The Birdhouse Gourd Arbor

Our wood chip pile at the south end of the garden has been invaded!  Heirloom Louisiana Ribbon Sugar cane grows in there, but so does luffa gourds, watermelon, cantaloupe, Tahitian Melon Squash, butternut squash, and lastly, birdhouse gourds.  The birdhouse gourd vines are prolific - almost like kudzu.  They grow everywhere and at night, their white blooms decorate the wood chip pile.

This year I decided to make an arbor or a trellis with an old piece of reinforcement fencing that I normally use for a cucumber trellis.  Except this time I made it into an arch in order to make a tunnel of sorts to walk through.  We have a pathway down the eastern side of the garden that opens to a gate leading to the barn.  Each day we walk this path several times.  

The tendrils of the birdhouse gourds grasp anything in their way, clinging tightly.  The tendrils have "springs" that allow it to flex as the winds blow.

The big leaves of the vine are growing and as the vines stretch out, they will eventually shade out the area.  I like that idea.  Tricia is a little concerned that snakes might lurk in the birdhouse gourd arbor and fall down on her as she passes beneath it.  That would not be good.  I would never hear the end of it.

The birdhouse gourd gets its name because, once dried, you can drill a hole and make a nice birdhouse.  We made several of these in prior years.  Unfortunately, the birds were slow on the take and wasps found that they were perfect places in which to build nests.  We will try again this year.  Tricia has painted some of them different colors and hangs them from tree branches like ornaments.  They are full of seeds and when shaken, they can be a musical instrument.  Finally you can cut them in half and make a dipper for getting water to drink out of a bucket.

As the trellis fills out with leaves and the gourd crop comes in, we'll update you on the progress.

The Neighbor's Vineyard

And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase.  He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and suffereth not their cattle to decrease.  Psalm 107:37-38

Sunday afternoon our neighbors were in the yard, and we walked over to talk to them.  They had brought over some fresh fig cookies and several bags of apples, and we wanted to thank them.  It is so good to have good neighbors.  We were standing in the shade visiting underneath their vineyard.  They are taking care of their parents who aren't in great health.  This keeps them very busy.

As a result they mentioned that they wouldn't have time to pick their grapes and offered to us to feel free to pick as many as we'd like.  Well, that's an offer we can't pass up.  Our muscadine grape vines are juveniles.  Our neighbor's grapes are old and established and produce lots more than ours.  We took them up on their offer.  Tricia grabbed our ladder and a few buckets and started picking grapes in the neighbor's arbor.

Tricia finally gets a "raise"

I found a shady, comfortable spot to pick!  Mr. Bill, our neighbor's Dad who planted the grapes also built the trellis the grapes grow on.  He was a Drilling Superintendent for an oil company, so the trellis is made with drill stem.  This grape trellis will be standing for the next 200 years!

While our muscadines are dark red when ripe, these are a shiny golden-green when ripe.  Some have a pinkish tinge.  The ripe ones are also soft to the touch.

They are quite large - bigger than a shooting marble.  More like the size of the "plunker" marbles we used to play with.

In no time flat, we picked this Tupperware cake cover and two and a half bucketfuls!  We weighed them when we brought them inside and they weighed 32 pounds in total.

The grape vines are healthy.  Just look at all the foliage!

When picking, we clip the bucket on the hook on the top of the ladder meant for holding paint cans when you are painting.  That little hook works fine for this application as well.

We brought all the grapes inside.  What in the world are we gonna do with 32 pounds of grapes?  Well, on Thursday night, I'll post Part 1 with more details about our Great Grape Project of 2020.

This Years' First Picking of Muscadines

Muscadines are a grape that is native to the southeastern - south central United States.  If you take a walk into the woods in our area, you'll find them growing wild along the banks of the bayou with vines growing high into the trees overhead.  In May 2014, we planted our own muscadine vine in the side yard and we have it on a trellis made from a cattle panel.

Each year we pick more and more muscadines!  This year appears to be a bumper crop.

I like to eat them right off the vine while they are warmed by the sun.  The muscadines are so flavorful.  They have probably 3 to 4 seeds in every grape, but that's okay.  We just spit them out.  I like to pick them when they are a deep red coloration and soft.  The harvest goes on for a while, so every day you can go out and pick some.

I was planning to go and pick some the other day, but Russ beat me to it.  We've been eating on these in the kitchen.  Tricia reminded me to be careful while picking as there is a wasp nest amongst the muscadines.  I don't want to get stung while picking and eating.  That would put a damper on the fun.

Tricia and I planned on going to the vines to pick this afternoon after work; however, we started visiting with the neighbors under their grape arbor and eating their grapes.  We talked and snacked on their grapes for so long, we didn't ever make it to pick from our vines until it was time to go eat supper.  Tomorrow is Friday.  We'll make time to go pick tomorrow or this weekend.