Luffa (Loofah) Gourds ready to harvest (& Fall Halloween scene/setting)

I thought I was not going to get any luffa fruits because they had a late start, and they began flowering so late in the summer. To my surprise, after a cold front and rainy day last week, I found several Luffa gourds dangling along the vines on the (rain barrel) trellis. 
With these, I will dry the gourds to use as luffa scrubs and save the seeds for growing next year. 

The Luffa gourds are an addition to my Fall/Halloween scene/setting with a homemade scarecrow that holds a sign saying "Happy Harvest" over an arrangement of Chrysanthemums and Aster flowers, pumpkins I grew, and some pumpkins I bought, and the cushaws that were donated to us.  

Here is an updated version of the Fall/Halloween setting in the picture below. I added some of the butternut and yellow squash that grew.

Also I have a video explaining the growing process of the Luffa gourds, below:

Buttercup squash, Cucumber trellis, pumpkin & melon hugelkultur

You have seen the Hugelkultur gardens growing greens, tomatoes, peppers, but I have shown you little of the patches of gardens and container gardens around the yard. Below are the hugelkultur mounds growing varieties of melons, such as honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon. 

melons growing on hugelkultur

Santa claus melon plants

 Another hugelkultur mound, located in front of the house, is growing pumpkins. This location receives little sun, but there are patches of sun throughout the day. One problem we have been having with this hugelkultur mound in particular is that there are critters living inside and eating the roots and plants. I think birds watched me plant pumpkin seeds too and ate them. I noticed that many seeds and plants were dug up or eaten, and there were holes made throughout this bed. I am fortunate to have this many pumpkins left.

pumpkins growing on hugelkultur

I am growing buttercup squash for the first time. For these, I dug 6 big holes, filled with garden soil and planted the seeds. These have grown quickly, located in full sun in between the herb garden and grape vines. They are growing on a slope so that they can crawl downhill.

buttercup squash plants

 Also in the front of the house is a patch of cucumbers with a trellis. The trellis is a wire fencing attached to metal posts in the ground. The fencing is leaning so that the cucumbers will easily crawl up the trellis. 
Beside the rows of cucumbers are a large mound of potato varieties, tomatoes, and peas growing on a trellis. This garden patch gets morning sun, but the maple trees shade this garden for most of the day. 

cucumbers growing

tomatoes, potatoes, peas, & cucumber patch

Luffa plants growing in containers

I have some plants growing in large containers, such as Luffa (loofah) plants. I have yet to make a a trellis for them. I have been eying the fencing that I was using for the raspberries, so maybe I'll fashion the fencing into a trellis for them. 
For the cucumber plants, I leaned a pallet up against a building for the cucumbers to grow upwards, and also a piece of a baby crib for another container of cucumbers. 
Other vegetables I have growing in containers include Tomatoes, black eyed peas, black beans, and a melon plant that is either Santa Claus or Canary melon. 

Cucumbers in containers

Cucumbers & Tomato trellis

black eyed peas & black beans in containers

canary or santa claus melon plant

Greens going to seed while vegetables begin to fruit

This is the time for blueberries! For the last three days I have picked more than 20 berries. Some of them are sweet and some sour.

The middle of June is a transition period in the garden. The greens go to seed, and the vegetables begin to fruit. The lettuce, kales, and collards are not going to seed because they can tolerate a little heat and scorching sun light. However, Radicchio, Onions, Arugula, Spinach, and Radishes bolted several weeks ago and are putting off seeds. Once they dry out naturally, I will collect the seed to plant them for a Fall crop. 

Radicchio flowering

The vegetables that are fruiting are pumpkin, tomatoes, and peppers. The melons are flowering of course and vining all over the place.

pumpkin 

The Cucumbers, birdhouse gourds, Luffa (or Loofah) plants have yet to flower, but I am working on a trellis structure for them to grow upon. The Birdhouse gourds are growing up a trellis arbor I added onto last night, which you can see below.

I wanted to show you some of the vegetables continuing to grow in the garden, and many of the vegetables that are fruiting. In the pictures below, you'll see Cauliflower making heads, tomatoes turning red, and peppers forming.

The pictures provided are from our main garden. I'm not sure what kind of activity is happening in the other two gardens. Because of the lack of rain, I'm not too sure any plants are fruiting. I have looked at the forecast for this region, which says we'll be getting rain for the next 10 days. I highly expect the squash and beans and early corn to produce in the next week or two.

Luffa & Birdhouse gourds growing on recycled trellis (video)

Dinosaur kale with cabbage, lettuce, onions, arugula

In yesterday's post "Harvesting lettuce...& more from the Garden", I showed you what I had been eating from the garden, and the varieties of greens we have been harvesting. 

Now that I am harvesting from my Spring garden, eventually these foods will be growing out of season as we enter into the hot summer months. The Spinach, cabbage, radicchio, and radishes are already going to seed. 

broccoli head

Towards late July and early August we will be replanting greens, broccoli, Brussels, cauliflower, and the many other cold tolerant vegetables. 

The Broccoli are finally come to a head which you can see in the photo to the right. 

The cauliflower are growing large which also should be coming to a head soon. 

spinach going to seed

Much of what I have been transplanting and planting now are herbs, squashes, corn, beans, tomatoes, gourds, and peppers. 

Several weeks ago I showed you the progress on the summer gardens at Beans, corn, & squash Summer gardens 2 + 3 & what I'm harvesting from Spring garden . I also showed you how I was growing birdhouse gourds and Luffas, but I wanted to give you a garden tour of the Luffas and Birdhouse gourds growing. In the video you can see the many varieties of plants we're growing on the Summer Hugelkultur mounds and raised beds. 

Growing Luffa, Birdhouse gourds & cucumbers / Trellis & arbor ideas in the garden

pinto beans growing up teepee

In yesterday's post, I said I planted crops to replace those that we lost from the bugs and drought. Dispersed among the remaining plants, I directly sowed lettuce, spinach, carrots, and swiss chard.

Yesterday, James spent most of the day cleaning out the rain drums of food dye. Then we took the drums to my grandparents' house to attach to the gutters on their roof. As James was working on that, I transplanted tomatoes in front of the beans. Behind the clusters of beans, I planted a long row of Marketmore Cucumbers today. It was another good day for planting vine crops, so I figured I would get out the cucumbers at least. James managed to assemble a quick lean to trellis structure for the cucumbers to crawl up.

 

Also, today, I planted a row of Okra in between a row of beans and squash.

 

Birdhouse gourds

 

Because it was a good day for planting vine crops, I wanted to plant Luffa and Birdhouse gourds.  So, when I got home from my grandparents' today, I made two trellis structures of different recycled materials. One was an arbor made with the wood from my 25 year old baby crib. With this, I planted Luffa underneath. The other trellis is the metal spring from the baby crib, which I am using to let Birdhouse gourds grow up. The left picture below shows you the structure for growing Luffa; and the picture to the right is a metal trellis for the Birdhouse gourds.

 

All trellis structures were made using free, recycled, and reused materials. The trellises I have made so far were small to my height, and the only other materials I used were wire cutters and some wire for tying corners and posts together, which I also used a hammer to beat the posts in the ground. These trellises are simple and require no power tools. Even a child could make these structures.