Behold the luffa! Heat tolerant, with big yellow blooms that reach up to the sky and attract so many bees, it spreads out into a beautiful and interesting vine – all this and funny little gourds. What’s not to love about this fascinating plant?
My luffa vine has been so wonderfully… weird. I started it in the spring in a big ceramic pot, placing it helpfully by the garden arch, hoping to entice it to climb up the trellis and make a green entrance to the secret garden. It made a little vine, bloomed, and died.
It’s too bad it died because it kept making these hilarious little buds. You’ll see what I mean. I just could not stop laughing at this plant.
But then! I must have scattered some seeds in Bed 1 of the secret garden because another vine began to grow.
I quickly realized the vine needed something to climb. I thought my crazy-woman-grabs- downed-branch would look great here in the garden so I used it as a sort of trellis. Besides, real garden trellis are astonishingly expensive.
Well, it liked that, and it grew and grew, and also made hilarious little buds.
Well, then the summer heat hit. We went on vacations. School started. I ignored my garden and then this wonderful thing happened.
The luffa quickly took over Bed 1 and ran over to the trellis, too.
I had to run out to the garden every day to see what was happening. And then…
The first luffas started to appear. With many many more yellow blooms.
And the wonder just hasn’t stopped since.
So that’s how my luffas are growing! I’m obsessed with this plant, and it looks like I’m getting at least 4 fabulous luffa from it. My plan is to dry them and make sponges. I heard you can also eat young luffa gourds, which I’ll try if I have time. I also heard the sponges from the mature luffa are a little scratchy, so those may be best for pots and pans. I can’t wait to see how it all goes!
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