In my plot at the Garden RUN community garden in Roxborough, my cucumbers were vigorously climbing a trellis one week. The next week, they went limp and died. When I told my garden neighbor, Chuck, what had happened, he said that he, too, had lost cucumbers as well as squash in similar, sudden fashion. He suspected that cucumber worms, one of the stem borers that wreak havoc with cucurbits, had burrowed into the vines, killing the plants.
Dead cucumber, photographed on July 21, 2014
At about the same time, all of my basil plants began to turn yellow then black around the edges. Looking around the garden, I noticed the same thing happening to everyone’s basil. The basil plants in pots in my backyard, meanwhile, are as healthy as can be.
Last year in August, our entire community garden was swarmed with what must have been millions of harlequin beetles. Everyones’ kale and other cole crops were wiped out. In my backyard garden, nary a harlequin beetle showed up.
Diseased basil, photographed on July 21, 2014
All of which begs the question, are community gardens unusually susceptible to pests and diseases? Or does it just seem that way? I asked an expert, Sally McCabe, who heads a program of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society called Garden Tenders, which trains people wanting to start community gardens. This is her emailed response.
1) I think it’s more an issue of perception than of actual percentages. Willie Sutton said he robbed banks “because that’s where the money is.” A greater concentration of vegetables yields more bugs.
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2) If you’re gardening in both your backyard and a community garden, more times than not you have less sun in your yard than in the cg. More sun in summer leads to more stress, therefore more bugs & disease.3) Soil fertility is key. Where is the soil quality better? Yard or garden? Less soil fertility yields more bugs & disease.
4) Where is access to water better? Better access yields less stressed plants, so less bugs & disease.
5) Are you an observant gardener? If so, you’ll have less b & d. Garden alone, and you’ll have a consistent, probably healthy garden. Garden next to somebody who doesn’t pay attention to their plot, and their b&d will get out of control, spilling over into yours.
6) More diversity yields less b&d. Is there more diversity in the home garden?
Luck also must have something to do with it. Sally said that last year, the CSA farm where she is a member lost all of its basil to mildew by midseason, but the basil in her yard and in her community garden plot did fine. Go figure.