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).

Absolutely keep watering. Fescue seed is very well characterized. It will not germinate until the second week, so next week you will start to see new seedlings. Then by Saturday you should really see it come in. By the 3rd week it should be up at 80% of germination. I strongly disagree with repeated top dressing of a homeowner lawn. Here is a picture of a yard where they topdressed 1/4-inch every year...for 40 years. You can see where it is piled up about a foot against the stop sign, and they had to install landscape edging to keep the soil from flowing onto the sidewalk. Adding new soil increases the chances of bringing in weed seeds and adds nothing of benefit to a healthy soil. If you really want to top dress with something, use 100% compost with no sand or top soil in the mix. Here is a picture of a yard that has never top dressed with any sand or top soil. This is what it should look like. Of course the types of grass are different allowing one to be mowed at 3/4-inch while the other is mowed at 4 inches, but the lack of mounding is pretty clear in the second one. If you want to save yourself some time and money, don't use compost either. The idea of compost was the mainstay of organic gardening during the Rodale period from the late 1920s through the 1990s. In the 1990s it was discovered that the reason soils were either healthy or unhealthy had to do with the near 100,000 different species of microbes living in the soil. Before that it was believed that there definitely a dozen different species which can be grown on a Petri dish and there may be as many as 50, which for some reason were not able to survive in a laboratory. But DNA testing proved there are more like 100,000 species. We are not in the transition stage from Rodale to what I believe could become known as the Ingham stage for Dr Elaine Ingham. What we know now is that simply feeding the microbes already living in the soil is plenty. When the microbes at the very surface are well fed, the microbes living in the soil below feed off of the waste products of the surface microbes as well as the dead surface microbes themselves. Those well fed subsurface microbes produce plant food in response to the plants' excretion of sugars from roots. This biological process will eventually be taught in schools, but for now it is considered "miraculous." If you want to read more about it, please click here. Get comfortable because there are at least 50 pages including the images. You can feed your soil microbes by scattering organic fertilizer or, as many of us are doing, livestock feed. If you look at the ingredients of organic fertilizer and livestock feed, you'll see the same list of materials including soybean meal, alfalfa, corn, wheat, cottonseed, flax, and other feed stuffs. Look at the label of any dry dog or cat food - same ingredients. These provide basis food to soil microbes. Food means protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. The difference between these materials and compost is compost is the result if you allow these food materials to decompose. Whereas if you apply them directly to the soil, you get the full benefit of the food immediately (well, 3 weeks later) in the form of green grass. Mother Nature has been feeding Her plants like this for billions of years. It took us until the late 1990s to figure it out and a few more years to develop a simple plan to try and duplicate what She does. Now here is a picture of a test of alfalfa pellets used as the only fertilizer on a zoysia lawn. This picture was posted here by mrmumbles in June of 2011. The fertilizer was applied in mid May. You can see the improved color, density, and growth. I use this picture often to demonstrate that these ground grains are real fertilizers and not gimmicks. If you try this test this time of year your results will vary considerably from mrmumbles post-springtime test. Soil temps are dropping now which reduces the activity level of the microbes; however, the microbes still need food for the winter. Just don't expect to see such a miracle in your lawn right now. For many of these same reasons, I don't like core aerating either. Bringing up the cores resurfaces old weed seeds for germination. It also does not allow as much air in as you think. I used to have the math on this handy, but we've pretty much stopped talking about it. In essence, the cores allow a certain amount of oxygen to the soil. But when you have hundreds of miles of healthy but microscopic fungal hyphae opening up the pores in the soil, the benefits are much more real and even noticeable in the soil. You get these results with microbe food (the grains listed above) and with proper watering - not with core aerating. Sorry for the lecture but I really don't like the idea of top dressing with anything unless it has protein in it. Anyway I believe your seed will be fine. What you have lost is the opportunity to reseed if this does not come in or if it comes in thin. Next year, get started renovating in August.

I'm in z 5, a newbie at roses and still somewhat perplexed. I started a hedge with 3 bushes (no snickering, please) of J&P White Simplicity. They said they are hardy and no need to cover. I did mound soil up around the bases last winter. One plant wintered over well, a second did ok but few blooms and a third is still struggling at the end of the second season -- I had to prune it back in the spring and it stayed small and hasn't bloomed. I added 3 Austins (Winchester Cathedral, below) which have done nicely but were planted late due to shipping problems. They took a long time to establish and have bloomed, and while not profusely, they are still blooming this week. I red the rose FAQ here. Wondering if anyone has a recommendation for a roses-for-dummies type book? I'm not adding any more plants until I learn more about them, though I do admit I've learned more by planting and seeing what happens than by what I've read anywhere so far. Planning to winterize by mounding with dirt, though the bud unions are quite deep. They will need winter protection. Does anyone have pix of the burlap protection or a method for doing it? I'll likely wait until the end of November for that. We had a first frost this past week. TIA

Ohhh most likely a S. x' Scarlet bell ' a slight chance its a S. leucohpylla google the last one and see what you come up with i just got my first one recntly. Hear is a photo of my scarlet bell (im preaty sure its a scarlet bell hybrid) As much as every one wants them indoors, Trust us we all do! They do best out doors in lots of sun! If you cant put them out its ok, you can keep them in but they will do alot happyer if they are indoors, pluss youre Sar will get a bit big for staying indoors. WE would all put out our Neps if we could, but they cant stay out all summer and lighting them during the winter is preaty tuff w/ out a green house. so put out youre Plants, but if you really want them indoors i would get a few lights. Cheers