jen1996 - mulching with leaves or dried grass clippings is a great idea as it keeps the soil moist which squash love! Squash are heavy feeders, so you need a complete fertilizer. In my area Dr. Earth or Whitney Farms are the brands. A 4# box is around $8 and a larger bag under $20 with 4x the amount at least. If you can keep it dry over winter it will last for next year, too. When I started using the granular organic fertilizer it made a huge difference in our vegetables as compared to just manures & mulch. Follow directions on the container, don't over do it. Even used coffee grounds feeds them a bit, but won't be enough to increase fertility very much quickly. Besides the fertilizer you can mix up a liquid compost tea that is easy -- a handful of your composted leaves in a bucket or watering can. I usually let it sit for a few days, but in your situation it would help to feed them today. Make 2 batches & let the 2nd one sit for a few days in the sun. It's fine to water with it daily as it's not too much fert, but just a little bit of instant feed. Hope that helps.

Sounds like there's a lot of experience out there with leaf mulching and gathering. We live with lots of huge southern red oaks and hickories that drop tons of leaves every year. I use them all and go seeking the neighbors too. Our method is to start chopping leaves as soon as they fall. Around here the grass is still growing so we get the greens along with the browns. We start with a first pass without the mulching attachment and just let the stuff fly out for the first month or so of leaf drop. When the leaves start falling in earnest we make a first pass without the mulching attachment and then a second with it. The third pass we put on the bagger and we have finely chopped leaves which we either compost, pile up for garden mulching later, or use for a new sheet composted bed. We never let the leaves get too deep, in the thick of leaf drop we can mow every third day or so to keep up. It's nice to mow after a rain so the leaves aren't so dusty but not after a heavy downpour or you do get the clogging. It is a matter of trial and error. Sometimes mowing in an overlapping style with one-half of the blade in the leaves and the other in a cleanly mowed swath helps. The red oaks drop their leaves slowly but continuously, even right up to the next spring. They do decompose very slowly which can be good or bad depending on what you use them for. I've used them everywhere, from starting a new garden bed to mulching in the wooded area in the backyard to top dressing beds in the spring. Gold as far as I'm concerned. I do hate all the carbon emissions I'm creating while chopping, I wish I had one of those super chopper/mulcher tow-behind thingies they sell on TV but they cost about $1,000 and I don't have that sort of cash onhand just now. That way I might avoid the three passes.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Silversword and lamom. You get what I am saying. I was not trying to "goat" anyone into anything or stir up the pot. I really was posting my deep thoughts, kind of like a journal to myself while at the same time trying to explain the situation. The reason I wrote the stuff about the BM being proud of being 'white trash' was because I was trying to explain about what I am dealing with here. That is all. I am the furtherest thing from someone who is all high and mighty and I don't think I am better than anyone else. In fact I am more of the black sheep in my family partly because I am not so judgmental and I am the rebel. I have tattoos, moved out at 17 on my own, don't like people to tell me what to do, etc. And yes I freely admit I am a control freak. That is something I am working very hard on. After the first post I was just adding details and my mind and thinking were changing. I am glad that my tune has changed since last Sunday. I am feeling much more optimistic now. Honestly I didn't think I was even going to come back to this site and I told myself today ok just go see what was said but don't post anymore. I am glad I did come back because both silversword and lamom made feel better and realize that not everyone here is so judgemental. I can take criticism and I was really thankful for the first few posts that told me to grow up because that is exactly what I needed to hear. And I do not get off on or enjoy writing inflammatory posts. I am sorry I was just writing my story and the quotes that sylviatexas posted that I wrote on the first day I registerd were written because that is what was said. I was not making anything up, that is my story and I am sticking to it, lol. My DH did not graduate but I don't hold that against him. I still love him very much. He also had a drug addiction in his past but you know what he is stronger for it and has proven how he can overcome almost anything. People do change and I do not hold their past on them forever. When I say he went through a bad period that is what I was referring. There is, of course, way more to the story and lamom is right you can not describe it all in one post, or even probably in 100. But what matters most is that this site did help me. I got a change to write my thoughts down and try to figure out what in the world I was really feeling. The more I wrote about SS and what HE has to deal with the more I found that I do care about him. I really do. It is still going to take time to build a relationship but I think it is all going to be ok.

Blackspot is a plant disease caused by wind borne fungus spores in water drops.They land on the top of the leaves and when growing looks like circular black spots with irregular edges. The infected leaves will finally turn yellow and drop off. If the disease is severe all the leaves will drop off and the plant will have to grow a new set. The quality of the blooms will suffer and the plant will be weakened. Blackspot can not be cured but it can be controlled. In climates where there is a lot of rain in the summer or high humidity it becomes more prevalent. Blackspot can be controlled best by spraying with a dormant oil and sulphur spray in the early spring before the bush leafs out. Then again in the early summer using at half the strength. There are also other ways to keep it control. Clean up all dead and fallen leaves, water when the sun will dry the leaves off or use drip or soaker type hoses, remove first six inches of leaves from the ground up so splashed water won't jump the spores on the leaves, plus feed and water plants well as a weak or stressed plant will succumb more quickly . Finally choose varieties that are disease resistant.