Identifying the Plants by Their Fruits

Pumpkin seedlings are easy to spot, because of their broad leaves.

Since I buy seed on sale, I often have new varieties planted. The dried grass has formed a mulch layer along the fence, where I planted a number of different seeds and positioned a soaker hose. They are now starting to grow.

The question arises - is that one of the new seeds or just a weed? The plant has to grow for a period of time to be sure.

When a plant flowers and fruits, there is no question about the seed. The pumpkin seeds are going to produce distinctive pumpkin flowers and eventually the gigantic, semi-deflated Atlantic Giant gourd.



If you wonder how the Olde Synodical Conference got so corrupt, anti-Lutheran, anti-liturgical, anti-Confessional, and anti-Christian - the fruits have grown from the seed. The "conservative" Lutherans have been sowing thistle for decades - admiring and promoting its growth. Now the harvest is ready - and it is not white but black.

Tomato flower

We love to see the yellow flowers form on the tomato plant, because the red berry will form soon after.

The over-rated eggplant also boasts a nightshade flower. Eggplant fanatics always attack me for my candor.

Woody nightshade

The woody nightshade vine has a flower similar to the tomato, since it belongs to the nightshade family. Its berries are small and bright red, but the plant is poisonous. There is a story about colonial soldiers eating the leaves of another nightshade, jimson weed, in a salad and going nuts for a few days.

Potato flower

The nightshade family members have similar flowers. If we do not know the plant, we have to wait for the fruit to arrive.

Deadly nightshade bears dull black berries - bella donna. I remember the plant having a dark cast, even though its flower resembles the woody nightshade.

Deadly nightshade berries are very dangerous to eat. They were called bella donna (beautiful woman) because the juice was used by Italian women to make their eyes dilate and look larger.

My helper and I did a lot of pruning of the trees to change the amount of sunlight in the yard. After he was done and gone, I often trimmed even more. Yesterday I looked at all the branches that would go in the spring. The front and back yards now combine sun and shade, and plants are thriving.

The maple tree in front was a mess from suckering, low branches, and ugly over-crowded lilies around the base. The arrangement belonged on the set of the Addams Family.

Periwinkle or myrtle grows well and flowers in the shade. Many use it to hold down soil on slopes. The roots are like steel wire.

I am going to circle the base with some kind of ceramic fencing to hold soil, then plant a variety of hardy bulbs, vinca, and blue hosta there.

Mrs. Ichabod has given permission to expand the rose garden, as long as it is easily visible, not on the sunny but occluded side of the house. I pointed out that the right side of the garage, where weeds luxuriated, is actually quite sunny and good for the expansion in the spring. That would be good for some showy plants, such as Tropicana or Queen E.

Roses will be extended past the porch, too. We need some hybrid tea white roses, Double Delights, and Olympiad red roses. The new hybrid teas are doing well and ready to bloom again.

The back yard will be good for a number of planting areas, especially with more tree limbs gone.

Back by the compost can be a large pumpkin plantation, with various sized gourds, not all Atlantic Giants, which are almost impossible to move but fun to grow.

Silver Queen corn is the sweetest of all, unless there is something even better now.

Near the back of the house there is a sunny area for Silver Queen Corn - stage right, and vegetables - stage left.

Ever-bearing raspberries and edible pod peas can grow along the chain-link fence.