A recent update from the person who received the yucca is that it is green and doing well. The transplanted cholla are doing well, of course, but it will be a while before I know if any sacaton survived. We have been making progress but not as quickly as we hoped. (No surprise there! ;-) ) We have the foundation blocks for the outside beds in place up to ground level and filled with dirt. Pavers have been placed, but not yet leveled, between the existing shed and the north edge of the foundation. We have the water and electrical stubbed in. We have the SHCS tubes in place for the outside beds of the east greenhouse and hope to start filling that section soon with the removed dirt. We have removed all planned use of poured concrete from our plans and have made this planned structure possible to remove easily while still unlikely to be blown away. (Mostly due to bolting the foundation via J-bolts to rebar under bond beam cement blocks.) DH will be checking to see what type of permits/inspections we will need for electrical, water, and structures. I suspect that it will be just water and electric. We won't fill in any more until we find out. It is getting hot already so we will be putting in the outside structure and shade cloth before the central shed and greenhouses. That way we can work in the shade. :-)

I am just getting ready to enjoy a crop of luffa from a vine that start in 2005... It grew all year and only put out 2 or 3 very small luffa. It was a "bonus" plant from the season prior. The seed fell between the decking boards in my garden that I put in for walking. It grew up and was very constricted and gnarled between the planks but I ended up cutting it back to about 3 to 4 inches. This year it took off like a rocket. I currently covers about 1/4 of my two car garage roof and the luffas are about the size and length of my arm... I'm 6'4" so you can imagine the size. I don't know if being in San Diego has anything to do with it... seemed like a lousy summer for tomatoes in the neighborhood but the ginger and the pineapple tops seemed to enjoy... yes, I have a very eclectic garden spot. Now I just have to figure out how to do that luffa soap thing. When I told the girls at work that I grew luffas they told me they thought that came from the ocean. Later and Merry Christmas to some and Happy Holidays to the rest. Retired Navy Thom

Hi Packrat. You'll want a trellis/fence something for the vines to climb on. The vine and blooms are very pretty. I let my luffas really dry o the vine and peeled them immediately after I picked them. If there is still some moisture left on the gourd they peel easier. If you pick them green they peel easily but there will be somewhat of a slime under the peelings. No biggie though. I picked them as it fitted into my schedule. After I peeled, if they were still moist I simply put them where they could dry out on their own. Once dry the seeds shake out very easily. No scraping.....as soon as they're dry you can make soaps or just sponges. I keep cutting them into crosswise pieces and keep these small slices in a holder next to the kitchen sink. They make wonderful scrapers for kitchen clean-ups. I swap them out every few days depending on what I'm using them for. Of course I have the soaps in the bathroom. Also have sponges in the bath to clean the tub/sinks. There is absolutely very little time/work in picking/peeling/drying. At Christmas I made baskets of plain sponges and soaps for gifts. Happy growing. Sheila :-)

Well my luffa's got lucky and were planted by the fence so had something to crawl up on. Of course this was my first year growing any gourds and I had forgotten where I planted what (duh) and could not figure out what kind of gourd they were until someone else posted about theres and then the light went off in my head. We got about 30 from one plant on the fence, glad there wasn't more of these lol Sandy