🌞 Welcome to the club
luffa club #1
march 2024
“I thought they grew in the ocean”, James says.
You answer, “yeah, no, from the garden”. The garden is full of surprises.
You grab one and squeeze it in your fist. The fibrous fruit is bouncy. It’s soft and scratchy, at the same time.
“Can you believe it grew here?” You point to the vine-covered trellis. “Like, it’s a squash.”
“So, you can eat it too?” James asks.
“Yeah. It’s pretty good, but only when it’s young”, you start. “Later, when it’s very ripe, and you peel it, you get this sort of cool skeleton.”
“Cool skeleton”.
⌇ ⌇ ⌇ ❦ ⌇ ⌇
We broke ground in the south-facing, “abandoned lot” behind the garage some 70 days ago.
Found in the garden:
- Rusty pipes
- Two marbles
- A horseshoe
- Old cement pillar
- More irrigation pipes
- Rocks, a million
▶︎ ⌇ ⌇ ⌇ ✿ ⌇ ⌇
The seedlings are warm and cozy in the greenhouse, getting stronger before they can go into the ground. It’s been raining an abnormal amount. Did you know there was snow here last winter? Lady at the store told us yesterday.
Seedling life:
Seed starter mix: 1 part coconut coir + 1 part perlite & pumice + ½ part compost + ½ part worm castings + a sprinkling of azomite. (c/o Epic Gardening)
Seeds: 60 germinated on heat mats and under 48hrs, sprouted in 4” compostable cups
Seedlings wake up at 6:00AM (grow lights), bedtime is 9:00PM (heat mats)
Water every other day (ish)
J keeps note of everything in this thick notebook. There are controls and spreadsheets. The bookmark is a little sprout. This is the soil temperature log:
Took us a few weeks to figure it out (close call tbh) but it’s steady now.
Luffa takes time. We’ll write this newsletter periodically, from the garden. Welcome to the club.
With love,
J+T