My homegrown cucumbers are very prickly. It’s not a problem; the spines are easy to scrub off. But before doing so today, I decided to examine some of them under the microscope. Now I’m curious about cactus spines!
Cucumis sativus
Tag: garden
nearly over
Pretty much the last harvest of salad veg for the year; there’s still cucumbers on the vine, and lots of basil, but I pulled the last tomato plant today. This sketch shows 1/50th of the green tomatoes now filling a big colander on the counter, so we’ll still be eating them for a few weeks. Looking forward to brassicas, beets, chard, potatoes, onions ….
Oncopeltus fasciatus
Large milkweed bugs are seed-feeders; their main diet is, not surprisingly, milkweed seeds. So I’m not sure what this lady was doing on the sweet potato vine.
Pieris rapae
The cabbage whites (Pieris rapae) are all over my brassicas, of course, but I’m also seeing them in the Park and on ornamentals in the neighbourhood. They seem to especially like purple lantana flowers. Do they also lay their eggs on the plant? Do their larvae eat the leaves, as they do my kale?
On the subject of lantana, it’s highly invasive where I‘m from. It covers an estimated four million hectares in eastern Australia, often to the exclusion of wildlife, people and livestock. So it’s taken me a long while to get used to seeing it as a cultivated garden plant here in Southern California.
Eat up, cabbage whites—lantana not kale!
Porophyllum ruderale
The papalo I planted two months ago has grown to about half a metre tall, and is flowering. It’s an annual, so I’d better eat more of it before it dies!
spores
Today’s art prompt was egg. A spore’s kinda like an egg, right?
kale wars
At least there’s no aphids.
romaine
I’ve been adding a whole romaine lettuce plant to my green smoothie every morning, trying to eat them all before they seed. Four left to go!
Ficus elastica variegata
Our variegated rubber trees have been put in the naughty corner.
mix / match
Though I still like to start with a recipe, I’ve definitely become a more freewheeling cook over the years. Current herbs in the garden: mint, tarragon, chives, basil, sage, thyme, oregano and rosemary. Most used: basil, thyme and oregano.
hashiworks 