Loquat (or Japanese Plum)

I first heard of loquats years ago when I lived in California... and I may have even tasted them, but could not remember much about them, till my friend invited me to go over and pick some from her tree before the birds get them all.

Here in Georgia people call them Japanese Plum and generally just leave them for the birds. Now that I know what they are, I remember seeing those trees all around the lake, only it never occurred to me to eat one of the fruits thinking it was some sort of an ornamental plant...

The fruit is small (about the size of a grape), thick skinned with large seeds (anywhere from one to three) covered with a hull, leaving very little actual fruit for consumption.You can eat the skins, but I like to tediously deseed and peel them so that I can enjoy a bowl full all at once  They are juicy and from tart to sweet (depending on their ripeness) and the flesh reminds me of that of a grape. They are very mild tasting, but it's not a fruit I would miss if I never had it again.

After I'm done with this batch, I will move on to something else. What interests me more about these is their beautiful seeds. They are rather large, dark brown and shiny sort of like wooden pebbles and I would love to make a necklace out of them, just the way I did with apple seeds when I was a kid. Did you do that too?

I tried poking a needle through one of them last night (lengthwise) and the darn seed split right in half. I could not get the needle through the narrow ends, so I don't know if I'll be able to string them together. Maybe I have to try to make something else with them, but I'm definitely going to keep them...and plant a few just for the fun of watching them sprout.

I did that with a cantaloupe a couple of months ago - I just dumped the seeds into the ground by my roses and lemon bush and look at these little leaves - who knows, I might have home grown cantaloupes this year.

In the back you see the pine cones I collected and placed all along the wall and around my sunflowers. They help keep them from tipping over and keep the cats out of the flower beds. It works really well. The cones close up when it rains, but open right back up in the sun and get nice and uninviting to step on. There's lots of open spaces for the strays to run - they do not need to be using my flower beds as their personal litter box...meow!

The sunflowers are growing nicely and are now towering over the rose bushes. They are supposed to get 12' high.

Below is a photo of my back porch container garden:

Top left is my lilac bush  and next to it are the garden peas that surprised me by sprouting since the envelope indicated that the seeds where over two years expire (and I wanted to see what would happen.) I stuck some bamboo sticks in there for them to climb on. In front are lettuce and one container of Kohlrabi that I have to transplant and on the left are three containers with Snapdragons that I planted a bit late.

More salad greens in containers hanging from the Bradford pear tree out back.

My pride and joy Star Jasmine that is blooming profusely this year. I love sitting outside next to it under the shade tree while crocheting and enjoying its intoxicating scent with every gentle breeze. It really does not take much to make me happy...as long as my boy is sitting by my side!

Now I have to get back outside to crochet some more under the tree (what a life)... I got a few orders that I have to finish and get in the mail today. I'll post more photos of our walk from this morning. It was short, yet very pretty! Have a great day my friends.