Powdery Mildew

So, I have now learned that when squash bugs attack your squash plants they are left more vulnerable to other things and one of these is powdery mildew, an airborne pathogen and a fungus which happily moves in. Powdery mildew is also aided by plants growing too close together (like our abundant volunteer squashes) and lack of air circulation, as well as humidity and mild temperatures.

I have also learned that prevention is MOST desirable but that treatment will reduce the spread of the disease. After reading all the very helpful information on this site, I am going with a spray of 1 part milk to 2 parts milk. Spray weekly and after any overhead watering or rain. Cover the top and bottom of the leaves. We will see how that goes.

Gardening is a nice blend of an intellectual pursuit and hands-on work. Just like homeschooling! Oh, I CAN'T WAIT for the first day of school! My husband recently ran into a teacher at the local public high school, which I have always assumed we would turn to after middle school at home, and found out that she did't recommend it and doesn't even send her own kids there... now the question of homeschooling for high school is constantly running through my mind. I've learned that writing things down helps keep them from running through my brain nonstop and making me crazy, so I'm going to return the High School page to the site (I took it down because people kept contacting me to say that it was inaccurate) and just make a list of the books I have on hand which also contain information for this age group. Even if I never teach it, it may help other families. And, regarding the question of me being inaccurate, I had written "Steiner was just beginning to work on a high school curriculum at the time of his death. Previously, he had indicated that after the age of 14 students would enter into apprenticeships."

This questions is raised in Towards Creative Teaching: Working with the Curriculum of Classes 1 to 8 in Steiner Waldorf Schools, Waldorf Resource Book No. 2, edited by Martyn Rawson and Brien Masters. They write on page 49 of my book, the first edition, "The assumption that Steiner's curriculum clearly shows a caesura after Class 8 (in Class 9 a good deal of the same material being repeated from other perspectives) is countered by the possibility that this happened purely for pragmatic reasons because in 1919 most of the pupils left after Class 8 to enter apprenticeships. This question is likely to remain unresolved."

Towards Creative Teaching: Notes to an Evolving Curriculum for Steiner Waldorf Class Teachers