Category Archives: Garden

Sugar cane in bed and rows to plant it 2026-03-22

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Update 2026-03-26: Sugarcane planted 2026-03-24.

With a little shovel and hoe work, we got the insulating dirt off the sugarcane bed.

[Anna's father, Bob Gronko, Anna Stange, Gretchen Quarterman, sugar cane]
Anna’s father, Bob Gronko, Anna Stange, Gretchen Quarterman, sugar cane

Inside, the cane is in good shape, much of it already sprouting.

So I used the tractor to make rows to plant it. Continue reading →

Banana plants after the freeze 2025-11-23

Banana plants do this when frozen.

[Gretchen with her banana plants]
Gretchen with her banana plants

Not to worry. They’ll come back in the spring.

Meanwhile, Gretchen will lop their heads off with a machete. She says that makes them grow back better.

We did get some bananas to eat with breakfast.

-jsq

Two kinds of persimmons 2025-10-09

Evidently we’ve been mis-identifying our persimmons.

[Two kinds of persimmons]
Two kinds of persimmons

The prolific persimmon tree has acorn-shaped fruit like the red one here. Those are apparently Hachiya persimmons.

The younger tree with only a few fruit not yet ripe has flat-bottom persimmons like this yellow one. Those appear to be Fuyu persimmons.

See, for example, this GrubMarket blog post, Fuyu vs. Hachiya: How to Use California Persimmons.

They’re both varieties of the Oriental persimmon, Diospyros kaki.

-jsq

Okra flower and vegetable 2025-07-01

Ants open the blooms, and bees pollinate them.

Then we get okra pods.

[Okra bloom and pods]
Okra bloom and pods

Then we pick them and eat them.

No, we don’t know why the yellow leaves.

Also, some blooms don’t open and fall off.

Many snails lately; maybe that’s the problem.

-jsq

Gulf fritillary in the garden 2025-05-25

Update 2025-06-02: Maypops 2025-05-30.

This Gulf fritillary was frittering away in the garden.

[Gulf fritillary]
Gulf fritillary

A Dione vanillae, at about 3 inches wingspan, looks small beside the cucumber plants. Continue reading →

Howling dogs 2025-05-19

Sky and River howled like something horrible was happening.

[Movie: Sky and River howling (30M)]
Movie: Sky and River howling (30M)

Actually, they saw me walk into the woods towards the garden, and they heard me calling them.

Blondie ran back to get them, and explained to them how silly they sounded.

Video:
https://youtu.be/Jyljdi-sHQk

Continue reading →