Photo found on Flickr.com, courtesy of adactio.

The joke in Maine is that when August comes around it’s best to lock your car doors, otherwise you’re likely to find a pile of zucchini on the back seat when you get back. With such a glut of zucchini, it’s hard to believe that these popular vegetables are subject to a whole host of destructive diseases.

Following are descriptions of some of the most common diseases of zucchini, with tips for controlling them and links for more information.

Phytophthora blight is a serious fungal disease that affects members of the cucurbit, or squash, family, including zucchini. It causes damping off of seedlings, leaf spots, foliar blight, root rot, crown rot, fruit rot, and stem lesions.

Gardeners can manage phytophthora blight by planting zucchini in well-drained fields. To prevent the blight from spreading it’s important to separate zucchini from other susceptible crops such as eggplant, tomato, and other squashes. Gardeners should also (1) plant zucchini in hills or domes, rather than on flat ground; (2) use resistant varieties; and (3) clean tools and shoes to avoid spreading the disease.

For more information on phytophthora blight on cucurbits check out this university of Cornell extension article.

Plectosporium blight is a fungal disease that can overwinter in the ground for a number of years. The spores are spread by the wind. Cool, rainy weather promotes the spread of this blight. Gardeners can recognize the disease by the white, diamond-shaped lesions on vines and round lesions on fruit and leaves.

In severe infestations the vines and leaf petioles turn white and the leaves die. Lesions allow rot pathogens to infect the fruit.

Home gardeners can manage the disease by using trickle irrigation instead of overhead watering, plowing under crop residue after harvesting, employing a three-year crop rotation, and ensuring good air circulation in the fields. With large crops gardeners may decide to use fungicides in addition to these management techniques in order to control the disease.

You can find more information on plectosporium blight, including photographs, at this UMass extension website.

Squash mosaic virus (SqMV) is a seed borne disease spread by the spotted and striped cucumber beetles. Infected mature leaves show blistering, hardening, and a green mosaic (mottling) pattern. Leaves of young seedlings appear distorted and pale in color. Planting disease-free seed and controlling the cucumber beetles can stop SqMV.

For more information on SqMV, you can read up courtesy of the Ohio State University Extension.

Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV) is another one of a number of diseases that cause the leaf mottling known as mosaic. ZYMV is transmitted by aphids, which carry the disease on their probing mouthparts. Pokeweed and other weeds harbor viruses and serve as hosts for the insects that transmit viruses.

Controlling aphids as well as weeds around gardens can help manage the disease. The best control, however, is to plant mosaic-resistant varieties.

This will help you learn more about ZYMV and other mosaic viruses of cucurbits.

Cornell University’s Department of Plant Pathology also has an excellent fact sheet (with photographs) called Viral Diseases of Cucurbits.

Raised beds solve a number of gardening problems. Where soil is poor raised beds circumvent the arduous task of improving the soil. Instead of planting directly in the too sandy, too compacted, too depleted, or too heavy soil, you can elevate your garden and grow plants in good soil above the ground. Another advantage–the soil in raised beds warms up more quickly than the ground. For people who have limited mobility, who can’t bend or reach, or who use wheelchairs, beds raised to a convenient height make it possible for them to enjoy gardening. No matter what your reason for gardening in raised beds, you will get more crop per square foot because you don’t have to leave paths for walking between plants.

You have many choices when it comes to constructing a raised bed. Let’s look at the different approaches three gardeners took to raised bed gardening.

Mary wanted to plant a vegetable garden at her new home in South Florida. The soil in her yard was basically sand, so she decided to build up the soil on top of the ground rather than trying to improve the soil. She had loam brought in and mixed it with cow manure and sand, then mounded her nutrient-rich, well-drained soil and created a series of raised beds three feet wide. (Four feet is the maximum width for raised beds because you need to be able to reach all parts of the bed without stepping into it.) If the soil in Mary’s yard had more promise, Mary might have dug it up, added organic matter and amendments, and mounded it up to make her raised beds.

Susan is a carpenter so when it came to creating raised beds she used her skills to craft wood frames for her vegetables. Her frames were two and one-half feet high and three feet wide, making it easy to reach all areas of the bed without bending or reaching. Susan filled her raised beds with commercial organic soil mix. While Susan built her own raised bed frame, other gardeners use kits to build frames or make frames from cinderblocks, boards, bales of hay—you get the picture.

Harvey used sheet composting (also called passive composting or lasagna gardening) to create his raised beds. Sheet composting is a way to improve the soil without digging. The first step is to cut down existing plants. Then cover the area with corrugated cardboard or layers of newspaper. Cover the paper with manure or compost, then layer plant material, food scraps, leaves, and grass clippings—like you are making a compost pile. Use a mix of brown materials like dead leaves, which are rich in carbon, and green materials like fresh leaves, which are nitrogen-rich, being sure not to use grass clippings or other plant matter that has been treated with herbicides. Build the layers at least a foot high (the pile will reduce as the materials decompose). Cover the mound with straw if you’d like a more uniform appearance. Within months your garden will have a rich, balanced, and well-drained soil.

Want to learn more about raised bed gardening?

Mary, Susan, and Harvey used different methods for raised bed gardening, and theirs aren’t the only methods. To learn more about gardening in raised beds, check out the following websites:

Learn how to build a Raised Bed Garden from Texas A & M System.

Get the facts on raised bed gardening from Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet: Raised Bed Gardening.

How to Build and Install Raised Garden Beds, Popular Mechanics magazine.

Lynne Lamstein gardens in Maine and Florida and is currently working on a sustainable landscape. She has a degree in ornamental horticulture from Temple University.

Hydrangea Growing Conditions

Hydrangeas come in several varieties, with different colors of blooms and different cold hardiness levels. These beautiful shrubs like rich, moist soil. They should be in well-drained locations where water will not puddle. They do best in shade or partial shade, as full sun locations can end up burning the delicate tops of the shrubs. If they are in a full-sun spot, be sure to water frequently to help them succeed; however, hydrangeas bloom better in shady areas. They like cool soil, and will do best with afternoon shade, especially in Southern climates. Climbing hydrangeas are excellent as container plants, but need supports such as stakes or trellises to succeed. The popular bigleaf hydrangea is not easily grown in zones colder than 5, since its flower buds don’t survive cold winters well, so oakleaf or smooth hydrangeas may be a better choice for Northern gardeners.

Planting Hydrangeas

You can take cuttings from existing hydrangeas and re-root them easily. This can be done anytime from April to August. Choose cuttings that have a few pairs of leaves, but come from non-flowering shoots. These will provide the best stem growth. Root hydrangea cuttings in a partially shaded location with sandy soil. Bigleaf hydrangeas are the type that can have two different flower colors. Varieties that have naturally pink flowers sometimes will produce blue petals instead when planted in acidic soil. To turn blue flowers pink, amend the soil with lime or superphosphate at the base of the shrubs. To get blue flowers instead of pink, add aluminum sulfate around the bases. Do this several times when mulching in the fall, and once again in the early spring, before blooms appear.

Proper Hydrangea Care

Hydrangeas need regular pruning, not only to keep their shape and avoid them taking over your yard, but also to help them bloom properly the next year. For garden, bigleaf or oakleaf hydrangea, blossoms only appear on the branches from the previous year’s growth, so each year, prune back those that have bloomed already that season. The right time for pruning is in the summer, right after the flowering season is through. Prune off the old flowering shoots down to the point on the stem where new growth is forming. Smooth hydrangeas have a different pruning requirement: prune them back by half in the early spring to encourage growth. On all types, prune off any dead, broken, old, or crossing branches to keep the bushes from overgrowing themselves and weakening. In very harsh winters with severe cold temperatures, cover hydrangeas to prevent damage to their tender buds.

Want to learn more about hydrangea care?

Check out these Web sites chosen by us for more information on the subject.

Texas A&M University’s horticulture extension has hydrangea care tips.

Caring for potted hydrangeas is outlined by the University of Missouri’s Extension.

Purdue University’s Extension horticulturist provides gardening advice on hydrangeas.

There are a couple of good reasons for making your own potting soil. The most obvious is that blending your own ingredients together is cheaper than buying commercially made sterile varieties.

In addition, different plants require different soil types for healthy and productive growth. Thus, you can customize your potting soil mix to meet the needs of the plants you want to grow.

Let’s start with a basic mix that contains equal parts of peat moss, perlite OR vermiculite, compost and garden soil. The ingredients will easily blend together if you add some moisture before mixing.

Garden lime, soybean or kelp meals, and rock phosphate can be added to provide additional nutrients that can feed a plant for up to a year. If you choose to include these, add a handful of each.

If you research basic potting soil recipes, you will find some variations. It really is often a matter of personal preference. You can make potting soil using a mixture of 25 percent perlite, 25 percent compost and 50 percent peat moss.

Another option is to mix sphagnum peat moss and vermiculite in equal amounts. Add five pounds of ground limestone, which is available at most gardening and hardware stores, for each cubic yard of the potting soil mix.

A basic potting soil mix for plant seedlings can be made by mixing two parts each of compost and peat moss. Add one part vermiculite or perlite. The vermiculite should be moistened before adding it to the potting soil mix.

A good soil recipe for annuals is a combination of one part each of coarse sand, composted pine bark, worm casing, composted manure and expanded slate, which is produced my heating the slate many times to expand its original volume so that it becomes a good lightweight aggregate.

The worm casings and the manure used in the recipe above provide vital nutrients and can eliminate or vastly reduce the need for extra feeding or fertilizing.

You can mix the ingredients in a wheelbarrow or garden cart. One means is to simply place the peat moss, perlite, compost and garden soil into the container and use a hoe to thoroughly mix the ingredients. Use the hoe to rake everything in one direction. When the mix is all in the front of the wheelbarrow, repeat the process and rake it to the back of the container. Repeat as often as necessary until all ingredients are well blended.

You can also mix the ingredients in just about any large container. Running the mix through a one-quarter inch screen helps remove unwanted lumps from the potting soil mixture.

If making potting soil seems like a big job, think on a larger scale and make enough for a year or two at a time. Your homemade potting soil mixtures can easily be stored by placing the blended mix in a plastic trash bag or a bucket and set it aside for later use.

Want more information about making your own potting soils?

Organic Gardening Magazine has compiled a list for a variety of potting soil recipes.

Visit the University of Illinois Extension’s Illinois Vegetable Garden Guide for information concerning the preparation and care of soil.

Learn more about Organic Potting Mix Basics for basic information on organic potting mixes.

Healthy Gardens Start with Healthy Soil

Healthy soil is the key to growing delicious and nutritious food. But what exactly is soil? And what makes it healthy?

Soil is a blend of organic material, water, air, and minerals. The organic matter comes from plant roots, microorganisms, and decaying plants and animals. When the organic material decays it feeds the plants that are growing in the soil. Although organic material makes up only five percent of the soil, it’s the source of the nutrients that plants need to thrive.

If your plants are weak and your yield low, or if you have major insect and disease problems, it’s likely because your soil lacks adequate nutrients and is either too acidic or too alkaline. You can learn the acidity or alkalinity of the soil—the pH of the soil—and the nutrient levels from a soil test. Different crops require different pH and nutrients; soil test reports make recommendations for adjusting your soil to the crops you want to grow. You can get inexpensive soil test kits from your state’s cooperative extension service.

Composting

The best way to improve soil is to add organic matter, and composting is one of the best, if not the best, ways to do that. When you add compost to your soil you improve soil structure, aerate the soil, add nutrients, and improve the ability of the soil to hold water and nutrients. You can make compost in an open heap or an enclosed bin. Piles should be at least four feet high by four feet wide (the length doesn’t matter) in order to get hot enough to kill any weeds. Manure, sawdust, seaweed, kitchen scraps, leaves (shredding them first helps), and grass clippings are good compost materials. What you use depends on what’s readily and cheaply available. But don’t use bones, meat, and fat because they attract animals. And be sure not to use grass clipping that have been treated with herbicides.

Mulching

Mulching is another great way to improve the health and fertility of your soil. Aged manure, chopped leaves, grass clippings, and straw are just a few of the mulching materials that add organic matter to the soil. (Again, avoid anything that has been treated with herbicide.) In fact, adding one pound of leaves per square foot of garden every year provides all the nutrients your soil needs for growing great vegetables. Plus, mulch helps keep the soil moist and weed free.

Green Manure

Mulching and composting aren’t the only ways to add organic material to the soil. Green manure is a term used for a crop that is grown for the purpose of improving soil fertility. (It also helps prevent erosion, keeps weeds away, and improves the structure of the soil.) Grains such as buckwheat, oats, peas, beans, and clover are common green manure crops. Your extension service can advise you on the best green manure for your garden.

Fertilizer

For the first few years your garden may need fertilizer, until the soil has enough organic content. Fish emulsion, kelp, and soil amendments are organic additives that can help jumpstart your garden.

Learn More About Your Soil

Want to learn more about how to build healthy soil? Here are three terrific websites with great information. Check them out.

MOFGA, the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, has this fact-filled and interesting page that covers the basics of organic soil fertility in great detail.

Learn about Building Healthy Soil from the Virginia Tech Extension.

Organic Gardening Magazine online has an entire section on compost and soil, including information about soil tests and how-to techniques for improving your soil.

Best Location for a Square Foot Garden

A square foot garden is a plant-intensive type of container gardening that’s great for small spaces. Before starting your square foot garden, choose a good spot. It should get at least 6 to 8 hours of sun each day, so observe the location beforehand. Build it away from trees and shrubs, since their roots can interfere. Find a well-drained location that does not collect puddles when it rains.

Layout and Design of Garden

You may want to start with just one box, or you may start with several. Arrange them in squares, not rows, to keep your planting, weeding and watering work efficient. Plan for walkways between boxes; make them wide enough to walk comfortably and get down close to the boxes, at least two or three feet wide. You can make your boxes two feet, three feet, or four feet on a side. Don’t build one wider than four feet, or it’ll get hard to reach the plants.

Building the Garden Box

Use untreated lumber, which is rougher, but avoids the possibility of chemicals from treated lumber leaching into your soil. Plan on having boxes at least 6 to 8 inches deep. Boards that are 1 by 6 or 2 by 6 are good choices. A power drill with a screwdriver bit and some deck-type screws will work great to fit the boxes together. If you plan to put the boxes on existing grass, you will want to lay down a tarp, cardboard, or landscape cloth underneath to keep grass or weeds from sprouting up inside your garden.

Soil and Compost for Square Foot Gardening

Square foot gardening relies on rich, loose soil, not the usual garden soil from your yard. A rule of thumb is to use one-third heavy compost, one-third peat moss, and one-third coarse vermiculite. Be sure the compost you use is true, dark compost; you may want to use your own compost made at home rather than relying on commercial mixes.

Creating a Square Foot Grid

You also need a grid of some kind to fit on top of the boxes before planting, to keep plants separate and plan your square foot garden. The lines of the grid should divide the box into square feet. If you have some thin scrap wood or plastic around, you can nail a grid together out of it, or some gardeners just use heavy string tied across the box from nails pounded into the box edges every foot.

Planting in a Raised Bed Garden

You can grow any plant you want in a square foot garden, but vegetables and herbs are common inhabitants, since this design is meant to increase produce yields. Use the recommended seed spacing on the seed packet, and plant just one in a square if it says to plant them 12 inches apart. If the packet calls for six-inch spacing, put four in one square; four-inch spacing allows nine seeds; and three-inch spacing means you can put sixteen seeds in one square. Cover seeds shallowly with loose soil, and water right away.

How to Care for & Harvest from a Square Foot Garden

In a square foot garden, watering is needed more often than in a conventional garden, but varies with your plants. Note their water requirements, water more during hot or dry spells in the summer, and use lukewarm water in the spring, to help warm up the soil. You can plant more than one crop in a square foot if your first one is harvested early, such as June peas. Just add fresh compost, and replant with a mid-season crop like turnip or winter cauliflower.

Want to learn more about square foot gardening?

Check out these Web sites chosen by us for more information on the subject.

Learn from the original square foot gardening method plus resources, at SquareFootGardening.com.

Check maturity dates for planning multiple crops from Hume Seeds.

Mother Earth News writes about an organic gardener’s square foot garden.

Kim Slotterback-Hoyum is a Michigan-based freelance writer. She has been a proofreader, writer, reporter and editor at monthly, weekly and daily publications for five years. She has a Bachelor of Science in writing and minor in journalism from Northern Michigan University. Besides writing, her interests include gardening, traveling and reading.

Use The Rain

It’s a challenge for most gardeners to make sure their prized plants thrive in the heat and dryness of summer sometimes. You can keep your water costs down and conserve water by making the most out of what nature provides in the form of rain. A rain barrel is the tried-and-true way of collecting rainfall for your garden. You can purchase them at home and garden centers, or make one yourself out of an old oil drum, food service barrel or industrial sized trashcan, and a filtering system. Just be sure any reused barrel is well washed so no chemicals end up in your garden. You may also have to add a gutter extension or downspout to be sure your rain is collected effectively. But once you put in the effort of setting up the rain barrel, it will repay you many times in saved water and money.

Time It Right

Take advantage of nature again when you do water, and do so in the early morning. This is when plants best absorb water, and it is cool enough for the heat of the sun not to evaporate water quickly. Keep a rain gauge outside near your garden, and check it before watering. You may find out that there has already been enough natural rainfall that you don’t need to water that day. Not only will this conserve water, but it also will keep you from falling into the common gardening pitfall of overwatering.

Help The Soil

Applying mulch is the most basic thing you can do to help your plants conserve water well. Spread a light layer of mulch around the base of your plantings and trees. This helps keep moisture in the soil where the plants’ roots can reach it, and prevents water loss through evaporation. In a garden, you can instead add moisture-retaining organic soil amendments like well-mixed compost or humus.

Choose Dry Plants

If you are adding plants to your garden or landscaping, think about how much water they will need first. To truly conserve yard and garden water, choose xeriphytic plants that do well with little watering. This doesn’t have to mean desert plants like cacti or other succulents; depending on your area, you might choose evergreens, live oaks, coneflowers or asters, or tough shrubs like beach plum or serviceberry.

Drip Irrigation

A time-tested method of water conservation in the garden is to water your plants using drip or soaker hoses. These porous rubber or plastic hoses don’t require high water pressure or gallons of water, but simply drip out water throughout the day right at the base of the plants where it’s needed. This way, you don’t waste water by spraying onto plant surfaces, and you don’t lose as much water to evaporation.

Want to learn more about water conservation?

Check out these Web sites chosen by us for more information on the subject.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service has a tip sheet on backyard water conservation.

The horticulture extension at the University of Georgia has a useful guide to conserving water in vegetable gardens.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has everything you could want to know about water conservation at home.

Kim Slotterback-Hoyum is a Michigan-based freelance writer. She has been a proofreader, writer, reporter and editor at monthly, weekly and daily publications for five years. She has a Bachelor of Science in writing and minor in journalism from Northern Michigan University. Besides writing, her interests include gardening, traveling and reading.

Check out P. Allen Smith, garden designer, give some composting tips. He even hosts a gardening show on public television. It’s a short video. But, he gives some great tips on composting and composting ideas for the fall.

Here’s the video in a nutshell:

Smith says composting is an easy way to help the environment by reusing garden, yard, and kitchen wastes. And, fall is a great time to get a compost bin started! It’s funny how gardeners are sometimes philosophers. He relates composting to a life philosophy: You get out of your compost what you put into it! Really, they’re wise words.

Avoid these items in compost:
Diseased Plants
Weeds
Meat, Bones, Fatty Wastes
Animal Litter

Great Compost Materials:
Grass Clippings
Leaves
Sawdust
Hay/Straw
Kitchen Scraps
Halloween Jack-O’-Lanterns

With the abundance of yard wastes and garden debris, fall makes a great time to start a compost bin. Oh, and throw that rotting Jack-O’-Lantern in off the front steps, and you’re set!

And don’t forget that there’s also the option of worm composting. If you’re in Europe, you might consider a worm farm from Wurmwelten.de.

Ok, this is just funny. While Yolanda Vanveen is completely educated in her field, this is comical. But, she really does bring up a good point—compost as an alternative to fertilizer.

The funny part to watch is her comments about fish and bone meal fertilizers, especially the fish part. It’s just a two minute video, and it’s a hoot. When did fish meal not become natural?

Her point is a good one, but maybe not stressed enough. Adding compost to flower beds does make a difference. And if it’s good compost, it will be rich in nutrients. Thus, being a great alternative to fertilizer.

But, it’s still funny to watch her talk about not wanting to add bodily fluids to her gardening beds. What? And, she doesn’t think fish are natural. Again, what?