Gardening: Companion Planting And Squash Vine Borers

Companion Planting:
Last summer I was talking to a friend, and they had done companion planting.  I had never heard of it before, so I asked about it.  What it is, is planting certain vegetables and herbs together to get the best results in your garden.  Some herbs give vegetables better flavor, or keep certain bugs away, or help the vegetable plants grow better.  Planting certain vegetables/herbs by one another can also cause problems.  An example would be planting tomatoes and carrots by each other.  They will still have good flavor, but the tomatoes will stunt the carrots growth.  
It’s been really interesting reading about the different ones.  Here’s a website that tells which vegetables and herbs work together better, and worse.
http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html

Squash vine borers:

I am getting SO excited for my gardens this year!  I think that they’re going to be a success!!!! :)
There’s nothing like harvesting fresh, organic produce from the garden!!!!  It’s so satisfying!!!  Last year I was trying to do the garden myself and it didn’t really work because of all of the weeds!  This year, if there are few weeds, I think that it will be much easier to work with.
Have any of you had problems with squash vine borers?  They destroy squash plants SO fast; pretty much overnight.  I had my first encounter with them last year.  They are the larva of a moth.  The moth lays eggs on the squash plant base, and when they hatch, the larva drill holes in the vine and eat the inside of the vine hollow, even down into the roots.  When I found out that I had them, I went out to the garden and spent several hours attempting to save my plants.  It worked, but I don’t want to have to deal with them this year.  The only thing that really works, is slicing the vine open vertically, and digging the detestable worms out.  Then cover up the damaged vine and water the plant, hoping to grow roots above the damage.  Then you just have to hope that you got all of the borers and and wait to see if you discovered them in time.  You can also squirt BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) in the vine after you’ve dug the borers out, just in case you missed any.  If they consume it, it will kill them.  What I want to try is spraying the squash plants with BT (espeically down around the base) and see if I can keep the squash vine borers from getting into my plants.  I also think I’ll try wrapping the plant base with foil.  It’s supposed to keep them away.  They say they are attracted to the color of the squash plants, and if you put foil around it, it disorients them because they aren’t sure if it’s the sky.  They are the worst bugs!!!  I read that if you plant radishes around the squash plants, it may keep the borers away, so I’m definitely going to try that this year, too!!!!  If any of you know of any ways to keep them away PLEASE let me know!!!  Well, I need to start my pepper and tomatoes inside this week.  I’m going to try to get them in the soil today. :)

Gardening Ideas

Last year was pretty much a failed attempt at a garden.  Weeds were my biggest problem.  I was gone several weeks out of the summer, so the weeds started taking over, and it grew impossible to even try to keep them out.  They were not just little weeds, either!  They were tall grasses, and even some little trees.  My garden spot was on our hill, and hadn’t been tilled before.  The ground wasn’t soft, and was very rocky.  
This year I don’t want to have the trouble with weeds, so I’ve been studying ways to not have problems with weeds, and I think I found my answer!

I’ve been reading about no-till, no-dig gardening; also called lasagna gardening.  The goal is to not have to deal with weeds at all.  Here’s how it works.  You can build raised beds or just start layering on the grass.  You don’t need to remove the grass from the area where you want your garden.
First, lay down three or more layers of wet newspapers or wet cardboard where you want to have your garden.  It would be best if you lay extra cardboard/newspapers around the perimeter where you want the garden, so that the grass and weeds don’t grow into your garden.  Then start layering.  
Some ideas of what to put on the garden are:

• Grass Clippings
• Leaves
• Fruit and Vegetable Scraps
• Coffee Grounds
• Tea leaves and tea bags
• Weeds (if they haven't gone to seed)
• Manure
• Compost
• Seaweed
• Shredded newspaper or junk mail
• Pine needles
• Spent blooms, trimmings from the garden
• Peat moss

You should alternate “brown” layers such as fall leaves, shredded newspaper, peat, and pine needles and “green” such as vegetable scraps, garden trimmings, and grass clippings.  The brown layers should be about twice as thick as the green, but don’t worry about it too much.

You should end up having a 2 foot high pile of composted materials.  This will make a rich, soil to plant in.  The best time to do this is in the fall, so the materials can decompose.  If you do it in the spring, you should incorporate more peat moss and/or topsoil into your layers.  You should also have about 4 inches of moss and soil on the top.  As the layers sit, they will decompose and shrink.  When you’re garden is done for the season, layer mulch on the top.  I think that I will add more materials each fall so that I always have rich soil.  Keep doing this each year, and your garden will just get better!  The rich soil will grow wonderful vegetables/herbs/fruits, but will keep the weeds out... for the most part. :)