That dreadful plant- Butterfly vine.....

Ancient one has complained about the honeysuckle vine that plagues her garden. I countered with my very worst problem, the Butterfly Vine.

My MIL innocently gave me a start of this vine. It lives on my fence and offers marvelous privacy; nothing can see through it, nothing can go through it. Birds blissfully build their nests in it, knowing they are safe from cats, as it is not sturdy enough for the cats to climb on.

It does not freeze, stays green all year long. When it blooms, it is a lovely yellow blanket, and it blooms for a long time. I have never seen a seedling, so I suspect the seeds are sterile, BUT....it roots very easily, anywhere it touches the ground.

I have found vines as long as 40' long, and would not doubt they grow much longer. This is a tough vine.

The seed pods are a real novelty. They are a lime green butterfly, and it is very exciting to see all those butterflies on the fence.

The lime green butterflies dry to a golden brown butterfly and will stay in that form for years. They do not break down and fall apart. They can be painted with acrylic craft paint, glued to a stick and used as a decoration for a pot plant, or worn in your hair as an adornment. If you look at the first photo, you can see a really good dry seed pod.
This is one of those plants- you like it, you hate it.

Honeysuckle does at least have a lovely fragrance. Butterfly vine does not smell good.

We are harvesting! Nom, nom, nom!

This is that squash I was talking about. I have cooked it, and already given our first mess of squash away. I am activily seeking persons willing to take some squash. I am harvesting a half dozen squashes a day. The funny looking thing in the middle of the bed is 'Flamingo Fred', one of the birds Bobby makes.

You get out and work a little, you have to set awhile. Bobby made this bench for me from an old iron bed. It is comfortable when the cushion on it, I am protecting the cushion at this time, as we have a 4 legged thief in the neighborhood.

The cucumbers are full of small fruit, I am picking enough every day for salads and to satisfy my cucumber desires. I love cucumbers, and it is one crop that I seldom have enough to give freely. I will share the cucumbers, although grudgingly sometimes.

The broccoli is done, Bobby has pulled it by now and replaced it with 3 pepper plants and a bumch of butterbeans. I can taste them already!

One of the birds is in the broccoli plants here. That is Buttercrunch lettuce in front of the broccoli, and tomatoes to the left of him.

This is 'He Who Waters'. It seems that he always has a watering hose in his hands.

Our tomato plants are huge, and they are loaded with tomatoes! I am painting golf balls, tennis balls and ping pong balls bright red, so we can hang them in the tomato plants. We need to get this done this week. The birds peck on a golf ball a couple of times, and they will pretty much leave the ripe tomatoes alone.

Tomorrow, or the next day, the zinnias will bloom. What a picture that will be!

Cucumbers!

We have cucumbers on the vines! They are about 2" long now, we should have some in a salad this weekend, unless I eat them all before they make it into the house.

We will have tomatoes by the end of April. We have lots of nice tomatoes on the vines, and a ton of blooms. I grow only indeterminate vines, as I will have more than enough to eat, preserve, and share from them. I don't look forward to having all my produce come in at once, so I have to do something with 3 bushels of fruit at once. Lazy me.....

Some of the tomatoes from the generic sales are Brandywines and some are Large Red Cherry, (one of my favorites!), so I am very pleased with that deal. No cardboard tomatoes so far.

I am going to be in trouble with the squash. I planted lots of seeds, with the idea that I could share some plants with friends, but I had no takers, and now the plants are too large to transplant, so I am going to be sneaking around in the dark, putting squash on people's porches. I will probably get dog-bit...

I will be giving zuchinni away too, but I should not have any problem with eggplant. I only have one eggplant plant. That will be plenty for us.

My Dad planted a whole pack of eggplant seeds one year. He was going crazy with all that eggplant, LOL. He said people were avoiding him...he finally put it on the side of the road with a sign that read "FREE! PLEASE HELP YOURSELF!"

We planted okra last Saturday, along with purple hull peas. I am racking my brain, trying to figure out what to plant after the lettuce and broccoli are done. My mind goes blank when I realize that it is going to be May already, and I really don't have any ideas. Maybe some yard long beans, or maybe I will broadcast a cutting garden and grow flowers.