Sunday Construction

Big thanks to Richard, John, and Lisa for deciding to move stones today. We managed to move 30 or so more paving stones to expand the garden bed. More of the same next week, and then we can fill it up with soil and plant some more stuff.

I set some more peas into the ground, hopefully these will do alright. We didn't harvest any eggplant today, even though 3 or 4 are growing now. Next week we should have a nice big eggplant dish. I'll go water tonight if it doesn't look like it will rain.

There were bees on the cantaloupe (muskmelon!) flowers today, so maybe things will be okay there after all. Flowers on the bell peppers are pretty little white/cream ones.

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.

Growing

Eggplant, Japanese - The teacher's pet of the garden, producing lots of fruit! Next time, I'll plant it in a corner spot, so it doesn't crowd out the other plants.

Tomato, Heirloom Tiger Stripe - Growing, flowering, but producing no fruit. Why? We may need to help the flowers pollinate.

Red and Orange Peppers - The eggplant is shading them out, and I may pull one of the pepper plants so the other one can grow bigger in that spot. Maybe I can transplant it?

Okra - See this post from last week.

Citronella - The wind from Irene actually damaged both of these, so I pulled it and planted beans there.

Leeks - I'm not really sure if these are doing well, since I've never grown or purchased leeks.

Marigold, Orange and Yellow - The yellow died a few weeks ago, and there are now beans planted there. The orange is scraggly, but I let it grow enough to produces some seeds, so we can grow them next year.

Flower (I keep forgetting to check the tag!) Pink - It died back quite a bit, but when I went to pull it up, I saw it was producing new growth. I decided to transplant it to a pot, and then planted peas in that spot.

Mulberry - Still fruiting slightly, although something is damaging the leaves. The fruits get eaten by birds and such before I manage to pick them. They more commonly fruit in the Spring anyway, so I'm not worried about it.

Banana - 3 leaves now!

Cantaloupe - This has grown very large, and produced many many flowers, but no fruit that I can see yet. It might need more fertilization, which means I may use the worm compost that David H. donated.

Pumpkin, Early Sugar - These are still very small, and I worry that I started them too early or too late. I was hoping for pumpkin pie from our garden in October, and that is clearly not going to happen this year.

Peas - The peas that were started from seedling on my back patio did not take transplant well last Sunday. I'll have to plant them from seed directly in the garden, probably tomorrow.

Green Beans - I transplanted two of these, and one was snapped by Irene's winds, and the other is doing well. Two or three more seeds have been planted from seed into the garden, and are already sprouting.

Ruby Beets and Red Cored Carrots - This is the second attempt at each of these. They didn't like being transplanted, and they take a good couple weeks to sprout. Wait and see.