Mom Support

A volunteer spaghetti squash plant is growing in the front yard. At least, I think it volunteered. Perhaps, it was purposefully planted by the former owners of our new home. However it got here, I’m grateful for its golden oval offerings, and a friend taught me how to ensure there will be more.

Donna showed me the difference between the male and female flowers, and taught me how to “tickle” the male stamens with a cotton swab, and drop that golden dust onto the eager and waiting female flower centers. Both are golden, and wide open from early morning through noon. There is a discernible difference! (I’ve just been using my finger, because I don’t carry cotton swabs in my pocket.)

The pollen transfer seems to be working. I’ve harvested three plump beauties so far, and a couple more are growing.

An interesting phenomenon seems to be tipping the balance between male and female flower production, however. Deer have found the squash vine. They must step over the low brick wall enclosing the growing area in order to graze on the large succulent leaves in the pre-dawn hours. I stepped out one morning to admire and water the plant, with my patented “gray water system”, meaning I take a dish tub that happens to be gray, in which I catch the run-off from rinsing dishes or washing hands in the sink, and use that to water the few plants growing through the “brown-is-the-new-green” redwood-bark “lawn”, only to find the twenty foot wide sprawl of the plant transformed into a sea of green but leafless stems. The already fruiting out buds continue to grow into squashes, but I spy no more female flowers with my little eye!

Ain’t Nature wonderful? I believe She is saying, “Well, there isn’t enough photo-synthesis available with so few leaves to nurture new life, so best act hopeful that a buzzing bee will take this male pollen to a nearby female flower in another garden!” There are at least a dozen male flowers - wide open, but not a single female flower since the day of the deer mow-down.

The female of all species needs support to bring forth new life - leaf support for photosynthesis for plants; adequate range, and variety of food for critters, and trust, nurturance, and emotional support for human females mothering their young.

Support a local mom near you today. Cotton swabs for tickling non-essential.