Mistake

I made a mistake at the expense of my cantaloupe harvest. Have you ever worked so hard for something, with time and effort and care, and then accidentally detroyed it with your own hands? After I picked and ate that random surprise squash, I decided to pull out its vine since I wasn't really as thrilled about the squash vine as I was with the cantaloupe plant that was intertangled with it. (Both were growing freely from my compost pile.) So, I tried to untangle the two different vines and in my efforts, I yanked out my cantaloupe plant! I couldn't believe that it just came out of the ground with such little force. I was sad, but I had hope in that moment that if I buried it back in the soil maybe it would live. The next morning, I saw it laying limp and the two growing cantaloupes were soft. I wanted to cry. I had so much hope, I could almost taste the sweet homegrown cantaloupe, but no more.

I cut open the largest of the two growing cantaloupes just to see how it looked.

What I planted

This lovely September morning, I planted Romaine Lettuce, Snap Peas and Bush Beans.

Estimated Harvest Dates:
Romaine Lettuce - December 1
Snap Peas - November 29
Bush Beans - November 15

I planted Carrots a few days ago and I expect to harvest around December 8th.

Unfortunately, even though I had covered my young zucchini plants, they were destroyed by birds (my guess). I put up my scarecrow hoping that will prevent my new seeds from being taken away.

Seeds

I bought new zucchini seeds at Home Depot and planted 5 on my little hill yesterday morning. I hope they grow! I am trying to keep them moist.

I also planted some basil and parsley in a small pot and hope to learn how to grow fresh herbs for my cooking.

What's This?

Apparently there is more to my cantaloupe plant than I thought. I always found it so interesting how there were two different types of leaves on the vine and it often made me question if it really was a cantaloupe vine. Well, I think I have found out why there are two types of leaves... because there are two types of vines growing right beside (and intertwined with) eachother. The past week I was watching as this odd looking melon started to form. It looks like a squash and that is because it IS a squash. Today I finally went through all the large leaves to find the base of each plant and they are about 4 inches from eachother. So, I have a cantaloupe plant and some sort of squash plant as a bonus!

But, what kind of squash is it??? I haven't figured that out yet.

Squash and Canteloupe fruits growing side by side.



The best-looking cantaloupe growing on the vine.

 

I found a great website today about how to get rid of squash bugs using dish soap mixed with water. IT WORKS and oh how gratifying to watch them die!
http://www.elperfecto.com/2010/06/25/squash-bugs-what-are-they-and-how-to-get-rid-of-them/

Today

I find it odd that my grapefruit tree has some blooms all of a sudden. I noticed after seeing a few hummingbirds and wasps hanging around and going from each blossom. I think this would be considered "off-season bloom" and can be a sign of a disease (Mycoplasma Diseases, Stubborn Disease). The grapefruit tree had a hard time through the summer and has no remaining grapefruits that I can see.

The Zucchini seeds that I planted a few weeks ago never grew. I think the seeds are too old, they have 1997 stamped on the seed bag. I will get some new seeds soon.

The Cuccumber plants withered away last week although they were getting lots of water. I think it was either too hot or the cats may have gotten to them and broke the tender plants. I had a net covering it, but it was not completely cat proof. The neighborhood cats seem to have that spot in my garden as their favorite litter box.

Hooray for Melons!

I found some very helpful information about growing melons on this website. This one is also helpful. From these sites, I learned that I should pinch off the vines with melons 2 leaves after the melon to help the plant focus its energy on the fruit. I also raised the growing melons using large cleaned yogurt containers to prevent rotting. I also learned how to watch for the melons to be ripened for harvesting.

The squash bugs continue to offer me a good battle every day as I go out to water. The ants seem to be enjoying this plant as well. I have tried about 4 different pesticides and haven't had much luck so far.
I am pretty sure that these melons are Minnesota Midget Canteloupes, but since they grew from my compost pile, I am not sure.