Mystery squash

I thought that once my mystery squash started to produce, I could tell what kind it was. Initially I believed that this plant was a pumpkin, but now that the fruit of the plant is starting to grow, I'm baffled. This is about the size of a childs fist, light green and elongated. I didn't grow nor eat any of these last year however the seeds came from my compost pile and were volunteers. The plants themselves are quite large and leafy, some have dark green leaves with light green veins/markings and another one is just a medium green with no markings - they are all producing the same fruit though.

It's been a long time since my last post....

If it wasn't for Mother Nature, I'd have no garden to speak of. Out of the numerous volunteer plants that have popped up, only a few have been identified. We have a roma tomato under the office window, in the garden we have a pumpkin plant, a pear tomato and 2 tomatillo plants (which are going GANGBUSTERS!) and in the back bed we have at least 1 yellow crookneck squash. That leaves about 6 squash plants and 3-4 tomato plants still unidentified.

My cotton plants are doing well. One of them, again Gangbusters, has sprouted numerous blooms and I'm excited while I wait for them to actually flower.

Summer classes are winding down. I completed Public Speaking on Thursday and this Thursday I'll finalize Psych class. That gives me until the end of August to somewhat relax in preparation for Fall classes.

Guess which class I'm taking this summer?

The class before mine was streaming out through the door as I approached from down the hall. I entered the class with 5 other students and as I passed over the threshold, the smell was overwhelming. It was scent of nervousness and fear mixed into one foul odor and there was no mistaking it. It was the first telltale sign of the night, signifying our speeches were due in public speaking class.

migrating geese

Friday night after work I stood in my garden, barefoot, watering my seedlings and encouraging them to grow. From overhead I heard the familiar honking I used to hear in my old home, which was in the flight path of migrating geese. How I miss hearing them call to each other from overhead! I looked up in time to see two V's of migrating geese flying over, veering as is they especially wanted to go over my yard. I smiled and laffed, put my hands in the air and waved, calling back "hello - thank you for coming by to visit!"

It's the day before Friday...

...and already I wish it were Saturday. This sure has been a long week for a 4day work week.

Today, I ain't got much to say, know what I'm sayin'? Just wanted to note that it is now safe for the veggies and other plants at my house again, and Go Go Gopher Killer! Yes, I finally killed the gopher in my yard, left the trap in case there was a 2nd and when I figured no one was left, I removed the trap and watered the yard thoroughly. My tomato plant, whose roots that varmint ate last week, is doing very well in a jar of water on my windowsill and has finally developed several roots. She'll go back in the ground tonight, planted inside an anti-gopher chicken wire cage. The cages from last year took some time to locate as they sunk in the ground. I dug them out and lifted them up, then filled in some dirt, shredded newspaper and leaves, and let them settle back in. We'll see how that works out.

We be jammin'

Last year D, who is part of my Women's Workday Group, kindly shared some of her strawberry plants with me. We dug up 2 plants and one of them gave up the ghost at the end of last summer. Here is my sole survivor - doesn't he look fabulous? You can't see in this picture but I have two strawberry blossoms. Not enough for jam, mind you, but enough for 1 bite and the pleasure of knowing that the little bit of sweetness came from my own yard.

Here are 2 of my original volunteer tomato plants. I discovered last night that the 3rd one, the smallest one, is not doing well. I found him limp and sprawled out on the floor, I suspect that damn gopher has been chewing his roots. Will have to find and use the gopher cages that should still be in the ground from last year, to accommodate the rest of my volunteers and such that I will be planting.






















Last but not least, my newest little corner of the world. Taking inspiration from J's courtyard (my other cohort in Women's Work Days) I placed pots of canna (donated from J's canna thinning last year) in this bare back corner of the bed in the back. Then I used donations from D around the bottom edges to soften things up. It will all fill in and, hopefully, keep the cats from this corner that they tend to use to make the great backyard escape.

My weekend finds

I had a volunteer Odoriko growing in the garden however it was stuck behind the garlic so was... puny and sad. I replanted it yesterday, moving it over to it's own sunny spot. I also took 3 more volunteer toms out of the lemon tree pot and put them in 4" pots to give to coworkers. While I was working my around the lemon pot, I noticed a yellow flower. At first I thought a tomato bloom, but it didn't look right. Since it was tall and gangly and growing up between the thorns of the lemon tree, I couldn't see it well. I call over BF and he got on the other side of the pot. "It's a tomatillo," he declared, and I do declare he was right! It was more than a foot tall and two blossoms on it. I punched them off, dug it out and repotted it. Once it recovers and the weather cools a bit, I'll put it in the ground. So far all 5 of the plants I replanted yesterday (3 toms from the lemon pot, 1 tomatillo from the lemon pot, and 1 tom from behind the garlic) are all standing tall and happy today.)

I have a plan for the back bed this year in order to be able to utilize it more since it has a very steep slope which makes it hard to retain water. But the wheels in my head are spinning and I want to try to use the 1/3 circle red clay borders (which I typically think look tacky) to level the soil in certain places, using the borders to design out a fish scale sort of outline. I'll buy a few at OSH and see how it goes before I go crazy. I'm just tired of watching the dirt and all my water run down the hill while my plants thirst.