Posted on July 26, 2023July 26, 202307/26/2023 rogue loofah This loofah is across the driveway from the designated large vine zone over near veggies.
Posted on January 21, 2023January 21, 202301/16/2023 herding the harvest Paula and Briar found a loofah gourd a block away!!
Posted on July 16, 2022July 16, 2022Ironweed time A view of the ironweed this morning. It has a very tall but tiny sunflower in the background. This morning I saw another fancy bee! Paula saw another of these, the two-spotted longhorn bee, on loofahs recently. Here are its distinctive two spots. Yesterday I saw a Bombus pennsylvanicus. Another Bombus pennsylvanicus, two days ago. These on the ironweeds have been the first ones I’ve seen this year.
Posted on July 5, 2022July 5, 202207/05/2022 Baby cushaw squash! Recovering from removal of benign sebaceous cysts is more complicated than either of us expected. Purple hulled pinkeye cowpea. I really like the little signs Paula got me for Christmas. They stand out well. A gray hairstreak on a Madhu ras canteloupe flower. Paula’s Coryphantha sulcata is blooming! In fact, it has two. She says it had six earlier this year too. New tiny moth – a spotted thyris! Bee butt in loofah gourd. Paula made Thai green curry for dinner. It contains last year’s garden white currant tomatoes (from frozen, so that works well), garden onions, and garden walking onions. The Texas buckeye is very angry. I put a hose out to soak there. Jeanne has let me know the wild ones do this too, so maybe it will recover. Possibly purple prairie clover from free packet from prairiemoon.com? A second round of standing cypress flowers on a different plant. A volunteer Carolina snailseed in the front yard. Will Rogers Zinnias are looking good in the rainbow garden. Briar loves escorting Shackleton for a walk. Shackleton doesn’t know why we have to ruin a good thing by bringing the dog. We were about to go back inside, but she got up and scooted closer. He turned to glare while she got a treat for laying down. Shackleton says no eye contact. Here you can pretend there is no dog, only lush, succulent grass and corn.
Posted on June 22, 2022June 22, 202206/22/2022 Blue flax bloomed this morning but I missed it. Loofah times begin.
Posted on March 20, 2022March 20, 2022Two steps forward, two steps back?? Saturday night (yesterday) planting more tomato and pepper seeds of varieties that haven’t sprouted well or I accidentally killed of sunscald (see end of post). Yesterday, Mom and Dad sent me this cute little indoor fern friend and Paula added the little frog clip on top! His Doggie outside yesterday, Gram had to curl tragically on her rope toy. Couscous, venison roast, and shakshuka with the first indoor garden tomato (dwarf Audrey’s Love). The cover radishes (Sparkler variety bought in bulk from Ellison’s feed store) have begun sprouting and the transplanted Viola bicolor aren’t dead yet. I just have to hope they will bloom and seed. More of the radishes. The goal here is growing enough stuff to keep plants I don’t want out until I can get a ground cover started. (Friday) The Mexican plum from home is alive! (Friday) Thursday night, Wes wanted to look at things in yard with our new blacklight. These (already hatched) eggs on the rock outside glow! The porch loofahs are very welcoming. Found more googly eyes just randomly in the raised beds. While we were outside I examined the angry tomato seedlings. I have determined that going from inside the house to the front porch every day is giving them sun scald, as the leaves are turning white but newer growth is a nice healthy green. So for now I’m putting them in the less intense backyard and that seems to be helping the survivors. Same thing happening here, green new leaves with white, dying burnt leaves.
Posted on January 9, 2022January 9, 2022Moving the Max Big empty hole in the prairie patch where we dug up the Maximilian sunflowers. We brought a single stalk here from our old house and now it’s a massive 2×3′ ish patch. Broader view. Put more cardboard down to kill Bermuda. Briar just sat here while plant stalks went everywhere. Such dignity. Found a lost loofah in the front yard afterwards.
Posted on November 24, 2021November 24, 2021Garden clean up Another Peruvian ground cherry finally ripened!! They seem to be a late year fruit. I hope it’s just the plants are big enough and not a day length sensitivity. A standard ground cherry. Paula pointed out the lovely net effect on the husk. We found several like it. True bugs!!!! There were dozens, grumpy we disturbed them. We put the leaves back after we got the ground cherries we were there for. Left some for them and next year’s seeding too. The Chef was busy too.
Posted on October 7, 2021October 7, 2021Aggressive Loofahs stretching up from top of yaupon holly tree.
Posted on August 28, 2021August 28, 2021Saturday stuff I froze tiny tomatoes last night and they left funny holes. Two Bombus impatiens (common eastern bumblebee). Trimmed out the dead spots in the middle rosemary. I’m not sure why it’s upset. Paula very wisely suggested trimming the Salvia greggii so we can better access the veggies, plus it’ll make them bloom more again. As an experiment, we also trimmed back one of the Salvia farinacea (mealy blue sage) which are all getting very leggy.