Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Watermelon, Senna, Red Yucca

 One of the watermelons finally was ripe enough to pick. I read that when the tendril nearest the node dries out, the plant is done feeding the fruit. It's been huge for weeks. Turns out it's as big as a head.

The flesh was ok. Not some glorious fruit that defies corporate watermelon oligarchs. But it's mine, and that counts for something. It's a little less flesh, huge seeds.

I had removed a hesperaloe parviflora, Red Yucca, to make way for something else out front. I combined the whole plant in one big pot, that then started wilting and falling over. So I tied the whole thing up, it looked like a wave or an awesome hair cut. Fortunately no pictures or complaints from the neighbors. Yesterday, I divided them and put them in the ground in the gravel driveway.

The soil was so compacted and hard I could barely dig holes for them. Desert soil has a challenge called caliche. It's a layer of naturally forming concrete basically. I've never run into it before in personal digging. Definitely did this time. I wonder if the plants will have drainage issues, root rot or something.

I'm not sure I'm crazy about this location, but it's ok, adds some green, and it's easy easy to remove later. Again these have like bulbs for roots. I googled but found no results for edibility.

I found a desert Senna with seed pods a while back and decided to collect and plant. Yesterday they bloomed.

I collected the seeds at Apache Wash, the trailhead where my oldest rides mountain bikes with his team. (Did you know mountain biking is a sanctioned high school sport now days? It's a wonderful time to be alive!) I actually like this desert weed. It turned out great.

Inspired by Hoover over at Piece of Eden, I fixed up my hummingbird feeder, cleaned it, refilled it, moved it.
This is the view from the kitchen window. Hopefully we'll get some hummingbirds soon!

4 comments:

  1. I'm impressed by the Senna and the watermelon! I tried growing watermelon in my own garden a year or 2 ago but all the fruits split due to inconsistent soil moisture (and that was before our water restrictions).

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    1. The other 2 watermelons I have growing on the vine, one of them split this morning. Now I have 1 left on the vine. Hopefully, given the time to frost here, I might get a few more to go. Plus I have some native desert watermelon plants growing in the monsoon garden, a yellow-fleshed variety. They are growing, just no fruit on the vines yet.

      Thanks for the comment! I love your blog!

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  2. The watermelon is impressive. We don't have the heat in my area to produce sweetness, I think. The Hesperaloe look great along the driveway--might be a little too close to the drive?

    Hope you get some hummers! Your back garden looks good from that angle.

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    1. The hummingbirds are always coming by already! T

      he Hesperaloe are close to the drive We have a suburban ostentatiousness of a driveway, 4 cars wide, plus gravel. At the time I don't anticipate needing the space. In fact I'm thinking of planting a tree in the gravel area, effectively closing off street access to the RV gate, and requiring some tricky maneuvering skills to park a boat or rv back there. Neither of which I own or anticipate owning. Resell value is the only argument I understand for leaving it open.

      I really like your input, I should put together some photos to get your thoughts. I'll make a post regarding it.

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