Sad News About My Pumpkin

My poor pumpkin plant recently became infected with something called powdery mildew. I have to be honest here and say that I noticed it a while ago but didn't think much of it. Since I know NOTHING about gardening, I made a mental note to look it up but then repeatedly forgot to do so. In recent days it got so bad that entire leaves turned white.

H finally took it upon himself to look it up and the news wasn't good. Any leaves affected must be removed immediately. It's very damaging to the plant and was most likely caused by all of the rain we've been having. Once he sent me this information, I took to the garden with my shears and a bucket to trim off the affected leaves. Unfortunately, by this point, ALL of the leaves had at least some white on them. So they all had to go. I was hoping to save the pumpkin but I'm not sure if I did. 

I have said all along that this is a learning experience for me. If something actually grows, I'll be excited. If nothing grows (as I was expecting), then at least I'll have learned a few things. But, honestly, I'm a little bummed about the pumpkin. I was getting excited for it. It's my fault for not taking care of it sooner. When I put things into perspective though, and think about all of the farmers this year that have lost their entire crop to drought, I snap back to reality. I've learned a lot and next year I'll be more careful about things like this.

A little more trimmings than my one bucket could handle.

Jackson, looking just as sad as me that I had to cut all the leaves.

My pumpkin, all by itself now. Not sure if it will survive.

A completely covered leaf.

What the leaves looked like when I first noticed the white spots. Should've done something then.

The squash got it also, though not as bad. I did have to trim that entire plant as well.

A baby squash growing that I had to remove. How sad.

What's left of my squash plants.

I stuffed four garbage bags full of infected leaves.

 
On the bright side, my peppers are really starting to thrive. Each plant has lots of little peppers now. Let's hope nothing damages them. I'd love to harvest, and share, peppers this year.

That's just one pepper plant!