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Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 3:06 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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Droopy wrote on Wed Jul 29, 2009 6:01 am:

The joys of gardening, eh? I'm sorry about your dog and the skunk. Poor little darlig Willy.

Your wrens look busy. They're such nice, little birds. I enjoy watching them.

And good luck with your gourds too.

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eileen wrote on Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:19 am:

Your gourds look so healthy and now that they are producing male and female flowers I'm sure it won't be long until the fruits appear.

I love the shots you got of the parent wrens and I hope we'll see the babies fledging when the time comes.

Poor Willy has certainly had a trial of a day. I hope the skunk scent clears soon and that his ear stops hurting.

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Sjoerd wrote on Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:21 am:

Heh heh heh... well, I liked your stories and pics. Never a dull moment over at your place, is there?

It's nice to see a good pic of a wren. The ones here are so stealthy that one rarely gets the opportunity to look at them up close properly.

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