The garden has been beautiful and producing lots of tomatoes, squash, eggplant, basil, and peppers. Yesterday our worst fears came true! There are bugs in the squash plants!! OH NO!! Daniel spent time digging each one out of the stems of these huge squash plants. I'm not exactly sure how he figured out they were in there but when I got home yesterday afternoon he had torn some of the plants completely out and was in process of digging out the rest of the grubs from inside the stems. Apparently they are some kind of wasp that lays eggs inside the stem and the the little babies come out and eat the plant from the inside out. Crazy. It is so sad to see the destruction. I'm being dramatic. It is true that we should have expected some critters in the garden. But it is a sad fact that it happened to our squash. We will plant some more after the 4th. Thankfully I was pretty much sick of squash since we've been eating it every day for several weeks. But I will miss the zucchini.
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The infamous "squash vine borer." I just got home from an errand and stopped by "Grier's Garden," a famous suburban garden here in Charlotte where Mr. Grier grows beautiful veggies and sells to his upscale neighborhood clients (on the honor system, no less -- yes, he's in his 70's, from an era where you trusted your neighbors). He had a big pile of squash plants he had pulled out of his garden (out of the 100+ he has planted) that had been killed by the squash vine borer, just like yours. So you're in good company! I asked if he had ever found a defense against them, and he said, "Nope -- just plant plenty of squash."
wow. i have to meet william. what a guy.
just mentioning babies being laid in the stems totally makes me cringe.
pass along some squash recipes. we'll have some in the coming months.
Two days later and the squash that I tried to save are still strong. I had to dig into the stems of all the plants to dig out grubs. But the ones that had less severe damage I left. It is a good reminder that every living is a killing. We did wrap the stems in aluminum foil (thanks for the idea dad) and hope they will heal and continue to produce squash. We shall see.
daniel
Hi Jen and Daniel - I love keeping up with your family and all that's going on. You seem to have such an interesting life!
The girls are beautiful and you both look pretty good too!!!
Love, Helen Penfield
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