Adventures of a Green Gardener

My name is Britny Arnett and I currently take care of the unclaimed plots at the GroWell Community Garden here in Ulysses. It’s located at Barb Dye Park on Ridgewood Rd. If you live nearby, you’ve definitely seen me watering, weeding, and pruning at the garden! In addition to taking care of the unclaimed plots, I have rented 4 of the largest plots available.

I take care of a lot of plants! So I thought I’d write about my adventures. I’m titling this series Adventures of a Green Gardener not because everything I grow is green (it’s not! I’ve killed quite a few plants!), but rather because I’m ‘green’ or new to it, like a green-broke horse.

This week I’d like to talk about squash. I’ve never grown yellow squash or zucchini before, because somehow we always end up with a ton of it every year from our colleagues and neighbors - Ulysses is a great place for squash! This year I planted two yellow squash plants and a zucchini plant because I thought I’d give it a try.

The plants were dramatic at first, requiring a little bit more water, but they grew well. After a few weeks, I saw squash bugs, or as the scientist’s say ‘Anasa tristis’. They look like little gray beetles and they’ve been a nuisance for centuries. They cause major damage to cucurbit leaves and can spread a bacterial vine infection to the plant, according to the University of Florida Entomology department’s webpage.

There weren’t very many bugs - only four underneath one of my squash plants. I smashed each one with my foot.

Thus the battle began in the spring. It is now late summer and I’ve eradicated most of the bugs. Here’s how:

Spray. I don’t use this option very often because I also like my bee friends, but when I kill more than three squash bugs in a day, I give the plant a little bit of Eight spray.

Duct tape. Yes. You heard that right. Duct tape. I researched alternative methods to getting rid of squash bugs and I found a video titled “A Clever Trick to Get Rid of Squash Bugs” by Savvy Gardening. Squash bug eggs are easy to spot on leaves. They’re brown, kind of crunchy, and always laid in clusters. Wrap a piece of duct tape around your hand, with the sticky side out, and then gently press against the clusters and the eggs will come right off. I believe this method has significantly reduced the amount of bugs on my plants.

Diligence. I check for bugs and eggs every day. It is part of my gardening routine. Checking for bugs and eggs only takes a few minutes. Some days I find four or five clusters of eggs, and other days I only find one. But the most important part is to show up and check.

My squash plants are huge. The in-ground plots at the community garden offer plenty of space for them to get to behemoth size. I get between 6-8 yellow squash a week and about 4 zucchini. I’ve already frozen several pounds for winter soups and stews. My refrigerator is so full - now I understand why my husband would come home with bags of squash and zucchini from work!

I’m definitely going to continue to plant squash - there’s something so satisfying about bringing home a few pounds of fresh, home-grown produce from the community garden every day.

If you’re thinking about renting a space from the community garden, there are plenty available! There are in-ground plots, and raised beds at various sizes. The 4x8 raised beds are equipped with square-foot gardening water systems that make it really easy to water each plant in 1 or 2 minutes! Contact Grant County Extension Office at 620-356-1721 to pick out your plot from the map.