Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Oct. 5

Hi! Is everybody okay after the storms? Fire danger gone where you are? I still worry. We are still having hot days here, but cool nights. It makes a difference when there is some cool time in the morning.

Aren't you impressed by the window box above?

My window boxes in Manitoba, Canada. Still blooming in late September in spite of a cold Zone 3 winter coming.

Conservative Hippy

The look great! Hope they last a while longer. And look at the one below:

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

Big beautiful fremont beans. Almost jewel like. Huge bushes with maroon flowers that attract humming birds throughout the season. They don't start producing pods until early august. Taste creamy.

S.Lynn
Idaho

They are almost certainly in the same family as Scarlet Runner Beans. There is considerable lore attached to beans with this name, but I don't know how reliable it is. The pods are so fat! Wonder if they're edible when small? Don't eat the pods or beans raw.

The late maturation is typical of scarlet runners and their relatives. Flowers open in warm summer weather, but pods don't set until the weather cools off. They would be a good choice in the San Francisco Bay area. Some varieties are a little more heat-tolerant than others, and there are a few hybrids between common beans and runner beans.

These beans are lovely. And apparently quite rare, so you have to save seed. Or save roots sort of like they were dahlias. I don't think the latter method is particularly reliable for most people. I tried it once with scarlet runners and didn't have much luck.

From last week's thread:

NaughtyPine here. This is the acorn squash that mixed with a black beauty zucchini.

I saved seeds from local (Michigan) golden acorn squash, which is a green acorn or kabocha hybrid. But I found something about a hybrid "golden acorn" that's a mix of buttercup and butternut squashes.

The shape of this is certainly like a butternut.

However, another one is growing and it's definitely rounding like an acorn squash, except yellow instead of green.

I must say it's exciting to have something growing this late.

If you want to save seed, you need to remove male blossoms of all the other nearby squash varieties of the same species before you pollinate the female blossom you hope will yield fruit and then seed you will save.

And seed from hybrids will almost always turn out different from the parent.

Time to review an old 2016 thread which summarizes lots of types of squash which are from the same species, including both acorn squash and zucchini, but many more. Absolutely amazing.

Under the blurb on Spaghetti Squashes in the old thread:

All the squashes above are from the species Cucurbita pepo, like zucchinis, most other summer squashes and some pumpkins. Now you know why squashes from volunteer seeds sometimes turn out so weird.

Here's the favored open-pollinated yellow acorn squash of organic squash growers:

There is also a hybrid yellow acorn that's used as summer squash. Look around. Don't save seed from it.

Thinking about next year's orders?

Ah, Nature

This is delightful:

Bird of the genus Remiz, making its home

pic.twitter.com/nrmSfY8Hct

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) October 5, 2024

This may not be as delightful. Anybody know what it is?

NorCal Sierra Foothills Lurker here.
We have these beetles every year but this year is way more than usual (!!) We live in the woods so see all kinds of nature stuff. Don’t know if these harm anything or what. Or why so many this year.

Art

Adventure

Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah, Zane Frey:

Gardens of The Horde

Golden Barrel Cactus
(Echinocactus grusonii)
In bloom on top of our hill, here in Los Feliz (neighborhood of LA near Griffith Park.)

Lurker Extraordinaire

Magnificent!

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, the address is:

ktinthegarden at g mail dot com

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Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Sept 28

Any thoughts or questions?

I closed the comments on this post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.