Cantaloupe Season is Over

No need for a photo today.  I was hoping the cantaloupe plant was only going through a short slump but it seems the  cantaloupe season has ended for our area.  The last fruit has been picked and is sitting in the fridge waiting to be eaten.  The vine is turning yellow and the lieaves are shriveling.  The night air is reaching the mid 60's signaling the end of summer is comming.  Time for the fall harvest to start producing!

My next project is to sprout some black currant seeds and have something in the ground in the next few weeks.  Hopefully they will have time to produce for next fall.

The Cantaloupe is Producing Again

Cantaloupes have a nice little yellow flower even if they don't end up making any fruit.  Fortunately if you keep it watered you should be able to get something off of it. Fertilize and you up your chances greatly and you might just get bitten by the gardening bug.

Don't confuse this with the other bugs in the garden.

This little baby is growing nicely.  You can see the flower at the bottom and the lines already forming.  On a Tuscan cantaloupe these lines will stay and get deeper. and the mesh will for between the lines.  Our variety isn't Tuscan and therefore the mesh will wrap around the entire fruit.  Fortunately this vine has produced very juicy fruit already and should continue to do so.

Below are the two other cantaloupes currently forming on the vine. As you can see they form next to leaves and can form in pairs as seen on the bottom picture although only one flower is actually making a fruit in this case.

So, go out there and don't let the heat get to you.  It was 110 yesterday and they don't seem to mind one bit.

It's 4 O'clock Somewhere

It's four o'clock somewhere and that's exactly what these flowers believe too. These pictures were taken around 6:30. I have to say they were on their way out at this point but that's a long happy hour if you ask me.

Strangled

It seems to be a death match between the hops and 4 o'clocks. Unfortunately the hops is a sure looser unless I assist it. Only a few days ago the 4 o'clocks were winding around in the background and this morning I had to remove the strangle hold it had on the hops. I also uprooted several 4 o'clocks just to make sure they didn't try it again before I got home to implement a more permanent solution. They're still climbing the drain pipe nicely and may have to uproot most of them so that the hops can have plenty of breathing room.
There also seems to be another vine plant coming up near the far right hops plant that looks similar. It might just be another hops vine coming up with the leaves slightly different.
The hops plant on the far left still hasn't emerged and may never emerge. I did split that one off of one of the larger roots so everything I bought has sprouted and it will put off more roots next year.

Cantaloupe Fatalities

We've lost one of our troops to some sort of bug it seems. The pit right in the middle went pretty deep into the center of the fruit. It wouldn't be getting any bigger and cutting it up would have been only a bite.



After cutting in down the hole I found that the hole turned after entering. There's almost no room for the orange goodness to develop.



Cutting into the right slice reveals the hole going even deeper into the middle of the melon.



Fortunately for me there are still many melons to go. Unfortunately the weather is getting cooler and there's not much more time for the melons to develop. There are only two good candidates for maturity but they'll sure be sweet.

Cantaloupe Cantastrophy!

Cheesy? Probably.
This doesn't make the horror any less upsetting. I was mowing the lawn and decided to clip one of the cantaloupe plants to try and shock it into making melons. What I didn't realize is that there was a softball size melon hiding under the leaves. A thud and out rolled the clipped and cracked melon. I still have others starting so I'm not devastated.
It's amazing how easy melons are to grow and how easy it is not to notice the fruit.

Cantaloupe - Home Grown

I went outside today and checked on my cantaloupe vine, particularly the cantaloupe itself and it decided to fall off the vine. So, I brought it in and placed it in the fridge so it would be nice and cold when we decided to eat it.

As you can see it has a nice orange undertone.

The seeds are also nicely developed and can be saved for next year's planting. This time I'm going to label it better.

Now we just have to make sure we get more than the cat. She loves cantaloupe as well as strawberry yogurt.

Cucumber - Watermelon - ????

Ok, I have grown cucumber before which is why when what I thought were cucumber seeds came up I assumed they were cucumbers. They had the prickly stems and the leaves looked good enough to be right. The fruit even looked the same when it was really small.

Then there came the shape and texture of the fruit as it got bigger... They were smooth and round and began to show long stripes. A watermelon, right?

Nope... I got up this morning and checked on the progress. I figured with all the rain a watermelon would have gotten to the point I would have to do something about it again. When I looked at it there was a strange grey weaving pattern all around the round fruit. It will soon turn a little orange in the middle and be really sweet, I hope. That is what cantaloupe does after all...

Live Bamboo Fence

All you need is several acres for it to grow in well and there you go..... What? That doesn't sound good?
If you're like me then it sounds really good except that you probably don't have the acreage. Don't let that daunt you though, there are varieties of clumping bamboo that are much more manageable as a screen and don't end up on the other side of the yard, or worse in the middle of the yard.
If that still sounds a little too much, there are many shrubs that would do just as well for a little privacy. If your area is good for it you might consider grapevines The main problem with a live fence is the time it takes for it to grow. Even if you have the acreage, bamboo would take a few years to make a decent fence unless you planted the entire thing. Likewise bushes and shrubs are usually sold in much smaller sizes than you would need to make a good fence. In the mean time you can plant vines, which would work well on a chain link fence, or tall growing flowering plants like sunflowers to fill in where the shrubs haven't yet.
If you have a living wall I would love to see pictures of them!