We have a horrible time with most of our cucurbits.  Even before the squashes fall prey to the vine borer, the cucumbers and canteloupes come down with powdery mildew.  Or maybe it's cucumber mosaic or bacterial wilt.  All I know is that the plants start to bloom, then they keel over.

I've never seen data to back this up, but many organic gardeners believe that pest and disease infestations originally stem from ill health on the part of your crop.  The idea makes sense --- if we don't eat a well-rounded diet, we're more likely to catch a cold, so why wouldn't the same be true of our cucurbits?

Following this reasoning, I top-dressed all of our baby cucurbits with a hearty scoop of compost, hoping to perk them up so they'll outgrow their diseases (and the weeds.)  Native Americans used a similar idea when they planted squash on hills of dirt over fresh fish.  Maybe I'll get lucky this year and taste our first home-grown canteloupe?

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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