Believe me, Nancy, it's brutal to us, too... but we know we have to endure it at times, and so we have gear ready! Warm coats and boots, hats and mittens, snow shovels and bags of salt, and basements filled with potted plants awaiting nicer weather! :-) My poor banana tree has like two leaves left... hurry spring! After a winter of rest, I finally gave my baskets of Oxalis a drink... I've got 4 baskets hanging in the basement... I hope they did ok over the past few months. What a day! Up early with a splitting headache... got my work done early... and went back to bed! Just woke up for the second time today... fill me up with coffee, please! :-)

Disposal - I recomend pulling up your squash and tossing them into a trash bag then tie it off (that is where 2/3 zuccinis are residing now). Prevention/treatment - I had never grow squash before and was introdued to the SVB back in april. After fighting a loosing battle of picking eggs every day I learned that my local nursery sprays with BT (just as zinia said) but unlike her method they spray the entire plant. Although the most damage is done on the main stem SVB will lay eggs all over the stalks and enter there and eat there way to the main stem. While making there way down they will kill the stalk which wilts which attracts other critters. The frequency of the spray will need to be every 2-5 days depending on the temp. I sprayed every 2 days in the morning and it does work (temps were in the 90s). I went out of town for a week and sure enough a few had gotten in the main stem, so I injected the stem with BT and no more frass. This is alot of work for just the 3 plants but it is the only thing that I have found that works. Keep in mind I'm trying to stay organic so there may be other pesticides that work but I don't know them. I got sick of squash and stopped spraying with BT about 3 weeks ago. Didn't take long for the SVBs to get them see images below zucchini in july (you can see borer damage done in May on 2nd image but plant recovered after BT injection and prevenitive BT sprays) http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m413/Johnny_Lee_3/gardenjuly08026.jpg http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m413/Johnny_Lee_3/gardenjuly08058.jpg http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m413/Johnny_Lee_3/gardenjuly08070.jpg zucchini today after I stopped BT spray for 3 weeks. Side not as soon as the SVB started to weaken the plants they started to get infested with aphids and whiteflies. http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m413/Johnny_Lee_3/Picture002.jpg http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m413/Johnny_Lee_3/Picture004.jpg Hope this helps. Didn't have any problems with squash bugs so can't help there. PS - I tried the following for SVBs and none of them worked: mothballs, garlic spray, neem, nastrium, collars, hand picking eggs (just too many of them and can't always reach where moth lays eggs without manhandling the plant).

Peppers, off the top of my head and without getting off the couch to check notes New Ace, King Arthur, Pinot Noir have produced well for me and we like the flavor. Carmen is a bulls horn type that is very tasty, ripens to red. Look for varieties suited to a short growing season. The last two years Beauregard has done well for me, a raised bed will be helpful in getting the soil warmed up for them. Most varieties will cover a lot of ground once they get going. I believe it's Vardaman (sp) that is more of a bush type but have never grown them so don't know about flavor or productivity. Don't forget you will need to cure them in a warm humid place for 7-10 days. Curing helps them keep in storage and converts the starches to sugars, developing the flavors. Onions, starting with plants will get you off to a good start. Copra is an excellent storage onion, Walla Walla's do well but are best used within approx a month of harvest. Big Daddy produces very large onions that will store for 3 or 4 months. Again onions that you plan to store need to be cured. As much as possible your garlic should be rotated to a different bed each year, you might want to put your onions an garlic in the same bed and move them each year to a different bed, Rotating crops is always a good idea if possible.

The word is "Hugelkultur". That's what my mom used to practice, on a small scale. When preparing a vegetable bed, she would strip the area of all the top vegetation - weeds, ferns, shrubs, saplings. She then strips the layer of top soil and put this aside. Next she would dig a trench in the ground - orientated north-south lengthwise. How deep this trench is depends on how difficult the soil is to work on. In this trench, she would throw in all the woody twigs, small trunks, and rotten debris. Next, she would cover this with the weeds/ferns/saplings that she collected from clearing the area. She compacts this down with a "hoe". She uses the top soil she had previously set aside to complete the final layer. The final result is a long mound on which she would grow her spring onions, pak choi, chilli, etc. The mound usually ends up about 20 feet long, about 3-4 feet wide, and approximately 2 feet high. It often ends up not looking all that pretty - it would be crooked, and the height and width would vary. But, boy didn't it produce good crops!! (She would grow sun/heat loving crops n the west side of the mound, and the less sun tolerant types on the east side.). She uses fern leaves to mulch the soil. A heavy tropical down pour would easily wash away the top layer of good soil if left unmulched. I did not know, until recently, that this technique of vegetable growing that my mom used to practise more than 40 years ago actually has a more fancy name "Hugelkultur", done on a much larger scale. Now-a-days, in addition to maintaining a compose bin, I collect the larger chunks of organic waste by setting them aside in a pile through the growing season. In the winter, I trench the beds, throw in all the organic materials, together with any kitchen wastes that may be sitting around, and build up my "Hugelkultur" bed - albeit on a small scale.