I'm also seeing little yellow and black striped bugs around the squash plants. Those are new.

In your zone, it's time to be thinking of starting seeds for a fall crop. I just sowed some cabbage seeds up in the g'house and should be also sowing broccoli seeds. When cooler weather hits, you'll also be able to put in more lettuce and radishes. Think those things you'd be able to sow in early spring and that'll tolerate cool temps as mature plants, and maybe even light frost. Fall gardens used to be done routinely, but people have gotten away from it and haven't re-discovered this potential yet. If I were you, before I installed one, I'd remove all the nasty left-overs from the failed spring one so as to decrease the insect population. (not the strawberries, of course)

Ah, fond memories of frustrations past... If you still want to keep going after all that, you're definitely a gardener! :)

1) Congratulations on the lettuce! 2) Peas do rot in soggy soil, and some springs are just like that. Or maybe a better generealization is that some years the weather favors certain crops while devestating others. That's just part of working with nature. But, you can give your peas a better chance by pre-sprouting them (do a search on this forum and you'll find plenty about it) or if you are so inclined, you can buy treated pea seed. 3) I'm not sure what you mean by potato bugs... sow bugs/pill bugs? Something I would immediately think of eating pole beans, especially nice tender seed leaves, is a rabbit. Are you sure it was the bugs? 4) Sounds like you have squash bugs. They are glorified stinkbugs, I don't particularly like having to deal with them but there are many methods. Most involve noticing them as soon as they appear and taking steps. You could start some more seeds now, maybe get a few squash before it gets too late. 5) I'm not as familiar with these, but I tackled all the other numbers, I hate to quit now... did you have your strawberries mulched? A nice layer of mulch keeps the fruit from contacting the ground and starting to rot... I seem to recall on my strawberries at my old house the ants went for the rotting part first. Otherwise a boric acid/sugar mix might help with the ants or you could try picking the fruit a day before it is ripe and letting it ripen indoors.

I'm not sure where in the country you are, so I don't know how much summer you have left. But there are probably things you can still grow this year. More lettuce, for sure!

Cheers!

You don't want those striped ones, they're probably striped cucumber beetles. If you don't have cucumbers, they're adaptable.

It'd probably be better to give up on cucurbits entirely for this year. Pull the plants, throw them out, hope the pests follow them.

Thanks guys! I've been looking at fall crops, trying to figure out which to grow. My other idea is to turn the site with the most issues into a berry patch.

My lettuce is starting to bolt, but I'm still getting some good lettuce out of it.

It's definitely not rabbits eating my beans. It's bug damage for sure. (Plus, the yard is fenced and we have dogs running around).

I forgot to add that I have a few straggling Cucuzzi trying to come up, and my sweet potatoes never really took off.

Finally, I've been fighting bindweed trying to choke out my plants on top of the weather and pests. Our next door neighbors have been fighting the bindweed for over 40 years. The people who owned their house before they moved in planted it...

Sheesh. I'm determined to get something next year...

This is only our second year in the house, so this fall I think I'll change the blueprint of the yard, dig new beds, mulch them down with leaves for the winter and hope that helps....

"Otherwise a boric acid/sugar mix might help with the ants"...

I don't think this is meant to be applied to plants, but to be used for an ant trap. I make traps out of used prescription containers and place them around my kitchen to take out invading ants there.
Sunnibel7, are you using it this way or another way? It is very effective against ants I must say.

Next year, maybe tomoatoes? I've rarely had tomatoes utterly fail, except when they're sucked into the ground by a gopher.

Perennial herbs - oregano, marjoram, sage, chives, garlic chives, thyme, etc. - are rarely eaten up by anything.

In many climates - maybe someone can say whether this includes yours - you can:

- grow autumn peas
- grow autumn lettuce and spinach
- grow autumn Swiss chard
- overwinter garlic and shallots and onions
- overwinter leeks and carrots, or at least grow them in late summer and into fall
- grow autumn cole crops (cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, kale, etc.)

I see 5A in the OP. I can assume it's a temperate climate with heat in the summer and cold in the winter.

Use organic practices if you don't already. It has helped me tremendously for many years. And Do all you can to encourage birds (birdhouses, some shrubs for cover, bird feeders, bird baths, and toads (mine come out at night and in daytime sleep buried in soft potting soil in container plants. So cute). I am organic and have tons of birds nesting and eating, bathing, etc in the gardens. I know they eat alot of bugs. I also strongly believe in mulching. Things generally get better as you learn and find what is best adapted to grow in your conditions. Ensure good air circulation and sunlight for your veggies. Interplanting herbs and certain flowers like marigolds and garlic and onion was mentioned, should help. Some folks plant a crop of something the bugs might like better, to draw them away from the favored crop. I'm not sure which plants but someone else might know. Good luck. Hang in there. You might want to grow a couple things in containers for the remainder of the season, as well as trying some things in the ground too.

Noinwi, I have a pre-mixed powder that I add a bit more sugar to (the ants weren't impressed enough to visit it until I did that) and I make little ant-feeding stations from bottle caps. I was using it for a little while because there were ants making hills around my seedlings in the spring. It seemed to work, but more ants just kept moving in around the other seedlings. My yard has fairly sandy soil and is full of thousands of tiny ant hills, so I just gave up. But maybe in the OPs situation it would do what they want, keep the ants from the fruit. Which I guess is a long way of saying yes, I was using it to make traps. :)

Starter, I agree with Louisianagal that you could still try some things in containers. I do most of my plants(mostly toms and peppers)in containers, but I have a small raised bed too, and I always start too many plants from seed, so I always have poor little root-bound plants that didn't make it into the larger pots. If I can't pawn these off on some unsuspecting person that visits this building, I'll finally plant them into pots that can barely hold them. I'm getting ready to do that soon. I won't get many fruit, but I do get some. I started some zucchini late and they're just starting to flower, and the same with cukes(3 Spacemasters in a small fake whiskey barrel type planter)...they're only about 6" tall, but soon I'll add a stick teepee in there to tie them to(they'll get about 4' tall). You could still do bush beans, basil(mine is only 3" tall right now)and maybe you could transplant a few strawberry plants to a hanging pot. Also with containers, if they're not too heavy, you can move them around for optimal sun and to help keep the ants from coming up through the bottom. I have tons of those little red/brown ants here(not fire ants, but they do bite/sting)due to dry clay and sandy soil. Keeping the potting soil moist also helps keep them out. I use Safer insecticidal soap and Bt for bugs/caterpillars and Safer fungicide for powdery mildew and to deter a pesky doe(she doesn't like the smell). Hope this helps a little. Just go for it...you still have some time, and let us know how it goes.

I'm 5B and you still have time for some things. There are some good sized tomatoes and other plants at walmart, you should still be able to get a good tomato crop. You might want to use containers though considering your current bug issues. I still plant a short season cuke, zukes and bush green beans this time of year, unless you have a really early frost in your area, you should be good. You might want to start a raised bed too with lettuce, broccoli, etc. Just see what others are doing right now in our area.

Are there any good gardeners in your area? Why don't you go and ask them how they do it?

I'd plant some kale and turnips. (I didn't like turnips, until I tasted the ones from my own garden last fall.) They taste good, are packed with vitamins, and grow like gangbusters. Just the thing for building morale.

I tried to be organic the first year. It was the swarms of cucumber beetles killing my cuke plants and gloating and laughing at me as they flew away just as I tried to clap them that caused me to go out and buy a sprayer and quart bottle of Sevin concentrate. Now when I see cuke beetles or squash bugs or japanese beetles, I kill them, and it's worth it.

But if you choose to remain organic, buy some sticky glue trap cards at Menards. The eugenol ones attract japanese beetles. Even those fly strips would catch beetles if you suspended them over the cukes, and they are very cheap, 4 for a dollar. Get some.

You could also put a flea collar into a canister vac, and go out and suck them right out of the air over the plants. Leave them in there till the flea collar kills them, then flush them.

I agree with comments on containers. I have both in ground and containers, and the containers have MUCH less problems with bugs, diseases, weather etc. I am in zone 5a, and the potted plants are WAY ahead of plants in the ground, and in fact this is a method of spreading out the harvest for me. I also get more yield with less plants in pots.

someone planted bindweed?!?!?!

fighting it for 40 years.?!?!?!?!

Color me dejected, been fighting for 2-3 years, came up into my 1' raised beds from the cardboard put on the grass, and soil/compost to fill the bed.

It's everywhere, and 40 years?!?! I haven't got the heart to face this!

if you can plant an early yellow crookneck - you might get a nice crop before frost - they are quick....and plentiful.

prepare a fresh spot, and keep them covered with floating row cover till the female flowers start. Clear out all the diseased plants immediately, and hope the pests go away in a month when you need pollinators at the crookneck. Could try a quick cuke or pickle too, same technique....

And - all the fall veggies...