The Cantaloupe That Wasn't

I'm reading up on Cantaloupe, to see if I can make ours fruit. The first thing I find is this from University of Florida:

"The melon referred to as cantaloupe is actually named muskmelon (Cucumis melo, var. reticulatus). The term cantaloupe is a misnomer that has been used widely in the vegetable industry as a synonym for muskmelon. True cantaloupe (C. melo, var.cantalupensis) is grown in Europe and is a small fruit with a hard, scaly, or warty skin."

This explains why we called it muskmelon when I was a kid. I thought that was just some local Missouri term for the fruit, because everyone I talked to later had no idea what fruit I was talking about. I guess the name muskmelon does not sound very appetizing for folks in the produce isle?

Reading further down, I see that our problem might be not enough pollinators:

"Cucurbits have separate female and male flowers, with the male flowers appearing prior to female flowering. For the female flowers to produce fruit, pollen from the male flower must be transferred to the female flower by insects. Generally, satisfactory pollination occurs when one strong beehive is present for every two acres of muskmelon. Flowers of muskmelon and other cucurbits open just after sunrise and close in the late afternoon or early evening."

So it appears we will have to pollinate both the cantaloupe and tomatoes by hand, unless someone has a beehive handy.

Our Garden Grows!

The weather cooperated again today, and I moved two loads of patio stones. I was sore and tired of dodging mosquitos to get the stones, so then I did some other work in the garden. I will get one more load of stones tomorrow, to give us a final 5-stone deep (about a foot) raised bed. I want it deep enough for carrots, and tall enough for people to sit on it and garden.

I went to dig up the compost heap and pile some nutrient-rich awesomeness into the nearly complete bed. Lo and behold, the compost was in use! Some of our stray cantaloupe seeds from the last couple weeks decided to sprout up and take residence. They were clustered in the center of the heap, where all the good stuff is. Well I decided to respect the interdependent web of existence, value the inherent worth and dignity of the melon vines, and envision a future with free cantaloupe every Sunday.

I cleared the covering leaves from the heap and carefully dug up 2 wheelbarrows of pretty good compost from around the plants. Then I transplanted the smaller plants a little further from the center to give them all plenty of room, and put back the covering leaves. I marked a larger area with some bamboo poles and added more leaves to compost for future melon plantings. The entire area is now our Melon Patch! I hope all the gardening will be this effortless.

Besides the cantaloupes, there are a few things that were already growing in the garden.

The mulberry tree.

This sad little banana plant.

Whatever this and this are. (Someone told me, and I forgot)

A whole bed of something that appeared with the rain. Possibly a weed, but maybe an herb? (I decided it was a weed, and pulled most of them)