My Pumpkin Plant is Male

In May I bought Kaiya a little gardening kit. It came with gloves, a few tools and some pumpkin seeds. We took those seeds and planted them in the garden and prayed they would grow in our crappy clay soil. Well, our little pumpkin plant took it sweet ass time to get settled but it has now overgrown our garden. I have to "redirect" it off our lawn and onto our patio so that it doesn't get eaten alive by the mower every week. 

About 3 weeks ago it began blooming. Yes it is late but I was super excited that we may just get a pumpkin. Unfortunately the blooms would open and then just fall right off. No pumpkin. I tried manually pollinating them thinking that the bees were not doing their job (damn lazy bees) but it was still a no go. I just could not figure out why we were not getting any fruit. So like any normal gardener I hit up Google. What I love about the internet is that you can find an answer to ANY question. Turns out there are 2 types of flowers that bloom on a pumpkin plant, a male and a female. Obviously you need both in order to make a pumpkin and to my disappointment (and further examination of the blooms) I have nothing but male flowers on my plant. I have lost hope for a pumpkin. 

So how can you tell if your buds are male or female?

The female bud will have a little bulb growing under the flower. The male will not.

Male Bud

Female Bud

And that's a little pumpkin 101 for those who didn't know....... like me!

ps: this applies to all squashes and cucumbers apparently 

 

WTF is June Bearing Strawberries?!

I purchased a strawberry plant at the end of May. It was on sale *red flag* and had tuns of strawberries on it. I was super excited for Kaiya to learn about where fruit comes from and be able to check her strawberry plant every morning. I took it home, planted it in a pot and watched it flourish. 

About a month ago I saw the very last flower turn into a strawberry. Kaiya and I check every morning for new flowers but alas there are none. Finally I googled strawberry plants and the answer popped up right away. June Bearing Strawberry bushes. WTF is that?! Apparently there are strawberry plants that DO NOT produce strawberries all season long but only in the month of June.

First off, who would even want these plants?! What is the purpose? Mine has been shooting out like crazy which makes me believe that it would over take any garden, for what? A month of strawberries?There is such a thing as everbearing plants that produce them all season long, I guess the sale should of tipped me off that no one was wanting just a month of strawberries. 

I was planning on transplanting this one into the new garden but now I just want to get rid of it. What a bummer.

Our teeny tiny Garden

My herb pot (so, so sad. It has definitely seen better days). I think next year I might need a new one.

My beautiful lilies that have bloomed.

This weekend we were very busy. We bought our iPhones (yay) and we also finished most of backyard.

Living in a townhome we don't have much options in the gardening department. Originally our backyward consisted (or was supposed to consist of) a VERY large patch of mulch and 3 small bushes. After permission from the condo board we have altered our backyard just a bit. We sodded most of the mulched area and kept just a small patch for some flowers and a bush of our choice. Here is what I have come up with. It's not much, but I am proud of it. It consists of lilies (my faves) snap dragons (my second fave) a flowering bush in the middle, a lavender plant and 2 perennials. So far the lilies are the only ones that have begun to bloom, so i cannot wait for the color explosion.

Growing Herbs

Here is my little herb garden that I am growing this year. I have Mint, Dill, Rosemary, Thyme, Basil, Lavender and Echinacea. I have been keeping them indoors since the weather has been so crappy so hopefully I can put them outside soon. My baby keeps getting into the pots and pulling the dirt and plants out, soon I wont have anything left!!