August Garden: Fruits

Persian Lime is growing well. No flowers at this time but we are hopeful for the upcoming year.

Grapes are ripening. This year we are making an effort to enjoy them before they go bad. A visit to the garden every couple of days gives us a snack of Muscadine grapes.

The pineapple grows slowly but it gets larger. I can’t wait until it is ready.

August Garden: Summer Cleanup and New Arrivals

Some old friends are still in the garden and some new have recently joined. This is what is enduring the August heat for now….

New Citronella plant and marigold. Trying something new to fend off mosquitos.

It was time for some thyme to be added back to the garden. Purchased a thyme plant so we had fresh herbs on hand.

Summer crop of pinto beans sprouting while the garden waits for fall crops.

Spinach is still doing well. Now that the squash is removed it has room to grow.

Tomato seedlings preparing for the fall.

Now that the squash is gone, the collards have room to thrive. They do love those semi-shady days though.

Needed some fresh basil so I put another store bought plant in the garden.

These chives keep on kicking year after year. This is their best year yet. Can’t wait to throw them in various recipes.

We have a few of these sickly kale plants spread throughout the garden. I can’t seem to pull them out yet though. Part of me thinks they will beat the heat and the bugs.

Found Photo : San Francisco

I recently found some photos I took in 2011 during a trip to San Franscisco that I never edited. I had a chance this morning to edit them using Lightroom and the Tone Curve. Back when I took the pictures I thought they were so terrible that not even photoshop could save them. Using the Curve tool, I have made them look slightly better.

Sutro Baths

Butternut Squash

Squashes have always proved difficult for me to grow. I have tried growing them from seed many times and many times I produce nothing. 
The first challenge I face is that the leaves die off and rot away before anything can even be produced. Usually some bug attacks them or the Florida humidity molds them to death.
If I get past that stage, it will start flowering but no fruit fully develops. This is due to the lack of successful pollinators for the squash (bugs and bees) and the fact that they require both the male and female flower to bloom at the same time to produce the final product. 
This year the plants grew. Squashes leaves traveled in all directions. Finally I had enough blooms to attempt to hand pollinate the squash fruits. The end result was two butternut squashes (the nicest and tastiest one is above. To pollinate, you find both the male and female flowers. The female flowers have a green undeveloped fruit attached and the flower has an opening of sort. The male flowers have no fruit attached and a stamen (long yellow stick). I break off the male flower and clear room around the stamen. I then rub the stamen all around the female squash stigma. If things go well, a tasty squash will grow. This method seems to work for me 70% of the time.
The bugs and heat are once again attacking the squash in my garden. I will be pulling the plants out soon. When it works, they taste fantastic. However I don’t have the real estate available in my garden to sacrifice to only produce 2 squashes for the season. I think this will be my last year growing them. They crowded out all the tomatoes so I have no tomato crop this summer.

I did enjoy my roasted butternut squash accompanied by sauteed spinach and quinoa.