Summertime brings out questions from

gardeners, and one that is the most diffi-

cult to answer with a straight face is about

sex in the garden.

When you couple most folks’ penchant

for neat, orderly surroundings with a

dearth of bees, butterflies, and humming-

birds in many urban gardens, you have a

recipe for plant sterility. Which leads to

fewer vegetables and fruits, which leads to

questions about sex.

This isn’t as important for wind -

pollinated plants like corn and self-

pollinating veggies like beans and peas,

though during one summer in the still-

ness of my little English greenhouse I had

to go around daily thumping stems and

support poles on tomatoes, peppers, and

eggplants to loosen the pollen and cause

it to shed.

But many plants need more help than

that. Some have separate male and female

plants, and without both genders grow-

ing nearby and in bloom at the same time,

and without wind or insects spreading the

pollen from plant to plant, they are unable

to produce fruits. This is why a lot of hollies

fail to have winter berries; only the female

plants can even make berries, and then

only if pollen from a nearby male makes it

to the female flowers in the spring.

Some plants have both male and female

flowers on the same plant. Corn has the

male “tassels” at the top, which shed

pollen onto the female “silks” protruding

from young corn ears. And squashes and

cucumbers have separate male and female

flowers on the same plants; male flowers

are on simple stems, with female flow-

ers on the end of what looks like small

squash, cuke, or melon fruitlets. If insects

don’t do the work of carrying pollen

from male to female, the little fruits-to-be

simply shrivel up and fall off.

When bees are missing for one reason

or another, you can pluck off an open male

squash flower, peel off its petals, and use it

like a yellow brush to dab pollen inside the

open female flowers. Within days you will

be eating fully formed fresh squash.

By the way, pollen from one type of

squash will not affect the flesh or eating

quality of another type, but if you save

the seeds you will get some sort of weird

hybrid. Which explains a lot of gardeners’

finding oddball gourdlike things growing

out of their compost bins every summer.

To avoid all this, simply plant lots of

different flowers in your garden, which

can help attract insect pollinators, which

in turn can help your veggies out with

much-needed pollination.

Sex in the Garden

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