There I was - minding my own business - enjoying a very pleasant morning in the garden. Admiring all the little blossoms on my plants. Those pretty yellow blossoms that say "hey, I'm doin' okay". Well, I don't know that they're saying that, but if they could talk they might say that.
I think this blossom just says "hey, I'm really cute". No, that was just stupid. However, as I was looking around and getting all happy that things were looking good, what do you think reared its ugly leaf?
Yeah, that's right. Mr. Powdery Mildew. He's ugly and mean.
He will ruin an entire squash bed in no time. So, I calmly and quietly, got busy. Last year, Mr. Mildew absolutely ruined our squash and zucchini. I think I got one good yellow squash and one beautiful zucchini -- the rest simply could not be saved. I 'm hoping I caught it early enough. This year I've decided to experiment. On one side of the bed I'm using a "garden safe" fungicide and on the other side I'm using a home recipe from a book I'm reading, Trowel and Error. It's a mixture of two non-coated aspirin with a quart of water. Then the mixture is sprayed on the foliage until very wet. I'm going to keep up this regimen on both sides of the bed every 7 - 14 days. We'll see.
Hopefully, it won't be long before I'm enjoying a bountiful harvest of yellow squash, zucchini and cucumbers. Either that, or my plants die a horrible mildewy death and I'm off to the market!
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