Mother Nature Brought Me These Today

Discussion in 'Crops & Gardens' started by Ina I. Wonder, May 23, 2015.

  1. Ina I. Wonder

    Ina I. Wonder Supreme Member
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    image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg i just love getting up in the morning to see what my Creator has for my eyes to see. What better thing than to see the life in the many things that are there just for us to enjoy, and at little if any cost.
    image.jpg
     
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  2. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Those flowers are awesomely beautiful, my Friend ! Are they gladiolas ? I love the Passionflower vine , too, and its little flowers are just SO odd looking. Do you use the passionfruit, or just grow the vine ?
    One place that we lived; there was a Passionflower vine, but the fruit was just starting to get ripe when I moved; so I didn't actually try any.
    The blueberries are enormous ! I have a few teen-tiny little green berries on my bushes; but even the bushes are not vey large yet; so eventually, they should do better as they grow and become mature bushes. I am just happy to actually see a few berries on them. The blackberries that you gave me are growing and doing good in the planter that Bobby made for them.
    I even have one little red blackberry on there --- my first blackberry crop ! !

    I love your new avatar picture ! You look SO happy out in your garden, Ina.

    image.jpg
     
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  3. Ina I. Wonder

    Ina I. Wonder Supreme Member
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    Hi Yvonne, yes they are galiolas, and my first showing of them this year. With all this rain, everything is a bit slow in showing it's blooms. I've seen Passion flowers all my life, but my two bushes are a first for me. If my vines will grow fruit I'll try it. Do you have any suggestion on how to fix the fruit? I've never heard of eating them before.

    My two Blueberry bushes are giving me at least a handful of berries a day so far, and I don't eat or need more.

    My tomatoes are small, but very tasty, and again, I don't need more than what is being produced. I also planted cantaloupe ans baby watermelons, so I'll be seeing how those do in large containers.

    Around here we get two growing seasons, so I'll be trying some gourds and squash this fall.

    I hope your Blachberries are tastier than the wild ones I found growing on my back fence. Yuk!!!
     
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  4. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I have never eaten any of the passionflower fruits; but possibly, @Joyce Mcgregor will be able to tell us more about using the fruit. She is the one who first showed me this intersting vine and odd flower. I tried planting seeds; but didn't have any luck sprouting them, and when I moved to a place that had a vine , we moved before the fruit was ripe.
    They also go by the name of "Maypop", apparently because when you step on a ripe fruit (why would you ever even want to do that ? ? ) the fruit pops as it breaks apart.
    Anyway, here is the information page from "Eat the Weeds", one of my most favorite internet webpages.

    http://www.eattheweeds.com/maypops-food-fun-medicine-2/
     
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  5. Richard Paradon

    Richard Paradon Supreme Member
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    Passion fruit are delicious! It is one of the things that I usually forget to buy at the market, but when I do, they don't last very long. I can easily devour a half kilo in one sitting! To me they are "gooey fun" a bit like a lime but more sweet than bitter.
     
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  6. Sheldon Scott

    Sheldon Scott Supreme Member
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    Maypops grow wild here. I see the flowers and the green fruits but never see the fruits when they are ripe so have never tasted them. I'm guessing some animals eat them.
     
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  7. Pat Baker

    Pat Baker Supreme Member
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    It is just getting warm in my area, we will not see any harvest until mid-August. I really like what you have shown us so far can't wait to see the rest.
     
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  8. Jenn Windey

    Jenn Windey Supreme Member
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    Same here, we are just starting the growing season, so far the only one to get something from the garden is my turtles, they don't care how new the dandelions are they love them.

    It looks like I have a good amount of herbs that made it through the winter, in fact I could probably cut some back and dry it now, it also looks like the spinach is starting and I thought I saw something that might be lettuce. this season I tried my hand at some organic seeds. In mid njune close to the 4th of July the berries will come in. I can hardly wait.

    This summer has started off cold, this is the first week that has been real nice, tomorrow we will be close to 90 degrees and then it will drop back to the 60's I hope they are wrong about that.
     
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  9. Avigail David

    Avigail David Veteran Member
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    A walk into your garden must be the most peaceful, calming, wonderful experiences I would be in a lifetime. Passion fruit is a passion of mine :p along with figs are a highlight for us in their seasons.
     
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  10. Dave Sun

    Dave Sun Veteran Member
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    Ina, I love mom nature. She will be producing delicious northern sweet corn very soon, my favorite veggy. Growing up, we had all types of berries, grapes, rhubarb and many other delights that grew on or near the old homestead. Sure miss it.
     
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  11. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Dave ! ! You and I must have grown up together and just didn't know it. We had all of those fruits and berries, too ! My mother loved to garden, and our old house was on two large lots (because they also had the little store next door); so she had just about every flower and fruit that grew in north Idaho. We had blackberries, raspberries, grapes, rhubarb, plus apple, pear and plum trees.
    Mom would pick a huge bowl of raspberries, and then send me off down the road to give some to neighbors who did not have any fruit of their own. Berries and cream (canned milk) was one of my most favorite summertime breakfasts.

    I am working on that part, although nothing is old enough to produce much yet. I have 3 blackberries, 2 razzleberries, a small strawberry patch, and some blueberry bushes. Out back are two peach trees, and two apple trees. I just got a little fig tree at Lowes. Eventually, we will have fruit from them, and maybe Robin will keep the house after I am gone, and she will also have lots of fruit.
    In any case, I enjoy planting and growing all of it. I guess I have a little bit of my mother in there somewhere....
     
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  12. Jenn Windey

    Jenn Windey Supreme Member
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    Checked on my garden today, I do enjoy being able to spend time in my garden and it never seems like I have enough.

    One of my first surprises was that the smoke bush I put in last fall seems to have made it despite the snow. Funny but on Memorial Day it looked totally dead. The Red Bud bush took some damage, I might have to get a few more just to fill that area, it did flower despite it all.
    The peonies have opened and they are wonderful. All the ground cover fared well as did my knock out roses. I had a bumper crop of the old fashioned bachelors buttons.

    My garden is doing well, I have spinach and some lettuce up, the strawberries actually had a few that were red already. The herbs did very well, I have sage that is flowering, I have never saw that happen before. Only the oregano was a causality and that I am afraid I did myself. Today I bought a replacement Oregano, Collard Greens and String Beans. i have to laugh because I had one lone Pea plant that pulled through the winter. I noticed near me there is a person that has the same type of raised garden for vegetables that I have, but theirs is much more substantial size wise. Do you think it would be to forward of me to knock on the door and ask permission to look at the beds? I can sort of see them from the walk but I am very curious on the section where they have used a curved trellis for something, my thought was eggplant. I am dying to know what might be under the arch, it is a brilliant idea. I just don't want to seem like a crazy lady.
     
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  13. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
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    The rains were having a heyday the whole of this week that caused to inundate our extended garden in the nearby vacant lot. Our cassava don't look good with that excess water although the other plants are doing okay. Now, I espied some new life in our extended garden that I hurriedly got the camera to take the photo. I was like a kid checking on small things as if waiting to be surprised with what I would see. Anyway, here is the photo of what I had seen today.... IMG_4501.JPG
     
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  14. Avigail David

    Avigail David Veteran Member
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    Is that a little catfish? Or a tadpole? When we were small, we lived near a farm. When it rained, the fields flooded up to my neck. We caught field snails by the buckets. Those were 'escargot' rainy days for me and my brothers and sisters. :)
     
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