Beez
August 13, 2011
Make nature work
The loofah gourd vines are feeding the local bee population quite well. The yellow blooms are prolific and stay open for most of the day (vs the nocturnal birdhouse gourd blooms). Every morning these bumblebees are lying stoned & face down in the pollen and as you can see don’t mind sharing with an occasional honeybee.
The Thai basil is also attracting a crowd, although the two that were on this bloom cluster managed to fly off while I was adjusting the camera… I liked the picture regardless….
Behind cohutt's fence 
Oh, your Thai basil is beautiful! Did you start those from seeds? Also, I will be curious to find out how your loofah gourds turn out. I’d like to try those myself next year. Thus far, I’ve been careful to grow only one type of gourd (so far, birdhouse) and no other squash-type plants. Pro: all seeds are (or should be) pure and true-to-type. Con: no cukes or squash last year or this. I’m at unperfectgarden.wordpress.com if you want to see my (very messy) garden. Thanks! Happy gardening (or gourdening!).
All my Thai basil was from seed and most of it volunteers, some 3rd generation. I will have a few seeds at the end of the season, like maybe 20,000, and I’m happy to share if you would like some.
I grew the bottle gourds in the header picture last year and planned on making birdhouses but decided I liked them hanging off the porch and decided to call them redneck decoration…
I checked your site out a couple days ago – nice work on both the gourd art and the gourd trellis. I’ve been threatening to buy some cattle panels but thus far have kept mrs cohutt happy by just using bamboo.