How Tropical!

The local swap meet in SD is named Kobey's.  I have no idea why our swap meet has a proper name, but it does.  I used to go to Kobey's when I was a kid.  It contained loads of perfect finds for teenage girls.  Tons of cheap hair-thingies, bags, and backpacks.  I think I got a knock-off Esprit bag when I was in elementary school.  Ha. 

KD and I took a trip to Kobey's last weekend.  She had spotted these wrap dresses two weeks earlier when she was there.  We decided that we couldn't live without these dresses, so off we went to the swap meet.  It certainly hadn't changed much: still loads of hair-thingies.  There were some really cool booths with handmade purses and other handmade items, and there were some booths that looked like really bad yard sales- crap, crap, and crap. 

And, there were booths and booths of plants.  KD was not interested in strolling and shopping, so I could really only glance from afar.  But, I did manage to get one purchase in: a cutting from a dragon fruit for a buck.

It is likely that I will mess this up somehow.  The foot long spiny and prickly cutting is very handsome (as you can see in the pic).  But, I stuck the spine in some dirt and watered. 

Has anyone ever tasted a dragon fruit? After a terse search, I learned that these plants are quite tropical and grow in Hawaii, Thailand, and Vietnam.  Also, the flowers bloom at night so they are not pollinated by bees, but by other insects and moths.  Depending on how well my cutting does, I can expect fruit in 6-9 months. 

P.S. I also broke down and bought an Italian Oregano plant (not at Kobey's).  Planting from seed did not work out.  Has anyone had success growing oregano from seed?

Gardening With the Stars

I was in Sacramento not too long ago and picked up a local publication. It was the type of newspaper/magazine that had pages of "massage" advertisements and a story about the history of the term D-Bag; clearly high class. I flipped through the paper while I sat with KD in Pyramid Brewery eating a brownie and sipping on a Haywire Hefeweizen (for those of you wondering about the name 'Haywire', new owners = new beer names). I stumbled upon the horoscopes and took a peak. Here it is:

Let's take inventory of your harvest, Scorpio. What blossomed for you these past months? Which of the seeds you planted last March and April sprouted into ripe, succulent blossoms? Which seeds grew into hard spiky clumps? And what about weeds, pests and predators? Were you tireless about keeping them away from your beauties? Finally, what did you learn about growing things that could give you a green thumb when you cultivate your seeds in the next cycle?

How appropriate! And deep.

The Summer Squash Is Not My Friend

In April I bought a Patty Pan squash. Al told me that her mother insisted that squashes need friends and will not grow as a single. But I didn't buy a companion. Needless to say, the patty pan squash was a failure. I got two squashes out of it. The rest shriveled and died. So, I bought and planted seeds for another mini summer squash. This time, I planted two seeds and got two plants. Both plants give constant blossoms. Blossoms every morning. Yet, no squash. All the little squash turn yellow, shrivel and die. I believe this is because they flowers did not get pollinated. Well, gosh, I just don't know how to remedy this problem. Any ideas?

PS. There are loads of bees around my house. They seem to shun the squash.

Marigolds & Tomato

Here are a few of my marigolds. I planted a few in with my tomatoes
and as you can see they are as tall the tomatoes!

The Importance of Pruning

Remember my post about marigolds? I bought the 20 cent packet of marigolds from walmart, so did KD. We both planted them and they sprung up. But, neither KD, nor I snipped the stems when they started to grow tall. Well, KDs garden looks like a rain forest. The marigolds are so tall, and there aren't that many buds. (not to mention that the caterpillars seem to love the flower buds). They look unrefined and haphazard. Not at all what you want to look at.

What we should have done was snip the growing stem of the marigold when it reached the desired height. This would have encourage the plant to send out side stems and eventually have more flowers. I will post a picture soon.

Next time...

Tip: I read that September is a great time to buy plants in nurseries- lots of sales. I will be hitting up the Armstrong to see if this is true. Do you know?

Lunch!

The Wasp and the Luffa

The luffa: where did I leave off? The story of the luffa in a few sentences for those of you who do not remember. Surprise-- a luffa is a squash! I bought some seeds from Target and planted them several months ago. Two big leaves popped out right away. Then, nothing. The two seemingly enormous leaves just sat there for weeks. Very boring. Finally, a third leave (very different shape) shot out from the center of the two leaves. Then, again, nothing for several weeks. The leaves began to look scraggly and tattered. It seemed that the experiment to grow a luffa would be unsuccessful.

Expecting failure at this point, I was shocked when, in what seemed like two weeks, the plant experienced a sudden growth spurt. It climbed its way up and past the 2' thin bamboo sticks tee-peed around it. Every morning there were at least two new perfect yellow flowers, the color of butter. The vines teemed with baby (about 1/2 a centimeter long) squashes in the shape of male genitalia (not joking). It seemed like we were in for a very bountiful harvest of luffas. Sadly, all but one of the babies turned yellow, shriveled, and fell off the plant. The luffa retained only one pollinated squash. As it turns out, squash have both female and male flowers and require a visit from bees and insects in order to grow. All those sad shriveled yellow mini squashes died because they were never properly pollinated.

But all was not lost; one luffa remained. For several weeks it just got bigger and bigger. The plant looked quite humorous-- a pretty large green squash hanging from a pitiful looking vine with no other squash to keep it company. What must the neighbors think?

I thought it would look cool if I could train the vines around a hula hoop. The luffa is not too keen on the hoop and it is hardly snaking around the thing. Rather, its tendrils are wrapping around other vines. There is hope, however, since the luffa seems to sit around for weeks before deciding its next course of action. So, I imagine, I will wake up one morning to find the luffa has wrapped itself around the hula hoop. Won't that be a sight? A circle with giant gourds hanging all around it! A neighbor even complimented my hula hoop, though it could have been one of those, "that-girl-is-insane-but-I-don't-know-what-else-to-say-so-I-will-just-tell-her-I-like-her-hula-hoop compliments."

Last week, for several days, a clan of wasps settled into Pacific Beach. Maybe they were taking a mini vacation from Tuesday to Friday. Perhaps there was a wasp convention or something. The wasps seemed to adore the luffa. Always one or two crawling all around the vines. I am sensitive to bee stings (I am not sure about wasps, but I did not feel like finding out) so watering was scary-- who wants to piss off a vacationing wasp?

It might be just a coincidence, but this week, there are four more pollinated luffas growing at a lively pace. I might get a bath sponge after all!

So, thank you wasps for refraining from stinging me and for pollinating my luffas. (If only you also pollinated my summer squash! Those plants refuse to give me anything- Where is Demeter when you need her?). And thank you mother earth.