Moonflower

This old-fashioned flower blooms in the evening and glows all night in the moonlight. As night falls, the flowers unfold very quickly. So quickly, in fact, you can actually watch them open up!

Measuring 6" across, the huge white flowers are related to morning glories. Unlike their day-blooming cousins, though, which are pollinated by bees, the moonflower is pollinated by night-flying moths.

Highly fragrant, these flowers grow on 10' - 20' vines, requiring a trellis or pole on which to climb.

This vine and its flowers grace my garden space.

First Melon

Smelled good. Looked good. A little pale in taste ... diluted by excessive rainfall? Still, it made a good breakfast. These pictures tell the story ...

I removed a BIG black rat snake from the hen house

He didn't want to go! I had to wrestle him out of the rafters.

My sister, Janet, spotted him when she went into the chicken coop to gather the eggs. I told her to watch where he went while I ran to the house to get my snake grabber. She wasn't all that comfortable watching the snake  :-)

He retreated to an upper corner of the coop. I really did have to wrestle him down. We stuffed him into a brown paper grocery bag and removed him from our property to a nice patch of unpopulated woods. He was big and healthy ... obviously well fed. That explains the recent drop in the egg count.

Figs

The rains have been good to the figs. They are big and plump and plentiful! Unfortunately, with vacation and all kinds of other activities, I haven't had much time to deal with figs. I've given most of them away. I did manage to fill up my dehydrator in order to save a few for another day. The good news ... I'll get a second chance. This is the summer's first crop. There are many little green figs remaining on the tree. We can expect an encore crop in September.

Happy Birthday, Rouse!

The blueberries are ripe and plump. Today is Rouse's birthday. Time for a blueberry pound cake. Keeping in mind it's only the two of us here at the house I made a half-recipe, baking it in a loaf pan instead of a tube pan. Our usual method of eating this cake is topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but tonight we ate it hot out of the oven with no embellishment. It was almost too hot to cut, but, oh, so buttery and delicious!

Monsters Take Over in My Absence

That's a little melodramatic, but the garden did look very different when we returned from our family reunion vacation.

The squash plants are dead. I removed what was left of them, along with the resident squash bugs which caused their demise. Dad gum squash bugs!

The beautiful melon plants are yellow and dry. The melons are still looking good. Maybe they'll continue to ripen in a delicious way? I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Rouse the Spouse found a tobacco horn worm. I dropped it into the chicken yard. One of the Dominique hens snatched it up and ran around the chicken yard with her sisters in hot pursuit before managing to gobble up her prize.

Cucumber Mosaic Virus has settled into the cucumbers. It's easy to see where the name for this virus came from. Look closely ... it really does look like a tile mosaic! I'm going to have to get rid of these plants. This virus could be what has zapped the melons ... or not. Could be the recent dry weather.

The cucumbers themselves are huge! Are they edible? Too seedy? Too bitter? Hmmm ... I intend to find out tomorrow. Maybe some cucumber soup is in my future!

The good news? We have okra!!

Sue has NOT been in the garden since July 14

Sue has been in the mountains of western North Carolina ... hanging out with extended family, paddling rivers, hiking to the tops of mountains, listening to live music, swimming in cold water ... and basically, enjoying the view!

Rouse the Spouse and me on top of Mt. Mitchell, highest peak east of the Mississippi!