Today, I noticed some white powdery spots on my squash/pumpkin/gourd plants, while finding a bud on one of the plants. Not sure what they are since they sprouted after I threw the fall decorations in the garden to decompose.

After sending a panicked message to my gardening Facebook group, I learned that the white stuff is powdery mildew, a lethal infection for plants caused by overcrowding.

So I did something I really didn’t want to do yet, thin the plants.

Our compost hole, dug by our dachshund and his human sister, contains the plants I thinned out to prevent powdery mildew.

I think I got rid of about 30 plants and transferred about 15 to other spots in the garden. I recently added two more pallets to the garden, and they needed some plants.

Besides moving squash, I noticed the pea and bean shoots, which are all at least a foot and a half long, were crowding each other out. They were moved as well.

Speaking of moving my plants, I again consulted with the Facebook group about something. My orange mint — mint with a bit of orange aftertaste — grows rather rapidly. Apparently, this is what mint does in the South. I was told in several different ways to move it to a pot, where it can’t get friendly with other plants or the ground.

Carrots and mint recently harvested from the garden.

It’s in one of my taller pots in top of a pallet. I think it will grow nicely there.

I hope to plant some okra seeds soon. It’s pretty decent raw, provided you pick it early. Leave it on the stem too long and it gets super fibrous and better for decoration. I noticed that down here we use okra, cotton and other garden-growing plants as decoration. I love pickles okra and really hope to pickle some this year.

Here are a few more photos from this past week in the garden. Enjoy.

  • Carrot and strawberry harvest.
  • Celery coming back from the dead.
  • Super-growing orange mint.
  • Pea vine
  • Snapdragons after a nighttime rainfall.