From the Test Gardens

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September 7th, 2010

I transplanted ‘Shiny Boy’ watermelon seedlings late—on July 31— in a bed I forgot was dedicated to something else. So after they were growing for a couple of weeks I dug them up (2 plants) and replanted them in another bed. I moved them at 10 pm in the dark. I don’t think they knew what happened because they woke up in the morning and kept on growing. I guess it’s not true that melons don’t like to be transplanted!

I love the intense colors of this ‘Alvaro’ melon, left. It measured 6″ x 6-1/2″, a little bigger than expected and very sweet and tasty. I would grow ‘Alvaro’ again. The bell peppers are ‘Pinot Noir’ and are starting to come in at a larger size since the pump for the well was repaired.

The two types of melons in this picture are ‘Yellow Honey’ honeydew and ‘Crimson Sweet’ watermelon. The catalog description said ‘Crimson Sweet’ would grow to about 25 pounds, however they are weighing in at 40 pounds. I haven’t got room in the fridge for them, even when cut in half, so I am giving away a lot of watermelons. ‘Yellow Honey’ (the two yellow melons in the photo) is confusing me as the sizes are vastly different. Most weigh over 13 pounds, but this little one is about 7 pounds. What’s up with this?

The melon vines are very long and threaten to enter the house. Bill says he’s “afraid of waking in the morning with melons in the bed.” Today I trimmed their vines so he could sleep at night and so I could get out the bedroom door without wading through them.

When Bill puts down the camera he will have to take this melon from me—I’m stuck like this and I can’t stand up while holding it. When I carried one of the 40 pound watermelons into the house last week I hurt my knee and was limping around for DAYS. I won’t do that again—and Bill is now in charge of harvesting the melons.

The melons are delicious and producing heavily but, sadly, I will have to pull them out soon to make room for my cool season veggies and garlic. Or maybe I will just trim the plants and keep one or two vines with melons, to enjoy into November?

Tags: melons, peppers, watermelons

August 9th, 2010

What a nice summer we’re having here. Not enough rain, of course, but July did give us an inch above normal. The weather is hot (90’s) but not too hot and fresh organic food is in abundance just outside the  door.

‘Bitonto’ is such a cute little cherry tomato and it is holding its own against those aggressive marigolds—they’re sharing a pot in the photo at left. Good flavor and decorative—what more could you ask?

The  peppers are ripening well. Some of my ‘Cajun Belle’ peppers are red  already.

The ‘Apollo’ broccoli is amazing and we give away bags and bags. The chickens like it when it begins to bloom too.

I experimented with growing my melons in pots on top of 55-gallon water drums this year. So far, so good. The barrels are filled with water and were installed to store the sun’s heat in the winter. But I just thought they might serve a useful purpose in other seasons too—and the melons seem to like having warm soil when our nighttime temperatures dip into the low sixties, as they often do, even after a day in the nineties. Melons are almost ready to eat, earlier than I’ve ever had them.

‘Lime Crisp’ cucumber, shown at left, is not to our liking due to its bland taste, and all our friends who try it concur. We much prefer the crisp Oriental cukes we also grow. ‘Lime Crisp’ is a beautiful color; it grows like the dickens and churns out tons of cukes, so I’ve taken to pickling them when quite small to keep some measure of control.

All in all, it’s been a good garden year so far.

Tags: broccoli, cucumbers, melons, peppers, tomatoes