Grapes

The muscadine grapes keep coming and coming this year. They are such a treat. When they are golden brown like in the picture below it is the perfect time to pick them.

They are very sweet – almost dessert like. The only downside is that it is a bit of work to get to the sweetness. The skin is pretty tough and tasteless and you have to end up spitting out 3-4 seeds after you get the fruit, but believe me it is so worth it.

Poor Pineapple

I had high hopes for my pineapple but it is no more. Apparently the abundance of rain was too much for the plant and the pineapple turned yellow. I was going to leave it for a while longer but the pineapple smell was strong. I will try to cut it open tomorrow and see if we can eat what is there.
Until next time….

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.

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.