Squash in bloom

Invariably when I mention to someone that I have a greenhouse the next question is what kind of food plants I grow. People are always surprised to find that I grow tropical plants (mostly orchids and aroids) in my greenhouse.

summer squash blooms

I have tried growing a few fruits and vegetables in the past, with limited success:

• key lime - few fruits before the tree succumbed.
• broccoli - my favorite vegetable, plants were destroyed by caterpillars before they flowered.
• tomatoes - limited success.
• squash - plants were either eaten by insects or withered in the sun before they flowered.
• potatoes - actually a decent little harvest, especially considering the spot I picked was shadier than is ideal.

Much of our yard is shaded, which we love during the hot summer months, but there's not a great place to put in a garden. This year I decided to try some squash seeds in a planter box that I can move around to get the right level of sun. Also I figured the planter box is pretty similar to the raised beds that everyone is planting these days. Another change from my unsuccessful attempt with squash seeds last year: I decided to plant the seeds directly in the planter box, rather than starting them in a seed tray and then transplanting them. I started with two different varieties of yellow summer squash - the kind we really like to eat over the summer. I planted more seeds than recommended for the space, but figured I could thin them out if they got too crowded.

summer squash blooms

summer squash blooms

Things are going really well! The plants have been getting big and produced a bunch of buds over the last two weeks. The flowers just started opening over the weekend and I'm hopeful we'll have a bunch of squash a few weeks from now. I've been monitoring the plants closely for squash bugs and haven't seen one yet.

Update: Native persimmons

You may recall that last year I collected a wild persimmon and planted the seeds. I put these in a pot outdoors and just let them be - no water, no attention whatsoever. I figured the less I messed with them, the more likely they would be to germinate.

Persimmon tree (Diospyros virginiana) beginning to sprout from the soil.

It appears my gambit worked! I have one little tree that sprouted from the soil in late March or early April and another one is breaking through the soil now. (And I'm pretty sure it's not a pecan or oak tree planted by a neighborhood squirrel, which is what usually comes up in my pots that sit outdoors...)

Persimmon tree (Diospyros virginiana) growing quickly.

The funny thing is that just a week before the first tree sprouted I placed an order from a plant catalog and included two small persimmon trees, so it looks like I may soon have persimmon trees coming out my ears and I don't really have a plan for where to plant them!

I know my mom would love to be able to pick persimmons from her own yard, but I also know that these native persimmons are not the ideal candidates for cooking. And I also realize it will be years before the trees are large enough to bear fruit...

I do have access to land where I can plant these, so maybe I'll start a little grove there.

Hard winter strikes a blow

Just a month after posting my Galveston garden update I traveled down there for a weekend birding trip and found that the garden didn't quite look the same. Apparently this winter was a hard one in coastal Texas and a number of plants that had never before seen a hard freeze were zapped to the ground.

Dead plant material where there used to be Natal Plum (top), as well as Duranta and Jatropha (bottom).

The Natal Plums (Carissa macrocarpa) along the front sidewalk had grown really large over the last 5 years but after this winter they were DEAD to the ground. The Duranta (Duranta erecta), Plumbago (P. auriculata), Spicy Jatropha (J. integerrima), White Bird-of-Paradise (Strelitzia nicolai), Esperanza (Tecoma stans), and Bougainvillea were also all dead to the ground.

Dead plant material where there used to be Bougainvillea and Esperanza.

You can see new Esperanza growth beginning.

The good news is that I could see new green stems appearing at the ground level, coming up from the roots, of just about everything. I will have a heck of a job cutting back and disposing of the old, dead growth on my next trip down to Galveston, but thankfully this winter did not spell the end for most of the plants. I guess the other silver lining is that the plants will not be as crowded now that many of them are starting over from ground level.

Plants that seemed to have been unfazed by the winter include: all of the Oleanders, Indian Hawthorns (Rhaphiolepsis indica), Shrimp Plant (Justicia brandegeana), Bottlebrush (Callistemon citrinus 'Little John'), Yucca, Pineapple Guava (Feijoa sellowiana), Buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus), and Cycad (Zamia vazquezii).

Anthurium llewelynii in bloom

My Anthurium llewelynii is showing off, so I had to share. It has put out a really nice long leaf recently and also has a beautiful inflorescence right now.

Nice, long leaf on my Anthurium llewelynii

This is the same plant that I repotted last summer and it seems to be enjoying it's new home.

Inflorescence of Anthurium llewelynii