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Maturing Gourds October 09

Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 4:35 am

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It's been a long time since I've written. The gourds stopped growing in size in late August. It was quite a sight to see them after we had been away for 12 days. 4 were huge and 1 was much smaller. It has now started to rot but the other 4 are quite large and healthy looking. They still weigh a lot (about 10 lbs I'd say) and some have nice darker green patterns on their shells. Now the waiting continues. The leaves are turning brown and withering and the gourds will start to dry up slowly and harden. I'll pick them around Christmas or I might leave them out all winter to dry on the trellis.
We have a September blooming clematis which, had I believed the package instructions, would have been planted in the correct location. I didn't think that the tiny vine I bought 5 years ago could possibly ever by 15 feet long. It is! It goes in both directions along our fence in the middle of the yard and takes over those sections of garden. This week-end we will try to move it to our arbour at the back of the yard which means we also have to move a climbing hydrangea and a climbing rose. Wish me luck!



Large clematis beginning to take over fence. ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )




Larger harvest (note nosy weiner dog) ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )





Last edited: Fri Oct 09, 2009 4:36 am

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The gourds are growing

Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 3:11 am

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It's amazing how fast these things grow. They are kind of like those zucchini that you turn your back on for a few days and poof, you've got a meal for 6.
On the website whose growing guide I have been following we were told that as of the beginning of August not to bother pollinating flowers anymore since they won't mature in time for harvest however I'm banking on the fact that I live 3 blocks from Lake Ontario and we get the lake effect so really, I am in another zone than the gourd farm people....I hope.
By the time they said to stop I only had 3 pollinated gourds. As of tonight we have 10 or 12.
Here's how we pollinated:




Pollination! ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

and here is the gourd trellis as of August 8th. I've cut all the ends of new vines so that the plant will stop making vines and will start pumping all the goodness into the gourds.





Trellis August 8th ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

The gourds themselves grow rapidly. These 2 were pollinated on the same night, back around July 30th I think.






( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )






( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )


The second little gourd to the left of my hand was pollinated just a few days ago. I think they grow about 2 cm in girth and length each day.

The poor veggies have been neglected in this year's blog. They are doing well except our tomatoes (terrible year for rain and not enough heat here in southern Ontario) and the runner beans which are taking up tons of space and not really producing much. I didn't trellis them properly and the vines are all over each other. Maybe they are knocking the beans off by being to jammed in.
We're eating bush beans, zuchs, there are potatoes in the ground but this year I'm being patient and not digging any up. One good way to make your produce look good is to feed it to visiting pet rats (we babysat them, great critters). They each had a 2 cm carrot from the garden and I wish I'd taken a photo. It looked like I grew huge carrots if you used your imagination....


Last edited: Thu Aug 13, 2009 3:11 am

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More Wrens and Excitement in the Gourd Patch

Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 4:06 am

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Well, it's official. I'm addicted to my gourd patch. I come home from work and the first thing I do (after feeding the weiner dog who is doing a lovely dance at my feet and nipping my ankles) is check on the gourds.
Here are the amazing springs that are holding my plants really solidly to the trellis and will hopefully be supporting some heavy gourds very soon.


Springs! ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Tonight we had some excitement. I think this female flower actually opened yesterday but I missed it (even with all that checking) so I pollinated it today by folding back the petals on the male flower and touching it a few times to the female stamens (is this the right name?). We could see some pollen that moved over so I'm going to hope that the little gourd that is already there will grow huge!







Flowers (female, petal-less, in front, male in back) ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

There are quite a few vines growing now that are secondaries and from those are a few tiny female buds.





Female bud ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

There have been 4 zucchinis picked from the garden and 2 large bowls of snap and snow peas. The weather has gotten a bit warmer this week and we had 1 dry day after 5 or 6 wet ones so maybe things will grow and not rot as much. The raspberries weren't too good, rotted on the vine and some zuchs blooms fell off. The tomatoes are not producing too many fruits but it's still July.

The wrens have returned and are now occupying the house that the male stuffed full of twigs back in the spring. I didn't even realize that she was on eggs (she is very stealth) until I heard babies yesterday and saw her bring food in. The male is helping out again this time which is nice.
Here he is with a neat looking bug and below he is passing the bug to the female who is inside the house!






Mmmmm dinner ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )






( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Here comes mom out of the house:




( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

And mom returning with a really good looking caterpillar:




( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )






( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Our weiner dog, Willy, had a rather surprising and stressful day. Usually he sleeps and eats and goes for walks. Today he discovered a skunk over the back fence and promptly got sprayed on the face. While he plowed (all dog owners will understand this term) to get the offending ick off of his face I went to the house for some cleaner. 4 cups H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide, 3%) to 1/4 cup baking soda and 1 tsp dish soap did the job really well of removing most of the smell and oil. During his cleanup I was checking out his ears, where he got a good douse of spray, and tried to smudge off a brown blob. Willy winced and I looked closer. It turned out to be a tick which I didn't even think we had around here. We live in a suburban neighbourhood with lots of bushes and trees but it certainly isn't the woods. It was not engorged, in fact I think it had just attached itself today. With tweezers and a steady hand I pinched it on the head and pulled (had to pull hard) to get it out. It came out clean and is still (8 hours later) swimming in a water and H2O2 solution in a bowl....amazing critters! The poor dog hasn't gone near the back fence all day and still smells a bit. His ear is also still rather sore.
Talk about an exciting day!



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July 21st First Gourd Flower!

Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 3:36 am

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I now understand how someone can become obsessed over a plant and turn it into a livelihood! I just found a website today of a gourd farm where they produce 375,000 gourds per year. It's in California so they certainly a growing season advantage over me however...I have a flower! It's a male flower so I still have to wait for the females to be produced before I can work my paintbrush magic at dusk.


The trellis on July 20th ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )






Male gourd flower July 21st ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )


The veggie garden is very green and bushy now. My tomatoes exploded in size, I just have to get out there to trim out the suckers. The runner beans are in full beautiful bloom. We've been eating snap and snow peas for a week now and since it's been really cool here the lettuce and spinach has lasted and not wilted or bolted. Next week I suspect we'll have 20 zucchini (neighbours, look out!) and a couple of raspberries ripened the other day. Summer eating is here!





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July 13th, 09

Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 3:17 am

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Lot's of things are happening now that we've had some sun and regular rain. The male wren is still out there singing up a storm and I think I saw the female and little ones in one of our shrubs the other day.
The garden is producing lots of snap and snow peas and the scarlet runner beans have hundreds (maybe more) of beautiful flowers. The tomatoes have flowers too finally. They are a little bit late I think. I need to thin my carrots and have learned that the place i put my beets this year is the wrong spot. Not enough sun at all but once the peas are finished I'll yank them out and give the beets more direct sunshine.
The gourds are my shining glory. I am loving watching them grow 2-3 inches per day. We were keeping our eye on the biggest vine which was creeping up the chain link fence so it was easy to tell how much it had grown each day. It is now growing side vines and in another week I'll cut the main vine and encourage more female flowers from the side vines. I am looking forward to being the fertilizer fairy with a paintbrush when there are both male and female flowers out there. So far there are just male buds on tiny stems.


Potatoes, Zuchs and Herbs ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )






Main garden ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )






Sweet Pea Vine ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )






The biggest gourd vine, making the bend. ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )






Smaller gourds, catching up. ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )





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June 24th, The wrens have fledged!

Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 3:09 am

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This morning at 6:15 there was quite a bit of action out at the wren house. I had to leave for work so I couldn't watch for too long but the babies were sticking their heads out to get food from the mom and there was a lot of noise. At dinner they were still in the house but by 8 pm they were out and in a tall spruce tree making "chk" noises while their mom had a fit squaking at them (and me).
Here she is on Monday afternoon after a trip into the house with some food:


Mom Wren ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

And here is one of the babies (you can see a beak easily but not much else):



Baby! ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

The gourds are growing now that we've had some heat. I put some ashes from our fireplace on them as suggested on one gourd growing website. They are supposed to have a high nitrogen food for the first month to get the root system strong and grow lots of leaves. I promise not to take another photo of boring leaves! The next picture will be a blossom...cross your fingers for me.



Gourds coming along slowly ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Here are the potatoes which have grown exponentially and need to be mounded. The zucchinis have also grown a lot in a week. I think we'll have far too many zucchinis....



Taters ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

We ate some lettuce from the garden this week. The spinach has no flavour when it's in salad with a dressing and it got some strange disease or bug. It has beige dead patches on most of the leaves in a small section. Could it be water damage? The short variety of snap peas has produced some pods that are eating size. The 6 foot tall vines are massive with huge thick stems and lots of flowers.



Snap peas ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Mmmm, look at all that lettuce (up front) and the peas. I can't wait until they are ready!



The main garden ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )





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Garden Update Mid-June

Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 3:20 am

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The garden is growing! It's finally warmer here so things are doubling in size. Below are the cukes (tiny things in front left), potatoes just showing out of the ground, rhubarb behind, zuchs to the right and raspberries behind.


( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Here is the main garden. Lot's of stuff in here now.



Garden on June 16 ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

This is our main flower bed and it's just about to burst with poppies and peonies. I have to move a bunch of things because the Japanese maple and magnolia have doubled in size in the last 5 years.




Flower Bed ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )






Peony ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )






Mom Wren (not happy with me) ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Here is the wren just coming out of her house to fetch another caterpillar (hopefully out of my lettuce). I went up close to the house to see if I could see any babies but it was too dark inside. The mom was scolding me terribly!



Last edited: Wed Jun 17, 2009 3:25 am

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Tree of Life

Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 2:29 am

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It's one smallish, perhaps 8 year old, 13 foot high red maple that the wren house is hanging in and wouldn't you know, out of all the trees and shrubs in our yard (hundreds) a robin chose the same tree and has a nest 5 feet above the wren house! I discovered her on Saturday when I noticed that robins were chasing each other around the yard and quite often starting or finishing their chase in this tree. It think that must have been some mating and now she's happily sitting on the nest and feeding from my bug supply.
I hope they both continue to eat well from the vegetable garden which is just a few feet away because there are a lot of caterpillars this year and some have already made holes in my lettuce!!
Photos to come of the robin after I figure out how to get a decent shot. The zoom lens has trouble focusing on one little thing in the middle of the lens.
The baby wrens (number unknown) can be heard clearly from the house which is 15 feet away so they are obviously growing well. The male is feeding them this year which is something that we didn't see last year. They are getting a bug every 2-3 minutes whereas last year it was every 5.
The garden is looking great. Potatoes showing some green above ground now. Lettuce in full swing, spinach too. Salad for dinner tomorrow night, our first big meal from the garden this year. The peas are almost at top height and some have flowers. Runner beans are starting to climb up the trellis. Gourds have 4 leaves now...it just got warm here. The tomatoe plants I bought are a good size, those I started from seed are a bit small. Beets, carrots, 2 inches up, Bush beans had to be planted again because only 2 grew. Zuchini are at 4 leaves and cucumber is really slow for some reason.



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Baby birds!

Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:59 am

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They finally hatched! The mother wren has been flying in and out every so often over the last 3 weeks and finally there are the quietest peeps coming from the house (I pressed my ear to the back of it to hear them). So far it sounds like 2 babies. It's really cold out tonight so I guess mom is in there covering them up. The real action in the yard will start now with her picking all the inchworms and caterpillars, moths etc from my gardens to feed the fast growing babies. It only took about 2 1/2 weeks, maybe 3 max, for them to fledge and then leave the nest. I'll get photos when I can. They are such amazing little creatures.

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The Gourd Trellis

Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 2:29 am

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We have a neighbour who trimmed out a bunch of dead cedar hedge so I asked if I could have the wood for a trellis. They were happy to give it away!
After doing some reading and looking at photos I realized that I was going to need something more substantial than a small section of the chain link fence. Some of these vines exceed 10 feet in length and I put 5 plants in the ground....hmmmm.
I plan on being out there in the evening with my paintbrush pollinating (I'll wear a black and yellow jersey to trick the plants!) so that I can maximize my yield. A few years ago I tried a birdhouse gourd plant and got only one gourd. I wasn't sure why the flowers kept on falling off but now I know. They weren't pollinated and I also didn't know the males from the females. I've got it down pat now. There are some great websites out there now.
So here is the trellis and a close up of the little plants which just went into the ground last week.
Wish them (us) luck! The wren will have more houses to stuff next year if I'm successful!


Gourd seedlings ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )






The Gourd Trellis ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )





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