a lot until around the first of Sept, when I had lots of females but zero males.

Now to the questions. I know I should till the ground. Should I do it this fall and add something, wait till spring to do it or both? What should I add to the dirt? What is good to keep the bugs away? So many questions, so much time. The ground has never grown anything except grass until I did my thing this spring. If ya need more info, I will give it. I am asking so I can make things better next year. Fire away. Thanx David

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

It is always a good idea to put back some of what you take out. Soil does not keep giving forever. You can garden in the ground or in pots, but it is better to get a few tools. Basic a good round point shovel with a wood or fiberglass handle the shovel should not be in line with the handle but should be set at an angle. Cheap shovels are light and straight and harder to work with. A hoe and a bow rake. Small hand tools are sold in sets for about $10 and a bonus would be some garden gloves.

Add compost and you can also add composted manure. about 3-4 inches of the compost and about an inch of the manure over the garden area. A good garden size is 4ft x10ft in full sun. Any wider and it is hard to work with and it is small enough not to take a lot of time to work with. If you are not planning to put in a fall crop, you can cover it with a thick layer of straw mulch.

Cucumbers, melons and squash are summer vegetables. Cucumbers and melons are usually not bothered by squash bugs, but cukes can be infested with pickleworms which is a caterpillar of a night flying moth. Squash bugs are hard to control without using some form of insect netting and they can overwinter in the soil.

Melons have a lot of vine but not a lot of fruit for the size of the vine. If you have the space it may not be a big deal especially is you are going to let the vines sprawl. three or four seeds can be planted in a hill and let the vines go on top of each other.

Zucchini has been disappointing for me for a few years now. I used to get an abundance of fruit but now only get a handful before I usually get all male flowers and no females or the males and females not coming out at the same time. I was thinking to switching to parthenon which does not require pollination to set fruit.
I rather plant chayote and gourds. They are much more productive and I can use gourds more than zucchini.

You still have time to plant lettuce, radish and spinach which will be harvested in 6 weeks or less if there is enough time before your first freeze. Broccoli, kale, and carrots will do fine even with a light dusting of snow.
https://www.almanac.com/gardening/planti ... ion%20City

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rainbowgardener
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You can till the ground, in which case you should do it now. Till in the compost and/or composted manure imafan mentioned. You don't have to till. Really you just have to get rid of the grass. One way to do that is lay down a bunch of cardboard and/ or layers and layers of newsprint. Wet the ground down first and then wet the cardboard. Then put the compost/ manure and other organic materials (fall leaves, straw, pulled weeds, etc) down on top of that. Let it all sit until spring and you will have no grass in that area (cardboard, etc smothered it) and nice deep bed of all the organics.

That's what I'm planning to do. I just moved to a new place with way too much grass and want to get some garden beds ready for spring.

Re the bugs - squash bugs and their relatives stinkbugs are difficult to control. Diatomaceous earth and Neem oil both may
help against them. Lay down boards or shingles flat on the ground near your plants. Come by first thing in the morning and you will often find them hiding under the boards. In the cool of the morning they are slowed down and easier to trap. (The board trap also works for slugs, another common garden pest) . Check the undersides of your leaves frequently. If you see rows/clusters of little orange eggs, those are squash bug eggs:

Image
https://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/ins ... bugs-2.jpg

Tear the leaf off and destroy.

When those egg clusters hatch out, you may see a whole cluster of squash bug juveniles:

Image
https://www2.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfa ... ymphs2.jpg

If you keep a shop vac with water in the reservoir or a hand vac handy, you can just vacuum up the whole cluster. But they are related to stinkbugs and can release a bad smell. I wouldn't plan on using the vac for any other chores. But it can be a very useful garden tool.

mech1369dlw
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Joined: Mon Jun 13, 2011 2:22 am
Location: Junction City Kansas Zone 6a

Those are the bugs I had this summer. Zillions of them on each squash plant. I have access to a tiller, I also already have a shovel, rake, leaf rake and a bucket full of hand tools. The man 3 houses from me always had some sort of garden growing things in his back yard for as long as I can remember. I moved snow for some of the older than me (I'm 59) people, including him. He died this summer. His wife gave me 2 4' x 16' heavy cattle panels. They were cut into 8' lengths so he could handle them better. She also gave me a box containing 2 rolls of heavy, black hoses with all kinds of little gizmos that hooked up to the main hose. Had a receipt from Dripworks. I checked out their site and found out I now own all the watering stuff I could ever need. Also, got 1' x 8' strips of plywood I assume he used to cover the ground.

The plans I have been thinking about is what the neighbor did. Tilling 2 strips the width of the tiller 16' long. After tilling, gonna add compost (if I can find any) and till it in a second time. Then cover with the plywood strips until spring. Then till in more compost (if I can find what I need), stake the wire panels into the ground 4' apart, add a strip of lighter 3' wide wire panel to the top of each panel and secure them together at the top. Kinda looks like a tunnel. From the outside of either end, it should look like the letter A. That is what the man had in his yard. Just need to survive the winter to put my planting and growing plan into motion.

Ya think that Wally World would have compost or anything else I could use to add to the dirt this late in the year? They already put up some of the Thanksgiving stuff in the back garden space and the candy for scarry night is in the other lanes. This is the only place in town that I can think of where I can get stuff to add to the dirt. Good idea on how to capture the squash bugs, using the shop vac. I can see it now, "Mike, come here quick and look at what that idiot next door is doing. He is using his sweeper to clean his plants. Call the nut house cops".

I'm going out now to look for some large river rocks so I can make a fire pit for the wife. Gotta keep her happy, ya know. Will swing by China Mart and see what they have left sitting out in the area. Thanx you guys for the info so far. I am sure I will have many more questions to ask before I actually put little plants into the ground next year. She does not want anything else grown than what I listed, unless I can find a money tree to cultivate and harvest from.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

At the end of the season most of the department stores will discount their gardening supplies and make room for the seasonal items. It can be hard to find things for the garden now unless you go to a garden shop or an agricultural supplier. I have learned to store extra peat moss and perlite to last me through the latter part of the year since they can be hard to find. When you are out in the middle of the ocean where 90% of everything has to be shipped in, it is hard to get some items since they don't get a priority for shipping and bulky items are shipped in space available.

There are several composting facilities in Kansas where you can get compost. Fort Riley looks to be the closest to you if you have access. The compost is free for Fort Riley residents but you would have to ask about non-residents or know somebody in Fort Riley.
https://www.riley.army.mil/News/ArticleD ... enter.aspx
https://www.compostguys.net/ks/compost-in-fort-riley/

mech1369dlw
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Joined: Mon Jun 13, 2011 2:22 am
Location: Junction City Kansas Zone 6a

Well, after the cold front came by, dropping the temp from 92 to 75 in 30 minutes, I tilled the first 16' row. The ground was as hard as Superman's knee cap. Had to do it a couple inches down with each pass. At 6" deep, I was mining rocks. Big ones, little ones, hard ones. Had the ball and chain (wife) out there directing the show. Every time I turned a rock, I stopped the rotation and she or I picked up rocks. Got a couple bushel baskets of them. Got a couple farmers that I shoot with at the range that told me they have 1 year old horse droppings. I can have all I want. They said that is what they use for their gardens.

Gonna go cry now. Vibration from that tiller has my hands feeling like they were pounded with hammers long, hard and a lot. Most I have used them for the past 5 years or so is holding a Mountain Dew and a sandwich. If my arms work tomorrow, I will attempt the second row and then visit the farmers. I figure to get the earth soft, then add whatever. Good evening all.

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jal_ut
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Location: Northern Utah Zone 5

When the leaves come off the trees, the leaves can go on the garden to be tilled in this fall. Grass clippings too.



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