AHWATUKEE COMMUNITY GARDEN
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Summer Gardening: Squash Enigma and Keyhole Garden

8/26/2014

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Did you ever wonder why some squash blossoms produce a fruit, and others don't?  The reason is that male flowers don't produce a fruit, though the flower looks just like a female.  A female flower, when fertilized via bees from nearby male flowers, starts growing a fruit at the base of the flower. You cannot control how many males or females your plants will produce. Sometimes they are mostly male and you get very little produce. That is what happened at our community garden!

We harvested okra and many flavors of basil leaves.  The keyhole garden is doing fine, as long as we keep it under a tent of shade cloth during the hot summer here in Phoenix. We have two more keyholes to fill and plant this fall! Here is how we filled the first keyhole garden: Keyhole Garden.

Hover over the photos to see the captions. Click on the photos to see them larger.

Everyone is welcome to join us at 7 A.M. in the summer on Sundays. Informal, fun, free, take some food home with you.  Here is where we meet: Location

Lots of male squash flowers like this, that don't produce fruit
Here is a female squash with the fruit starting to grow at the base of the flower
Okra is ready to pick
Okra
The keyhole garden plants are looking good!
We harvested many different flavors of basil from the keyhole garden
We have two more keyhole gardens to fill and plant this fall
A volunteer steps into the keyhole indentation and drops garden waste into the central wire basket which makes compost
Comments

    Ahwatukee Community Garden Beauty

    I started coming to the Sunday gardening group in the fall of 2013. I've learned a lot and have forged new friendships with other earth lovers.  Master Gardeners Linda and Bob have so much knowledge they freely give the rest of us! Bill and I became Master Gardeners as well in 2014 ~ Kelly Athena
    Website and photos by Kelly Athena ("Cactus Kelly")

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  • ACG Home
  • Map
  • Garden Updates
  • Contact
  • Weekend Workshops Schedule 2024
  • Garden Newsletter
  • Volunteer
  • What are we growing?
  • DONATIONS
  • Compost Program
  • Collaborations
  • Planting Guide