A cucumber? An out of control zucchini? Actually – it’s a sponge. A loofah sponge; and it’s growing in my garden!

It’s taken a bit of persistence. Loofah’s need a long growing season. I tried growing these last year and I got the tiniest little sponge that I harvested right before our first frost. This year, I started my loofah seeds in February, in the basement, under a grow light. They were soooo slow to germinate, and even slower to grow. I planted them outside in late May and they sat there for months, barely rising above the weeds around the edge of the garden fence. Slowly they started to climb the fence and I kept training their tendrils higher and higher. All of a sudden – they took off climbing over the six foot fence and FINALLY made some tiny loofahs. For as along as it took for the plants to grow, the loofahs seemed to double in size over night.

Our growing season is still barely long enough and frost was approaching; not all of them were ready to harvest. A few had turned yellow, they felt squishy and noticeably lighter than the dark green ones. I chopped them down, peeled one open and there it was – a perfect – sponge! Hopefully the others will dry a bit more so I can harvest a bathtub full of sponges.