Go Gourd Go!

I was so mad when the new apartment complex owners (a faceless nameless corporation) ripped out the entire front yard for some future drought resistant garden.  So when this little gourd sprouted in the dry hard packed soil, I couldn't help cheering.  Of course it will be scraped away if and when they do plant, which will be sad, but for now I'm cheering for the last act of rebellion! I wonder how big it will get before something takes it out.

I've often cleaned gourds on the front porch, so this seed must have landed in the garden and been churned up when they scraped away all the topsoil. I could be wrong, but none of the other plants I've put into the front yard have this growth habit.They turned off the sprinklers weeks ago, so I have no idea where it found enough moisture to grow, but I have a feeling I should start watering it as summer approaches.  I know I shouldn't get too attached to it but I already am.

Last Days of August

It looks like I have a whole bunch of tomatoes that are going to ripen all at once.

I had three promising brown eyed susan plants sprout up. Then one vanished. A day or two later the best one vanished and now there is just one left. By vanished I mean you can't even tell it was ever there. So I put a cut out styrofoam cup over the last one to keep it from snails, slugs, and birds. Sigh. I just need one to grow up the trellis.

Lots of other things are blooming: the moss rose, the striped roses, the lantana, sea lavender, and some of the succulents.

I'm turning this gourd I grew in the garden into a rain stick too.

Weedy Tomatoes

We had company over today to work on some gourd projects. I guess the guy really appreciated what we taught him, because suddenly he jumps up and goes and weeds all my tomatoes. Luckily I had just watered them deeply the night before, otherwise he'd have thrown out his back before he got any weeds pulled. Now there is a stack of weeds as big as a bale of hay. I'll let them dry a day or two and put them in the dumpster. I was embarrassed to even have weeds, but I guess he meant well.

The photo is of a gourd I grew. I cut it in half to clean it out so I can make a rain stick.

It's a jungle out there.

My problem has never been getting things to grow. It's keeping them from taking over the neighborhood. Today I had to go out and pull my gourd vine back over from my neighbor's side of the brick wall. What I thought was a wee piece of vine on the wrong side turned out to be about 12 feet long. Then I had to trim the jasmine vine off of the roses and the lantana out of the jasmine. And my 'miniature rose' is now 6' tall and tangled with another rose. It's like the thorny rose from hell so I cut that back quite a bit as well.

Note that I didn't plant any gourds this year or last, they just keep growing up by themselves. As we are midway into Oct. my striped rosebush is blooming it's head off again.