The Garden Right Now

I don't post as much as I used to.

I thought it would be nice to post a few pictures of the garden right now, though.

This is my front yard garden by the garage. This is also my favorite
garden. Currently, it has some red flowered fava beans, milkweed,
cardinal's cap, celosia, and nasturtiums in it. Along the trellis are
green beans, vining nasturtiums and passion vines. 

This is the Twenty Foot Garden. In front of the box, is Swiss Chard.
In the garden box itself, I have Ruth Bible beans and Lousiana
Purple Podded Pole beans, regular and cherry tomatoes, a
Tromboncino zucchini, 6 cucumbers, 24 okra in 3 varieties and
Mississippi Cream peas. 

This is the bed by the front door. I have Easter lilies coming up
everywhere, but they haven't bloomed yet this year. There is lemon
balm and thyme in the bed and the purple things are ornamental
cabbages. The bird bath on the ground is for butterflies. They use
wet sand to get their drinks and salt intake. 

Passion Fruit Vine and the Story Behind It

Passion Fruit flower showing the styles, stamens and filaments. The
tendrils are just above and below the flower.

side view of a passion fruit vine flower showing the ten petals

a frittilary caterpillar on the lobed leaf of a purple passion fruit vine

Early missionaries to South America used the Passion Fruit Vine's flower to tell the story of the Passion of Jesus Christ. There are ten petals on the flower. Each petal represents one of the disciples that was present. (Peter and Judas Iscariot were not counted because the first denied his Lord and the second was the traitor who turned Jesus over to His enemies.)

The spiky-looking filaments represent the crown of thorns Jesus wore.

The five stamens represent Christ's wounds (two hands, two feet and his side).

The three styles represent the three nails of the cross.

The vine tendrils represent the cords used to bind Christ.

The lobed leaves represent the hands of the tormentors. (Though I don't know what this says about the red variety, because the leaves on it are single.)

The above information was obtained through the following book:

I would add that the frittilary butterfly uses the Passion Fruit Vine for every stage of its life cycle, which to me indicates the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

Passion Fruit Vines Both Red and Purple

Some of you may remember the story I posted back in April, when Dot Dot gave us Passion Fruit Vines.
Well, I had to pull all of my Scarlet Runner plants. Between the 15 inches of rain and the winds we received during Tropical Storm Debby, they were toast. They just looked terrible.

In a way, I was sad to see them go, because they attracted hummingbirds, but they really looked too sloppy for the front yard.

With the Scarlet Runners out, you can see the Passion Fruit Vines pretty clearly. I am pretty excited about it, because the two taller vines are red flowered Passion Fruit Vines. The center one that you can see in the second picture is purple. And all of them are really healthy looking. Dot Dot even told me that they look as if they will flower soon! Yay! (I'll take pictures of their beautiful flowers, if I get any.)

The vining plants to the back of the picture are Red Flowered
Passion Fruit Vines to the left and Purple Flowered Passion Fruit
Vines to the right. They have different types of leaves. The purple
ones have three pronged leaves. 

Flowers and Passion Fruit

We have had about 2 inches of rain since I reported the inch of rain on Monday. Praise the Lord!

Everything is perking right up after that wonderful rain.

My kids have seen the hummingbirds more than I have. They have seen them 4 or 5 times. I was worried about pollination on the Scarlet Runners, because I haven't seen many bees, either, yet this year. In several places, the places where there were flowers now look like this. Just a nub.

But today I found this.

Do you see those 2 little baby beans right in the center of the picture? I have several more that look like that. So I am hopeful that we will get to eat some scarlet runner beans. (We plan to use them as shelly beans, because I had heard they taste similar to butterbeans and my crew likes those pretty well.)

In the Twenty Foot Garden, I have been watching my green beans. Today I saw the first flowers. Yea. We may be eating fresh organic green beans soon.

Then, just after I lay my youngest down for her afternoon nap, I got a call. "Do you think I could stop by?" Dot Dot wanted to know. "Sure. Come on," I said. 

She came and brought me red passion fruit vines! Woot! Woot!

Now to just get these planted. 

And here are the purple ones she gave me a couple weeks ago.
They still look weak, but they still seem to be hanging in there.
The rain does seem to have perked them up some. 

It is great to have friends willing to share pass-along plants with you. :) 

Passion Fruit Vines

Passion Fruit Flower Picture from Wikipedia

Click the link for a picture.

One of the treasures of our family is a wonderful couple named Dot Dot and Robert. They take up a great deal of time with my kids and lavish them with loving attention. My children simply adore them.

They have a wonderful garden. I have been asking Dot Dot if I could photograph it for you. I know you would enjoy it, too.

In conversation, I told them that I had read online that Passion Fruits were edible. After a long discussion, I offered to be the guinea pig. I ate a couple of the fruits last fall. They have an interesting, unusual and perfumey flavor, to me anyway. And maybe a bit slimy. I think I could get used to it, but it is nothing like anything I have ever experienced.

So the fruit is edible.

The flowers, Oh the flowers are stunning.  They are completely covered with bees. They have this really interesting stamen that stands up from the flower. The ones at Dot Dot's house are purple with light yellow. After the bees finish with the nectar, the caterpillars take over and harvest the leaves. These are the caterpillars of the Gulf Frittilary butterfly. Passion Fruit is their favorite host plant.

Click here for an image of the Gulf Fritillary.

So the Passion Fruit Vine is also an important part of maintaining our butterfly friends and feeding our bee friends.

She gave me some today. I hope they grow. I'll take pictures if I get anything from them.

(Man, I hope we get some. I would love for my kids to get to see the life cycle of the Gulf Fritillary. Wouldn't that be a cool science thing for them?)