Weeds and male squash flowers

Hi all,
I haven’t been on in awhile. It was a super busy spring … had to replant twice due to unusual cold snaps and constantly changing up chicken area to be more efficient (which might not be efficient:-)).
First, who lets weeds go crazy in their garden?
I do after seedlings have established, one because it seems like it doesn’t hurt the plants and may be helping with all the intense rain we’ve had here in GA and also due to limited time in garden maintenance.
Do you find weeds help your vegetable plants thrive.
I’ve watched a ton of Permaculture videos throughout the years and haven’t seen too many folks who let the weeds go nuts in their annual veggie gardens. I’m curious if I’m just imagining them really helping my veggies.

Two, there have been tons of male squash flowers and very, very few female squash flowers this summer. I’m curious if it is the particular variety of squash plant or the rain or …?

Have a great week and weekend everyone. I’ll try to be on more.

I have some areas that the weeds have taken over. the vegetable plants just die or produce nothing. Some things are better at surviving than others, onions, carrots leeks.. they all produce nothing when surrounded by weeds. but it probably also depends on your weeds, my main weeds are all much taller and larger plants than the vegetable plants (Fat hen, black nightshade, several types of thistle, chickweed)

Last year I weeded my onion bed up until around July and then only half of it got weeded, the part that didn't get weeded produced no storage onions, not a single one, they were all smothered and killed by the weeds.  The part that was weeded produced plenty of onions. Broccoli that wasn't weeded grew into tiny plants with tiny flowers that were not worth picking, in my experience weeds have to be managed.

Hi, Unwanted plants in the garden can either shade the food crop so it gets no sun light, or the roots take nutrients away from food crop.  At least that is my observation. I've changed the way I grow food. I put a weed blocker like cardboard down, then put a hole in it and plant in the hole. That way I don't have to deweed as much and can use my energy on something else.

As for the male vs female flowers-- in my experience this is a patience problem on my part.... Male flowers appear first and I get all excited, only to get frustrated as I wait for the females to appear. I research the hell out of everything, get no real answers, and then eventually the females appear and it's off to the races. I would say give it a bit more time.

Thanks for the reply. I haven’t really grown a lot of onions. The ones that I have planted from food scraps are on edges where the weeds don’t go to much. I’ll keep  what you said when I plant a dedicated onion bed. The weeds I have act like ground cover and vine out. They seem to aerate the soil …. so far

I always start out with cardboard … the vineyard things eventually come around again. So far they seem to be supporting the veg. The garden is not tidy by any means.

The amount of male flowers this year is shocking. I think it’s because I’m using a new variety I’m not used to. Thanks for the encouragement!
I’m going back to field squash next year.

Viney … not vineyard

Hi Megan, what kind of squash you are growing? Are there any fruits already? I found my winter squashes naturally stopped producing female flowers when a set of fruits were rapidly growing. Then when those started turning colors, a second flush of female flowers appeared to produce a second crop.

My summers are so hot and dry that some of my plants fry unless there are other plants around them.  

I planted some edible lathyrus this spring. They all died in the heat in the bed that was mulched and without weeds. The next bed over, there's some yarrow and violas growing and I let the lamb's lettuce that had planted itself go to seed. The lathyrus in this bed is doing fine.

I planted beans into one bed that was full of violas (they're everywhere) and second year parsley. I got busy and didn't thin the parsley as it bolted. I'd intended to clear out room for the beans. That didn't happen, so a lot of the beans are completely shaded by the parsley. It's too early to say whether I'll get a crop off them or not (I suspect not for a lot of them).  I can say that this overgrown bed is doing very well in the heat, as far as how stressed looking the plants are. It's the only bed that the pansies are still actually flowering in and the parsley is still green. I've got some more bolting parsley with bare mulch all around it and it's gone quite yellow. I've also felt moisture under the plants in the middle of the day when everything else is bone dry.

I weed.  I want my edibles to have all the nutrition I put in the ground and I don’t want them competing…I want them to get as large as possible.  I tolerate some weed around the base of my raised beds.

I do companion plant vegetables with sunflowers.  This has been a very very hot dry year here and is the second year I’ve seeded sunflowers with some beds.  They are tall enough to be out of 5he way and they have thankfully provided some shading when it was 102 here for days.

My cabbages are very happy!

Hi Jan,
I have found that the beds, where the weeds are going nuts, have cooler ground and it seems like the vegetable plants grow larger and are supported by them.
A downside of letting the weeds grow for me is it’s hard to see where volunteer veg plants and other edibles are coming up through the weeds.
Thanks for such an informative response!

I try to always keep my beds semi weed free. It's super hot here in the summer and the weeds suck up too much water. And I always want a clear view of the base of the plants so I can see immediately when it's getting attacked by ants or pill bugs. They will attack and kill and eat almost anything/everything in my garden in just 48 hours if I don't keep a good watch on them.

Some years I get lots of male squash flowers and other years not so much. Don't know why. This year my spaghetti squash has way more than usual which is wonderful. I love fried squash blossoms! I don't usually eat fried food but I love fried squash blossoms! The zucchini and pumpkin flowers are bigger but I'll take them all. I just leave enough on the plant to let them pollinate the females but I take lots of the extras.  And you can stuff them with almost anything. Lots of different kinds of cheeses or meats or vegies. Dipped in batter and fried is such a great comfort food! You can make them sweet or savory.  I've made them a hundred different ways and enjoy all of them. And it's something special you can't get in the grocery store.

Nice!
I like frying up the squash flowers too.
Usually it gets super hot here but it’s taking its time this year

Megan Abdsllah wrote:Hi Jan,
I have found that the beds, where the weeds are going nuts, have cooler ground and it seems like the vegetable plants grow larger and are supported by them.
A downside of letting the weeds grow for me is it’s hard to see where volunteer veg plants and other edibles are coming up through the weeds.
Thanks for such an informative response!

That’s why I companion plant something useful.  Last year it was corn with beans…this year it’s summer garlic and potatoes.  Cabbage, romaine and sunflowers.  Celery and sunflowers.  Peas creeping up sunflower stalks. I don’t eat most weeds.  I do use sunflowers and their seed and they make cover nicely.

No weeds.  No grass in my beds if I can help it. I mulch everything heavily all season.  Just got done with the hostas yesterday. I use straw, wood shavings and leaves. If I do get weeds they pull out easily.  Other than that they smother and I’m building up the soil.

No weeds.