Do pumpkins fly? They sure look like they do when they spread their first leaves. They look like they’re spreading wings as they pop out of the ground. A few flaps and off they go.
Category: How Things Grow
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Do Pumpkins Fly?
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With a Whole Lot of Little Helpers
The bees are everywhere these days. Just one of the many little helpers that make our lives possible. If it weren’t for bees, we couldn’t exist. Without ants, we wouldn’t be. Without plankton and plants, we wouldn’t have oxygen to breathe. When you step outdoors and touch the soil with your toes, right beneath your toes are thousands of microscopic nematodes, little wriggling worms, which eat bacteria and fungi and leave behind nutrients at the roots of plants so the plants can grow. Without these bacteria and fungi eating microscopic worms, we wouldn’t have grasslands, brush, woodland, or forests. We owe everything to a whole lot of little helpers.
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Summer Is Here
Blue iris blossoms floating among the green leaves is a sign that summer is here. According to the Meiji-Jingu 明治神宮 Iris Garden website, there are 1,083 iris in bloom in that garden today, June 3. The iris gardens, designed by Emperor Meiji for Empress Shoken was one of my favorite places to stroll when I lived in Tokyo. It didn’t matter what season it was, the walk along the iris gardens was like walking along a winding stream far, far, far away from the city.
When the iris bloom, the iris fields are flooded so as you meander through the thousands of iris, they look like butterflies, fluttering above a mountain stream. When the iris weren’t blooming, I could sometimes find myself to be the only one walking along the paths in that garden. The paths lead back into the woods and end at cool spring. When the iris are in bloom, the paths are packed with viewers, enjoying the iris.
Here, far from the city, I get to view the iris with no crowds, no voices, no cameras, just the two of us every day.
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Tea, No Bags
Picking leaves like mint for tea is so simple and quick, how did teabags ever catch on? Want a cup of hot tea? Pick a few leaves. Put them in a cup and add hot water. When you’re done, there is less waste than when you use a teabag. You can scatter a few leaves most anywhere and it doesn’t look like garbage. Toss out a teabag and you have an instant eyesore.
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Is It May or Is It July?
A few days ago some of the potatoes started blooming. I’ve never seen potato blossoms in May here before. I staggered my potato plantings over five weeks, so I should have potato blossoms through July. Up close, the flowers are complex. Why do they have all that fine hair on the back of their petals? What purpose do the folds of the petals serve? What about the patterns of their petals? What do the flowers look like in ultraviolet, which is how bees see them? How many thousands of species of bacteria thrive on a potato blossom? Are there species of bacteria, fungi, and/or micro arthropods that exist only potato blossoms? Could be.
The more you look at a single blossom, the more questions you have. There is enough information in these intricate flowers to write several dissertations. Wouldn’t it be fascinating to sit in on an oral exam of a PhD candidate who has written a dissertation on potato blossoms? What questions would the professors toss at the candidate? It could become the basis for a Netflix original series.
