With Silver Bells and Cockle Shells and Zucchini Plants All in a Row…

As promised, here are a few more things I’ve learned from gardening this year. Hopefully this will be of help to some.

  1. Weeds are lousy.
  2. See above. Okay, seriously, I know I’ve talked about weeds before but they are really hard to keep a handle on. As I’ve been thinking about weeds more, I’ve realized how interesting they are. For instance, no one has to plant them. They just show up. Uninvited. They grow fast, overnight it seems. Also, they don’t have anything that wants to eat them. Apparently, the pesky insects that eat my zucchini plants also know that weeds are no good. Because of that, they can really take over.
  3. Zucchini plants can get these little whitish-gray beetles on them and take over the plants. It’s gross! My zucchini plants had been crawling with these little things. I had sprinkled some Sevin Dust (it’s actually spelled that way) on them but we have had so much rain this year that it kept washing off. I debated sprinkling more but we are tired of zucchini around here so just let the little guys go at it. The beetles sure seemed to be enjoying them!
  4. You can plant some seeds now for various veggies and have a fall crop! I planted some radishes and turnips so we’ll see how they turn out. I don’t remember the last time I had a turnip.
  5. Compost is cool! It’s amazing that all those things I put in there turns into this dirt-looking stuff, and it doesn’t smell like rotting food! One way to know if you have the right mix of stuff in there is if your compost has an “earthy” smell. If it stinks, you need to add more dry stuff (dry leaves or grass clippings).
  6. Your compost pile needs to be turned every now and then but be prepared! There are all kinds of things living in the pile: ants (lots and lots of them!), spiders, zucchini beetles (if you put your dead zucchini plants in there), crickets, grasshoppers. If you compost it, they will come…

All in all, I like having a garden and will probably do it again next year. I don’t think I’ll be doing zucchini however, but you probably already figured that out!

3 Replies to “With Silver Bells and Cockle Shells and Zucchini Plants All in a Row…”

  1. It’s fun that you can pass your wisdom on. Next year, depending on where we are and what we are doing, I am thinking that I am going to have a garden too. I have a few plants in containers now, but I would love to have a variety. And yep, I think compost is cool too!

  2. I concur with April. Compost is cool! I too, hope to plant a garden next year. I will call you for help:)

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