Any more ideas for small flowered plants? The herbs suggested are either biennials or flower too late for wave 1 of SVBs here. I love cosmos, so I'm all for planting some admidst the squash, but more is better if you ask me. SVBs are our big enemy, and I'd love to attract more parasitic wasps. I'm a little leery of importing insects, even beneficials, though. Two years ago, I let my son (my gardening buddy & a future biologist) get a praying mantis egg case. We both noticed a big reduction in overall insect activity last year - we even wondered if there were fewer bees of all sorts. Those PMs were sure something! We decided as much fun as they were to watch hatching (a bit gross, too - they ate one another) - it's just too imbalancing to our previously healthy ecosystem. I'd imagine parasitic wasps wouldn't be like dropping a bomb like PMs, though. Anyone have experience importing them? (the wasps)

The damage the borer does prevents water uptake through the damaged stem. If there is too much damage before you get the little bugger out of there, then you lose the plant because it can't get water to the plant from the roots. So if you carefully slit lengthwise up the stem and gently pry it apart and remove the little white grub, then you can minimize the damage. Burying the stem both prevents the stem from drying out further and carries the hope that new roots may form above the damage. This is part of the reason why Vining types of squash are better able to handle SVB attack. They tend to put down roots along the trailing vine, so if the plant can't get water from the main roots, those trailing vine roots can sustain the plant. For me 6 out of 8 plants were attacked. My vining butternuts escaped and of the 6 attacked, I was able to save 4 of them by removing the critters. It probably would have been 5, but the stem of one of my acorns was hidden by some bush beans and I didn't see the damage until it was too late. Score one for the bugs. On another, though, I caught the damage even though it was on the underside of the vine and not visible from above. Those bugs are TRICKY! Score one for me. Ha! Best of luck! Susan

Hey Bluethumb, I was offline for the weekend, too busy in the garden. But I'm really glad to hear that your cukes perked up again. Like others have mentioned, I suspect that they were suffering from overwatering while in the peat pots. Then the stress of transplanting made them weak, which is exactly when the bugs move in for a munch. Now that they are perking up, try not to overwater. A good test is to dig a small hole in the ground with your finger - if the soil is moist down to 1 inch, you're good, no need to water. I agree with kimmsr that letting the plants wilt puts them under stress, but it is definitely a sign that they're ready for a drink. Many plants will wilt in the midday sun whether the soil is moist or not, so don't be fooled by that. Water deeply rather than frequently - once the plants are established, one inch of water a week should be fine. About your compost pile, your friend is right, there's no need to get fancy or to worry too much about carbon to nitrogen ratios and all the other technical stuff you'll read. Pile it up good, turn it once in a while, and be patient. I don't know how much space you have, but I like to use a 3-pile system, so that I have one pile ready in early spring, one in the fall and one on the go. I usually start a new pile or two every spring and add to it over the spring and summer. The bottom layer of that pile will be ready in the Fall. I skim off the top of the spring/summer pile that hasn't decomposed and use it to start a new pile in the fall and add to it all winter. The top of the winter pile gets turned into the spring pile, and so on. I'm not that scientific about it, I just use what's ready and turn what's not. You should try to have a good mix of browns (e.g. Fall leaves, small twigs, dry grass) and greens (e.g. grass clippings, kitchen scraps, weeds that have not gone to seed) so that your pile is never too wet and turns into a sloppy mass - but even that I don't worry about too much. Just turn regularly and use whatever looks closest to dirt. If you can recognize what the material is, it's not ready to use. If it smells earthy and looks like dirt - use it!

Hi Jamie, I am in Menasha. Since we share the same climate, I will tell you about all of my recent experimentation. I bought a lot of liners and 4" pots last year from Q & Z (Mark Zilis, author of The Hostapedia) down in Rochelle, IL. Some are for me, some are to sell...basically to help pay for my habit. I really enjoy selling perennials from my garden, I've met a lot of nice people doing it. I don't have any plans to get a greenhouse. Some years I feel like running sales, some years, I don't. This year, I will not sell much and that's just fine by me. Bottom line, this is my hobby, not my livelihood. Here's what I did with my purchases...lots of variety in methods, lots of success. Most of what I did came from direct advice from other people here on the forum, like Carol (just1morehosta) and Ken. The 4" pots, and larger. Turned on their sides, stacked in a bottomless wooden box (picture a coffin) that's about 18" high. The "coffin" is sort of snuggled on the north side of my property between two mounds of soil and this area receives very minimal sun. I had planned to lay a few unopened bags of mulch over them once they were fully frozen, but I never did get out there to do it and the coffin was pretty much covered with snow the whole season, so it worked out ok. I think I lost two or three 4" pots (all plantaginea and Katie Q). I had a 4 gallon Eola Sapphire in there that did not make it, and 1 that did. (By the way, I also stacked about 20 one gallon pots on the north side of my garage, no coverage but the snow. Everything survived there except for one pot, and that was Great Expectations, known to be finicky, even when planted/established. For the liners... 1/2 of the liners were planted in my field garden in rows, planted from late September to mid October. Losses seem to be variety related...but also those happened to be the mid October plantings, so I would be sure to get in the ground by mid Sept if I do that again. (I knew I was taking a risk with such late plantings.) I did not mulch the plants...I might have taken measures to avoid them freezing/thawing in the spring, but our spring this year didn't seem to demand extra precautions. If I do this again, I might cover them with bales of straw once the ground is frozen hard. I'd say I lost less than 5%, so I am pleased. 1/3 of the liners I repotted into 3" pots in early September. Most of these were overwintered successfully in the "coffin" on their sides, but some were in my unheated garage. Both came back, 100%. Lastly, I had about 2 trays of liners (there are 96 plants in a tray) that never got handled in the fall. They overwintered in my garage and I had nearly 100% survival. I did not water them at all. They were outside until about mid-October. I was advised to not over water them so I did keep them slightly on the dry side in Sept/Oct. I brought them in as soon as we started having night temps near freezing, because I didn't want them going through freeze/thaw cycles. I monitored them carefully this spring and put them outside on my driveway near the spigot so that I could water them as needed. They sure were different in their growth...some had me worried, but in the end I think I only lost 2 or 3 little plants out of 192...all the same variety. About 24 liners, I planted in late October on the north side of those dirt mounds where my "coffin" is. All of those made it just fine. I learned a lot and I'm actually glad that I did so many methods. The others are correct also, that some of the liners are actually quite large when you get them. I hope this gives you some insight...there are many ways to grow these little babies. I do believe that the particular weather patterns of the winter probably played a large part in the success. If I am overwintering such babies ever again, I will make a greater effort to either plant them by early September and/or make sure that they are better insulated to protect against greater temp fluctuations, or lack of snow cover. We should get together...I'm recovering from surgery right now and going to Mpls for the convention next week...but I'll be home most of July. Your gardens look lovely. Mine are all overgrown with weeds right now and the rains just keep helping them along!