With such lovely weather yesterday, gardening has been on my mind.
I found this post as I was going through some of my older ones...
Is there anything much cuter than a little farm girl in her thrift store dress and muck boots? Be still my heart. This is Carlie Jean helping Moma gather luffas. Yesterday, we were hanging some clothes out on the line (yes, it has been that nice!) and I noticed one of my, what I thought, ruined luffas. They got so big and lovely but then it got cold before they hardened on the vine. I was utterly disappointed because I got them from a dear lady in Australia. So I went to pick it up and throw it into the compost pile... when what do my wandering eyes spy?
The outer layer is partly peeled to show that, YES! I believe I can save these!!!!
I start pulling off that outer layer, I find all kinds of seeds and a beautiful, although somewhat dirty sponge.
I immediately went traipsing through the garden picking up all that I could find and ended up with 2 buckets full of sponges soaking and plenty of seeds!!
Here is one of the freshly peeled luffas... Nice eh?WOOHOO!
Score!
Today if the rain holds off I will lay the soaked sponges in the sun to dry out and then they will be ready for use!
I guess now it is time for me to try my hand at soap-making. :) You can't grow a nice sponge like this and not make some handmade soap to go with it.
Have a great day my friends and I hope you have some wonderful surprises as well!
My Cup Runneth Over...
Chas
Ohhh! I bought some Luffa seeds this year to plant. I am so excited about them! I am thinking about starting them indoors Mid-April. So about a month indoors before weather gets warm, then I want to plant them as a screen for my back patio. It sounds like you let yours grow on the ground, I have heard others use a trellis of some sort. I was thinking about cattle panels... I guess trial and error!
ReplyDeleteSarah... I didn't really know just how wild they would get. I did have a trellis, but not NEARLY big enough. Once I plant them this year I will be using some type of heavy duty fence or trellis. They get big and heavy. Just so you know. :)
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ReplyDeleteI so didn't know that a luffa could be grown from seed! That's so cool.
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