The plants are growing well - some of the vines are about 5-6 feet long - and it looks like the pollinators have been doing their thing because it looks like baby gourds are coming!  I'm hoping that all the babies thrive and don't start shriveling and dropping off.  The one in the photo on the right in the middle row looks bad - it's turning yellow and kind of shrinking, so I'm sure it's not going to survive.  I'm not sure what the problem is - I'll have to do some research on that.  Anybody out there have any ideas??  The healthy looking babies are so cute because they are already taking the shape that they will be when fully developed.  

With temps in the high 90's and into the 100's every day, I have to make sure to check the soil for moisture at least twice a week.  The mulch is such a great help to keeping the moisture content up.  

I'm still fighting the aphids (photo bottom row, left) particularly on 2 of the hills.  I applied some insecticidal soap spray to these plants.  It kills soft bodied insects like the aphids, but won't harm the predatory insects, like the ladybugs.  It is cool to see that the ladybugs are showing up to help control the aphids  - I saw several of them on the plants.  Unfortunately I also saw a few striped cucumber beetles. (photo bottom row, center) These pests feed on the plants - the larvae eat the roots and the adults will munch on leaves, blossoms, and even stems - not good.  They can also assist in spreading bacterial wilt - again not good.  I was able to catch one and just squish it (yuk - that grosses me out) but they are pretty fast and hard to catch.  I need to research what else I can do about these critters without resorting to chemicals.

As you can see from the upper photos, the plants are growing well.  All the transplants have thrived except for one, which never seemed to do very well and didn't grow more than 4 or 5 leaves.  I had to remove the netting barriers because the plants outgrew them and even started to go through them. Summer is definitely here, and temps are reaching into the upper 90's and even a couple days over 100 degrees.  The important thing is to keep the plants watered, and with the combination of the clay soil and the mulch, this isn't too difficult.  The diatomaceous earth I applied a couple weeks ago helped keep the pesky ants and aphids from taking over, but it's time for another application.  I may also try some insecticidal soap if needed.  It's ecologically safe with no bad residual effects.  The photo on the lower left shows some aphids on the underside of a leaf.  A few don't hurt much, but too many can be a real problem.  

The photo in the lower center shows a female flower, with a baby gourd forming.  Gourd plants have both male and female flowers, and if the female flowers aren't pollinated, then the baby gourd just withers and falls off.  So, here's hoping that the bees or other pollinators make their appearance, and do the pollinating thing.  I also read that I can take a little paintbrush and do some hand pollinating.  The photo on the lower right is husband Gary and our gorgeous granddaughter Delilah. 

In the past week, I've visited my "babies" at least every other day.  The heavy clay soil holds water well, so daily watering isn't necessary, but it's always reassuring just to visit them and see that they are ok.  On one of the trips, I loaded up the back of my Kia Soul (love that car) with a couple trash bags filled with mulch and straw.  I tucked the mulch around  the base of the plants, and spread the straw around the rest of plot.  I'll need to make another trip with more straw since it didn't cover the whole plot.  I like the mulch and straw because it helps keep the water in the soil, keeps the surface of the soil from caking over and cracking, and keeps my shoes cleaner if I have to walk over wet areas after watering.  As it breaks down, it adds organic matter to the soil.  Plus it smells good.  

The plants are looking healthy and growing, and there are flower buds appearing.   The gopher service at the community garden has been doing a great job of controlling the gophers.  The only pests I'm seeing are ants (ugh, is there anywhere on earth that ants aren't taking over?) so I also sprinkled some diatomaceous earth around.  This is an organic pest control product that we've have recently started using in our home garden.   It looks and feels a lot like flour, but it's made from fossils of freshwater organisms which have been crushed to powder form.  The particles are actually as sharp as broken glass when observed through a microscope.  It's deadly to any insect or larvae and works by scratching the insect's outer shell causing death by dehydration.  The good thing is it's harmless to other animals, fish, birds or even in food.  Why do I care about ants in my garden?  Ants themselves are really not a big issue, but they have an affinity for the honeydew secreted by aphids, so if you control the ants, it's a huge step to controlling aphids.  Aphids can suck the life out of garden plants - definitely not a pest to ignore.

Yesterday, Gary made a trip to the plot and fertilized the plants with his fish fertilizer - it's really stinky so it must be good!!  

Thanks for reading and I'll have more news soon.
  

As a gourd artist and gardener's wife, it's only natural that I would eventually want to try growing some of my own gourds.  My husband, Gary, and I live on an acre of property.  One would think this would offer plenty of room to grow a few gourd plants, but in reality, after over 30 years here, we have pretty much filled up the entire acre with one kind of plant or another.  Additionally, gourd plants can grow for (seemingly) miles and need more room than we could spare.  So I leased a 20' x 20' plot at the Corona Community Garden at Peace, which just happens to be located on the property of the church I attend.  We started the seeds at home (more about germinating gourd seeds later) and prepared the plot for planting.  This is only the 2nd year for the community garden, and our particular plot had never been cultivated - it's been home to weeds and rocks for years.  We weeded and rototilled it earlier in the spring.  Last week we soaked it with water for a couple days, and then Gary dug out 5 separate spots to plant our garden in "hills," adding a generous amount of organic garden soil.  The ground was super hard (so hard that a 6'4" 240 lb. man stood on the shovel with his full weight and still made slow progress).  Today was planting day - we turned the soil again, adding gypsum and blood/bone meal to our planting hills and then in went the plants.  I'll keep you posted on our progress!