Well...as the title says this is my first year of kitchen gardening. I planted a whole bunch of things and everything was growing rapidly and I had lots and lots and LOTS of fruits and vegetables growing. I started most from seed but also bought some plants (Sugar Baby Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Acorn Squash and butternut squash).

I had some surgery in mid June and wasn't able to tend to the garden but that didn't stop it from growing. It hadn't done much before my sugery but while I was "off" the garden took off... once I was feeling better I decided it needed to be weeded. This FYI, is now in late July. This is where I start running into problems....

First - I noticed gnaw marks of some of the nearly ripened items (a few acorn squash and the 1 butternut I had). It was nothing major and I attributed this to the fact that you (and animals) could now SEE the vegetables after weeding. It only happened this one time and not since. But as I was admiring the cleaned up garden, I noticed that the butternut squash had some yellow leaves near. I then uncovered a nearly crisp and nearly hollowed out stalk and a big slug right by it. I thought slugs ate leaves only?! Was this something else that causes this? I hadn't had any problems previously with any pests and I have been adding nothing but water and sunlight into here. I bought some slug killer but that was more for my hostas....I really like the idea of a completely natural and organic garden - even if it means some lost crops.

Fast forward to today, nearly a month later - the end of August. Everything was still growing nice and fine and then today I noticed the whole garden with those 4 store bought items was wilting and had many crisp leaves and/or yellow leaves. Some of a powery substance which I am assuming must be powdery mildew. Before today, the leaves were so full and dense it was nearly impossible to see what was growing, but now all the squashes and melons are visible since the fullness of the leaves disappeared. I also noticed that some of the newly growing acorn squash with squishy and juicy. I took a closer look and found some sort of insect that looks like a fruit fly and its larva on the rind that faces to the ground. I inspected my larger, more mature squash and they are uninfected. I moved onto the Cantaloupe and all 6 of my not quite ripe melons had them! I am so angry! I brushed them off and have left them for the time being...not sure if they are inside and even if the melons will continue to grow with the diseases it is suffering through...

Moving onto my sugar babies....I have one that I think maybe ready for harvesting and two that seem to be stunted. I had dozens more but them must have died off with the trauma as well. Since everything (including the leaves) are dying...I'm not sure how to tell if it is ripe since the traditional, tendril method may fail me.

Lastly...my butternut squash is not fully ripe...but I would hate to loose it to these pests and since the vine is quickly dying I'm worried it won't be growing much anyway. I'm wondering if I should harvest it now...

Any advice/tips would be much appreciated!!

I'll post photos after I take some...