Girl’s Garden throughout the Season

This was the second year that I grew Milkweed in the Girl’s Garden. It really took off. I had no idea that it is propagated by not only seeds, but also by root cuttings. It began to grow all over the garden!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The milkweed was one of the best plants I have grown in a while to attract pollinators. I had bees and butterflies that I normally would not see visiting specifically because of the milkweed. In the garden we also grew sweet potatoes, potatoes, some sunflowers and the beginnings of a fig tree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While I loved the milkweed, it does take over. I will likely be pulling out a lot of the plants this next spring as they come up. Otherwise, I felt that the girl’s garden this year was a success.

Of hermaphrodite and other strange flowers of the Spuredda Tarantino

As those who know me would probably already know, I am always looking for new information and research in the area of cucumber-melons. Of particular interest to me was an article about the crossing of a Mediterranean snake melon with an Indian hermaphrodite melon. The article is entitled, “Impact of Breeding Hermaphroditic Melon on Early Production and Yield: Case of Snake Melon (Cucumismelo var. flexuosus) and Tibish (C. melo var. tibish)”  Though I know this is not the most thrilling thing to all of you, I found it pretty interesting and wondered what it would be like to grow some hermaphrodite carosello fruit. Shortly thereafter, I discovered some strange-looking female flowers growing on one of my Spuredda Tarantino. Could it be? If not a hermaphrodite flower, it is at least a complete or perfect flower (having both male and female parts on the same flower). I was able to self-pollinate each flower, which would lead me to believe that it was capable of self-pollinating if there was ample wind, but I’m not sure if they would have self-pollinated in a greenhouse (without insect pollinators).

A "perfect" melon flower with both male and female parts.

The first time I identified the strange female melon flowers

A closeup of the half-female flowers

The female flower getting ready to set fruit

The perfect melon flower with both anthers and stigma

Despite growing the fruit out and collecting the seed, I’m not exactly sure what to do with the seed now. I’m at a point of thinking “Now what?” Will another generation of this seed produce weird-looking fruit or will it produce something that looks different from the parent fruit? I’m not exactly sure. If someone more knowledgeable than myself knows, please leave a comment below.

Along with the hermaphrodite flowers there were a couple of double flowers. I find it interesting that both the hermaphrodite and double flowers appeared around the same time, early in the season – though not on the same plant. I knew that the double flower may have aborted or not grown fully, so instead of chancing something it, I intervened and pulled it early. Though still – double flowers are kind of interesting to see.

School Gardens

As I travel around for my job, I often encounter school and neighborhood gardens along the way. I hope you enjoy a few of the pictures from my travels. The first pictures are ones I took of a wall that is right along where I park next to a school.

 

Luffa

Luffas are quite interesting. I have never eaten them personally, but I have heard that they are best eaten immature.

 

Bitter Melon

Bitter melon is another Asian favorite for what reason I am not sure. They are apparently very helpful in controlling blood sugar, but as I am generally adverse to anything bitter, I have yet to try them.

 

Hyacinth Beans

I used to grow Purple Hyacinth Bean in Tucson. It was quite good, but a lot of work to prepare.

At another school, I was able to enjoy looking at some light Armenian Cucumbers.

This next garden is pretty fun. The school actually has two garden areas. This is just one of them.

 

 

 

 

Now that autumn has progressed, the vines of a lot of plants are done growing. I hope you enjoyed a few of the gardens I see as I travel around.

White Crab Spiders on Purple Daisies

While in the front yard of my friend's fertile garden, I noticed these little guys just waiting for their next meal. They look like some form of flower crab spider. Enjoy the pictures!

For all those of you who braved the spider pictures, here are some more pictures of the flowers by themselves.