Borage

Borage Flower

Cindy planted some Borage in the raised bed as a "companion plant" for the Sugar Snap and Oregon Giant Peas, the Delicata Squash and some of the tomatoes in the hope that it would attract bees to pollinate the squash and tomatoes.

The borage plant has delicate blue flowers and large, hairy leaves.  The young leaves can be used in salads and the flowers are sometimes used in martinis.  The larger leaves can be used in compost.

However, one aspect of planting borage is that the bees are apparently paying more attention to it than they are to the squash blossoms.   Another drawback is that it apparently self-seeds abundantly.  If you plant one borage plant, you may have borage again the next year.  Everywhere.

In fact, it sounds like borage may be a contender for world domination with the Thunbergia and the Clarkia that grow along our north fence.

Cindy may want to pick off those cute little blue flowers and add them to her martinis.

DOMA Falls! Our Squash Think It Applies To Them!

Squash Blossoms

Today the Supreme Court of the United States issued decisions striking down the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and upholding the decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which overturned the discriminatory change to the California state constitution that prohibited same-sex marriage in California.

It's been a long, hard road to get to this point and the journey is not over yet, because the decision did not go so far as to recognize marriage as a fundamental right for same-sex couples, but it's a significant and welcome milestone on that journey.

So what does this have to do with the garden, you ask?

Well, we're not quite sure why, but both our Delicata Squash and our Clarimore Zucchini have been out of synch this year.  Each squash blossom lasts only about a day, and during the time the flowers are open pollen must be transferred from the male flowers to the female flowers or else the fruit will not set on.

Bees and other pollinators usually do this, but in the past Cindy has assisted them by transferring pollen from one to the other with her paintbrush.  That works if the flowers are both open at the same time.

The problem this year is that both the zucchini and the squash plants, which are in two different raised beds, will have several male flowers open at the same time, or several female flowers, but not one of each.  Cindy tried to refrigerate one of the male squash flowers a couple of weeks ago and use the pollen from it when the next female flower opened, but that experiment didn't work out.

Cindy and I are celebrating the fall of DOMA; we just wish the squash weren't celebrating it, too.

Squash Sling

Squash Blossom

The squash are growing so rapidly in the raised bed that Cindy has had to construct a framework of poles to support them.

As usual, the male and female blossoms open at different times, so Cindy keeps her paintbrush handy to transfer pollen from one to the other when she has a chance.  Since the blossoms only last one day, some pollinator has to make sure that it gets transferred from the male plant to the female.  See "Sex In The Garden".

Squash Forming

She has even gone so far as to pick one of the male flowers and keep it in a bag in the refrigerator in the garage to try to use that pollen whenever one of the female blossoms opens.  

So we were happy to see a squash forming on one of the vines the other day, but they grow at such a rapid rate that Cindy became concerned that the weight of the squash would eventually pull it off the vine before she was ready to pick it.  

That led her to another engineering solution:  a sling taped to the crossbar to support the growing squash.  

Squash in a Sling

Reminds me of a Bette Midler song.  

Too Good To Be True

Avocado Tree

Well, we should have known that it was too good to be true when we thought the California Ground Squirrels had all been wiped out by the large Gopher Snake a couple of weeks ago.  We were actually feeling sorry for the squirrels.  We should have known that the apparent Lone Survivor was actually just an advance scout.

Yesterday Cindy saw Big Mama and a smaller squirrel out under the bird feeder stuffing themselves with birdseed and thought, "Aw, how cute they are."

Later we were sitting on the patio and Cindy said, "Why is the top of the avocado tree vibrating?"  We went tearing out to it and saw Big Mama inside the the plastic fencing around the avocado tree; she panicked when she saw us and swiftly hauled her ample posterior up over the fencing and scrambled off into the shrubbery, leaving behind her a couple of broken branches on the tree.

That small tree has been struggling ever since we planted it last year and recently something has been eating the new leaves that had set on it.  We suspected that it was a June Bug, but since we caught Big Mama in the act it's pretty clear that at least some of the damage is attributable to her.

However, worse was yet to come; when we returned later in the afternoon, we found a note from the neighbors informing us that they had seen the squirrels inside the bird netting around the blueberry bushes.

That's when we found out that they had eaten most of the blueberry crop.

What's Left of the Blueberry Crop

We're not thinking they're so cute now.

Blueberries

Blueberry Plants In Grow Bags

Our four blueberry bushes have been producing berries at a tremendous clip this year; big, juicy, luscious berries.  We've had blueberries on cereal, in pancakes, in muffins and layered in a wonderful parfait, too.

Naturally, we're not the only ones who appreciate the anti-oxident properties and sweet taste of blueberries, but we had hoped that, with fewer ground squirrels around this year, they would be safe from the varmints.  

Blueberries with Netting

But, of course, the birds like them, too.  So Cindy added some bird netting around the grow bags the blueberries are in, and put reflective strips on the netting to let the birds know it's there so they won't get tangled in the netting.

One bush was almost done producing berries, so she left that one outside the netting so the birds could have some, too.

Who doesn't like fresh blueberries?

  

Greetings, Earthlings!

"I Have Come To Eat Your Tomato Plants"

When we were eating lunch out on the patio the other day, we spotted this gigantic grasshopper clinging to the plexiglass of the varmint-repelling panels Cindy has constructed around the tomato plants.

At first we thought the grasshopper was caught in a spider's web inside the panel, but on closer inspection we realized the grasshopper was actually clinging to the plastic of the panel itself.  Seen through the panel, it looked like something from outer space.

I have no idea how it managed to cling like that--the plastic is so smooth you would think that there was no way to get a grip on it, but somehow this insect did it.  And, as if to show us that this was no fluke, it stepped very delicately along the face of the panel until it came to the wooden stake at the edge of the panel, where it stayed for quite a while before it flew off.

Cindy would be very happy to have one of the birds have this insect for lunch, but we're just not able to kill them ourselves.  In fact, a couple of years ago she had trapped another large grasshopper in the garden and put it in a jar  and then was faced with the dilemma of what to do with it.

Some gardeners just take their garden shears and cut the bugs in half, but we couldn't bring ourselves to kill it.  We didn't want to dump it in a neighbor's yard so it could eat their flowers.  If we threw it down into the canyon, it would just find its way back to our yard.

So we took it several blocks over and released it into the shrubbery around the police station.  They're not growing any flowers or tomatoes.

Another Grasshopper 

California Towhee Nest

Feeding the Babies

For several weeks now, we've been watching a pair of California Towhees hop up on our garden wall and then disappear into the dense Star Jasmine shrub along the side of the garage.

Eventually it dawned on us that they probably had a nest inside the shrub and were going in and out to feed the babies.  

We've called this bird the "Squeaky Wheel Bird" for years because of its persistent high-pitched chirp; it can be kind of annoying at times because it just doesn't stop.  We've also watched them scratching around in the vegetable garden for seeds, insects and worms and even seen them hop up under the rose bushes in the front yard to dislodge aphids from the underside of the rose leaves; they're welcome to all the aphids they can eat.

However, it's been fun watching this pair of birds take care of their nest.  The parent birds seem to vary the diet they're feeding the young ones; they seem to be alternating between seed they pick up under the bird feeder, worms scavenged from Cindy's raised beds and suet from the suet feeder.  Cindy also left the last few blueberries on one of the blueberry bushes and left it outside the bird netting for the birds, so maybe they're getting a few of those as well.  

You've Got...Kale!

Lacinato Kale

Cindy planted two different varieties of Kale this year; for all I know we've had it in the past, but it hadn't appeared on my radar screen until this year.  I know it's supposed to be loaded with anti-oxidents, fiber, vitamins and so on and on, but it's never been one of my favorite foods, and probably never will be.

The two varieties Cindy planted are Lacinato, also known as Tuscan, Black Palm or Dinosaur Kale, and Red Russian Kale.  She made some kale chips the other day; I thought they looked like seaweed and tasted like burnt popcorn hulls.

Red Russian Kale

However, I had to modify my previous opinion of it recently when she cooked some for dinner.  Prepared with some of our thyme, some nutmeg, shallots, whipping cream and a little butter, it was excellent.  Who can dislike something that has been cooked in whipping cream?  Cindy said she could probably serve a rubber tire with whipping cream on it and I would think it was excellent, and she's probably right about that.

With its apparent cancer-fighting properties and all the other nutritional benefits Kale provides, I suspect I'll be seeing more of it as the summer goes on.

Seriously, Dinosaur Skin?

Strings For Beans

Strings For The Beans

The Sugar Snap and Oregon Giant peas are done for the season and proved to be prolific producers again this year.

So now it's time for the green beans to start climbing their way up the strings Cindy has put in place for them in the long raised bed, and soon we'll have new green beans.  

The squash are already setting on, and a few tomatoes have started to form, although none of them have ripened yet. 

Since we're now producing most of our own produce, we don't buy much of it at the grocery store any more, which means we either have to eat up the frozen or canned produce from the year before, or wait for the new crop to arrive.  

So it's "Oh, goody, green beans!"  Then it becomes, "Green beans, again?"  And finally, "What the heck are we going to do with all these beans (or zucchini, or peas, or tomatoes)?"

It's like the old joke about the Englishman touring in America who asked a farmer what they did with all their produce.  The farmer said, "Well, we eat what we can, and can what we can't."  The Englishman thought this was pretty funny, so he went back to Britain and told his friends, "The Americans eat whatever they are able, and what they cannot, they put into tins."  

Tee-Shirt

After I published my blog post the other day whining about the laundry, it occurred to me that I had already started my subtle campaign to dress the resident gardener in all brown clothing.

It started a couple of years ago when she came home from a Master Gardeners' meeting and told me "Master Gardeners know all the dirt".  So I made her a brown tee-shirt with those words on it.

Then when that one started getting a bit ratty looking, I made her another brown one that said "Gardeners Play Dirty".

Versions of that one are actually for sale at:  http://www.cafepress.com/gardenersplaydirty.

Just in case anyone else has similar laundry problems.  They're a bit pricey, but at least you can't see the dirt.

Brown Is The New Black

When I retired five years ago, I took on the household chore of doing the laundry.  When Cindy retired, she became a Master Gardener.

Somehow, that's not a good combination.  Every piece of clothing she wears gets dirty.  I mean really dirty.  Even when she is finished in the garden for the day and takes a shower, her towel turns brown from the dirt.

I'm thinking of buying her all brown clothing from now on.

And a brown towel.