Canta-loopy

Posted on August 23, 2009 by Meredith

“A Watched Cantaloupe Never Fruits”

Yesterday I joined many Austinites for another veggie class, this time taught by Master Gardener Patty Leander. During her excellent presentation, Patty covered a lot of information regarding specific fall crops recommended for central Texas. I particularly appreciated the various resources available as printouts, such as lists of recommended seed varieties and good seed resources (you can find these pages at the Central Texas Horticulture website, under Gardens & OrchardsàVegetables; also adding to my sidebar, even though it’s by Aggies). Caroline from the Shovel-Ready Garden was there, as well as Master Gardeners and Austin Garden Bloggers Bonnie from Kiss of Sun and Vicki from Playin’ Outside. I heard rumors of there being other local garden bloggers there, too, but I didn’t get to meet up with them.

After the presentation, we chatted for a bit, even talking about my cantaloupe worries and laughing about the plant sex thing. None of us knew what to expect for pollen from male cantaloupe flowers, nor whether I should be concerned about the potential hybrid-ness of my cantaloupe and the sterility of my plants’ male flowers. So basically I went home still on the same path of “wait and see.”

Not really wanting to feel sad that my female cantaloupe flowers were pining for potentially potent pollen, I put off visiting my garden until late in the day, then decided to go out and squish a few bugs. I’d had the kids watering the veggie garden for the past few days, so I was out of touch, and the bugs seemed to figure it out. The aphids are spreading, I might have some red dots that could be spider mites on my big pumpkin plants, and the little as-yet-unidentified red bugs on my cantaloupes are getting more numerous, along with their larger black versions. So I did a little veggie “debugging.” Sweat bees are still my tiny little pollinating buddies – I check the inside of a flower before I do any additional hand pollinating.

My cantaloupes are very prolific bloomers.

And then I saw it. This cute hairy little bulb on the female flower. It was a little bigger and noticeably more fuzzy than ones in previous days.

And as I inspected a little more, I found an even larger one!

And another one!

Could they be… pollinated?!!! Or are they just teasing me? Will non-pollinated ovaries grow in size for awhile?

But then I about screamed when my eyes fell upon this one. I almost tackled my 12-year-old as I ran for the camera.

It’s bigger than a golf ball!

Does this mean I might have normal cantaloupe after all? Or could they become goofy-shaped strange-tasting hybrid freaky fruits? I know, I know — wait and see. No matter what happens, I’m having fun, and that’s worth the price of all that soil I put in those raised beds.

In other veggie-odd news, my sugar pumpkins have bigger leaves than my jack-o-lantern pumpkins. They have many buds, both male and female, but only the first males are just now blooming, to my knowledge. Weird. Of course, they could have been blooming while my back was turned.

And I found the first female buds on the jack-o-lantern pumpkins. I bet those male flowers are excited. J

Pole beans are growing. Corn’s growing. One is sending up something through the center of its stalk – hopefully a good something and not a worm.

And I’m canta-loopy. Time to read up on when to reduce watering and how many fruit I should remove from the plant to maximize the sweetness of those that remain. Is it one cantaloupe per vine or one per plant for max sweetness? I hope one per vine.

Assuming I’m not actually growing Audrey 2, that is.

On My Knees — Hello, Little Spider

Posted on August 22, 2009 by Meredith

Here’s my entry for Gardening Gone Wild’s August Photo Contest, for the theme “Down on Your Knees.” I’m amazed at the beauty of nature shown in all the photographs. Great job, everyone!

This photo is of the tiniest little spider making a web in my aloe vera plant. I never realized I had such a wee resident making its home in there. And I actually had to lay down for this shot!

Cheering for the Survivors

Posted on August 22, 2009 by Meredith

Because of all this house painting I’ve been doing, I’ve had to rely on the kids to help water, and I was starting to experience garden and blog withdrawal symptoms. So today I got out the camera and trekked around the yard getting my scheduled watering done and snapping a few pictures along the way. I also took another veggie class this morning (more on that in a separate post). So I got my infusion of “green” this morning. And as soon as I finish blogging, I get to go back to… you guessed it… painting. Houses are big! Even small houses!

Today I honor and recognize my yard’s truly amazing Survivors. In our Texas heat wave, really every plant that still has chlorophyll is a survivor, but some of my plants have overcome some of the worst situations to keep on growing despite the odds against them. I give you… the Survivors.

The Challenge: Being gnawed to the ground, dug out, dragged across the yard, trampled, peed on, or otherwised abused by THE DOGS

There are numerous survivors here, including our sweet remaining Mexican Redbud and Hop Trees, and others. The Goldenball Leadtree shown here survived not only the dogs chewing it in half, but the fire ants that made a colony in the original planter (I had to survive those fire ants, too, because I found out about them the hard way). I can’t wait to see blooms on this little guy, by the way. Little golden puffballs!

The Challenge: Growing in the side yard, which means being in a place that is so low priority on the watering scale that they often get forgotten.

Lucky for the sideyard plants, I’ve been rinsing my paintbrushes out there (fyi, we’re using eco-friendly paint), so they are getting more water than they are used to, and they are using the opportunity to grow, recover, and even bloom. I have several survivors of this challenge, but here are pictures of Salvia “Indigo Spires,” Flame Acanthus, Turk’s Cap, and Inland Sea Oats. The Inland Sea Oats also have been mowed over several times when we thought they were long gone or something else.

The Challenge: Surviving where others have failed

My first Chile Pequin simply struggled to grow, and I assumed it was because it needed more water than I could regularly provide. But after it died, I bought another and planted it in similar shade a few feet away, in the neglected side yard. Though it gets even less water than the first, the new one has grown to about a foot tall already.

The Challenge: Thriving despite being told, “You’re too old”

Our house was built in 1971, and we’ve lived here 14 years. We have two huge Arizona Ash Trees in the front yard, and we were told five years ago that the trees were at full maturity and would die at any time. Well, they continue to do fine, so well that they once again have blanketed our sidewalks and yard in golden leaf-like seeds. We never water the two trees, which a neighbor suggested might be why ours do well where others have died off. Regardless, we thank them for their shade.

The Challenge: Being a tree planted in late February as opposed to fall/winter, and then surviving what we think was overwatering

Lacey Oak is one of our favorite trees, and our tiny one just recently caved to the heat and abuse by dogs. But this other beauty of a tree was planted a little late in the season in the front yard, and we were determined that it would not die to transplant shock or heat. But after a few months, we became concerned at the number of leaves turning brown or partially brown. At first we thought it needed more water, but now I think it was overwatering that might be cause. We backed off on the watering, and it’s hanging on. Grow, baby, grow!

The Challenge: Surviving despite our best efforts to (purposely) kill it

We’re NOT cheering for these, by the way. There are some plants that keep growing back despite how hard you try to kill them off — weeds, of course, Bermuda grass, and so on, but in this case I’m referring to Chinaberry and Gum Bumelia.

Chinaberry is an exotic invasive, and it grows from any little bit of root you accidentally leave in the soil, and of course from the numerous berries. The neighbor’s mother tree has been removed, but we are still trying to dig out shoots from a root so deep we can’t get to it, and others growing out from under the air conditioner. This next time, I’m pouring on the vinegar.

The Gum Bumelia is a Texas native, and it made me a little sad to remove the ones growing directly behind the house, but their spines are exceptionally long and hazardous, and they blocked us from having any other use for that area right by our patio. Even cutting them down led to numerous spines in the dirt, and we had to pull many out of our shoes and sometimes (ouch) feet. I can’t get to all the culprit roots, so I’ll try vinegar on these, too.

The Challenge: Being the tiniest plant to survive several TX freezes in a season, with some winter-wise TLC

This Yellowbells, or Texas Esperanza, plant was a tiny little 4-inch guy that was planted just before a series of freezes in central Texas. My efforts (watering and covering) to keep it and its neighbors apparently did the trick, because they all survived. Is that an assassin bug in there? I hope so. Be good bug, not bad bug.

The Challenge: Surviving being a tree planted in full sun in the heat of the summer

We couldn’t resist buying this big Mexican lime for such a cheap price, and then we realized how perfect it was for a bright spot by our patio. We decided to take the chance and plant it and not to get too mad at ourselves if it didn’t make it. It’s actually doing pretty well, and its leaves let us know when it needs water. I even got to pull a lime off it, though it was probably already growing when we bought the tree.

The Challenge: Making a comeback despite being near death when finally getting put in the ground

Again, numerous survivors here, but one of my Rose Pavonias (Texas Rock Rose), a Gaura, and a Basketgrass (Nolina) got photos taken. The Nolina doesn’t look like much, but trust me, we’re happy to see some green.

The Challenge: Staying alive in full sun as tiny seedlings until another growing season began, and then finally starting to grow

My son’s mixed bell pepper seedlings, planted in a recycled recycling bin.

The Challenge: Being overshadowed by towering plants, but blooming once those died off (the Na-na-na-na-na Challenge)

That would be one of our Pink Skullcaps, accidentally sandwiched between the tall kind of Zinnias since spring.

The Challenge: Surviving the worst we can throw at a plant, short of acid

Perhaps the winner of all winners should be my very first Dutchman’s Pipevine, which has survived being dragged across the yard by the dogs, having its leaves completely stripped by dogs and roofers (in cleaning up their mess), being drowned, being underwatered, being smothered by a foot of leaves, being transplanted multiple times, and more. It is now hopefully in a permanent spot, alongside more of its kind, with something to challenge it to grow taller.

There are plenty of other survivors in my yard that also deserved their tales told, but it’s time to paint. 🙂

I end with a picture of Loki, doing what he needs to survive…

Dirty Little Secrets

Posted on August 18, 2009 by Meredith

Did I get your attention? C’mon, admit it. You’re already here. Can’t stop now. And if you don’t admit it, then you know…you’ll have your own dirty secret. 🙂

Well, this post is in thank you to Jessica of The Magical Mundane, who so kindly selected my blog to receive the MeMe Blogging Award. I was so honored by her words– Jessica, you really made me smile! The steps for me to accept the award are revealing 7 things about myself and then passing the award onto 7 others.

But I’m torn. And I had to give this a lot of thought before making my decision. On the one hand, Jessica truly made me feel good, and I’d love to do that for others. On the other hand, wow I just don’t like to send these kinds of things on. I started to, but then stopped. There are so many deserving bloggers out there, and I just don’t even know how to begin to choose, but then I worry about putting someone in a similar predicament of trying to figure out whether they should send them on, too. So with that, I can’t fully participate.

But here’s my compromise. I’ll do the first half — I’ll reveal dirty secrets about myself. It’s ok to talk about dirty stuff — I’m a gardener. (HEY — that might have to be my new motto.) Or maybe I’m NOT really a gardener… but you’ll have to read on to see my confession. Here goes — 7ish things about myself.

1. When I say I’ve been a nature and wildlife lover all my life, I mean it. I have a B.A. in Zoology, and wouldn’t you know it, I long for one in Botany now, too!

2. I have a strong British heritage, and I married someone with Irish ancestry. But I look more Irish than my husband does.

3. When I was young, my dad always hogged and hid the chocolate syrup, not wanting to share with his kids. I don’t hide the chocolate syrup, but I claim all Chocolate Underground Stoneyfield Yogurt! I also have a weakness for chocolate and strawberries. (A moment of silence, if you will, for the yogurt I devoured soon after taking this picture.)

4. I live in Texas, but my favorite region is the northwest coast. I lived in northern California for several years of my childhood. I think if I could be a tree, I’d be a Redwood.

5. Up until this last year I was a triathlete. Back injuries have made it difficult for me to do two of the three sports, but as alternative activity, gardening has actually been fine as long as I’m careful. I love open-water swimming in a lake with a big, big passion. Of course, it would have to be water in a lake that hasn’t been almost dried up due to drought.

6. I live for lime. Any kind of lime will do, but I particularly love key limes. I’m already drooling just thinking about it. If you ever come visit me, I make a mean key lime pie and a mean margarita. I now have three Mexican lime trees. When they start to fruit, I’ll be in lime heaven!

7. Our house is colorful and cozy, typical of most homes, but when you walk into our study, you venture into somewhat of a Star Wars theme. We have a variety of posters and Lego models, primarily related to the original movies. My husband is a true Sci-Fi geek, and I still admit to having a lingering crush on Han Solo, ever since my childhood (I confess to gazing across at the picture of Han Solo on the file cabinet while I typed this).

Ok, I’ll admit one more truly dark, dirty secret. And I’ve already been told that perhaps I’m not really a gardener because of this, but… I don’t like tomatoes. Well, not fresh off the tomato plant. (Stop gasping!) Something about the fresh acidity of the tomato, I guess, which is weird because I do have a passion for citrus, and I love anything with cooked or dried tomatoes. BUT a friend brought over cute little cherub tomatoes last week, and I managed to eat three of them! So there’s hope for me yet. I just need to find out whether I can grow cute little cherub tomatoes in Austin, and then perhaps I’ll really be a true gardener in the eyes of my fellow gardeners. There, MY DIRTY LITTLE SECRET. Err, secrets.

Jessica, thank you again!

The Ever-Growing List

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Meredith

Lookee, lookee! Something new is on my sidebar. It’s a list of all the plants in my garden. Click there, or click here, and take a look!

It’s a work in progress, and as I add new plants, so will I add to the list. But at long last, I finally got off my tush and, well, sat on my tush, and typed up the list of plants. I’ve only finished adding scientific names for the Texas-native plants, but I will catch up on the others. Any other errors are purely accidental!

Organic Veggie Gardening 101

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Meredith

I’m a bit behind in reporting on what I learned at the Organic Vegetable Gardening 101 class at Natural Gardener on Saturday. We’re painting our house, and it takes a very long time, as we’re doing it by ourselves using brushes only. Oh, how my muscles ache. Give me weeding and tilling over exterior painting any day! On the other hand, it’s looking good, despite the slow method! I’ll share a picture at some point, when we’re further along in the process.

So… veggies! By the way, I took this class with Caroline of The Shovel-Ready Garden and Cat of Amlo Farms. They are delightful! I see in Caroline’s blog that while I took more notes, she took more pictures, haha! Well, I’m a farming newbie — I had to pay close attention! So I recommend visiting Caroline’s blog for additional information about hoop houses and many excellent photographs.

The class, taught by horticulturist Rosina Newton, covered a lot of the basics of starting a garden. A big part of her lecture was on soil preparation. It was particularly interesting to hear how much they mix into their soil, versus the simple mixing in of compost that I did for my jack-o-lantern pumpkins. For their vegetable garden, they mixed in:

cottonseed meal (organic 7-2-1 fertilizer)
cow manure compost
green sand (for minerals, such as potassium)
worm castings
*crab shell (*they are dealing with root-knot nematodes, which are bad nematodes – the crab shell encourages chitin-loving microbes to increase, which will consume both the crab shell and the bad nematodes)

They also water in with liquid seaweed and then regularly fertilize. In Texas, we need to mulch – pine straw is recommended. Rosina says, “Never leave bare soil.”

Rosina recommends fertilizing every 4 to 6 weeks with an organic fertilizer. Fertilizers are labeled with three numbers, which in order identify ratio of Nitrogen : Phosphorus : Potassium (N-P-K). FYI, they are absorbed in a 3-2-1 ratio. Nitrogen helps with green leafy growth; phosphorus helps with roots, blooms, and fruit; and potassium helps with plant vigor, stem strength, and disease/pest resistance. For my pumpkins and melons, I chose Rabbit Hill’s Buds ‘N Blooms fertilizer. So if you never knew what those numbers mean, there ya go! Choose your fertilizer based on your garden needs.

Other tips:

Add Innoculant when planting legumes, for necessary rhizobium bacteria.
Plant your garden east to west to allow best sun coverage as it passes over. Taller plants should be on the north side, unless you need them to provide shade for other plants.
Don’t over-till. A garden fork is preferable over a shovel, too.
Always wet the root ball before transplanting.
Always rotate your crops with each planting season. For example, don’t use the same bed you just had squash in to plant anything else from the squash family. Ideally, wait two years before using that same location.

There was other information about dealing with clay soil, sheet mulching to deal with Bermuda grass, and using row and shade cover. I’m not adding that here, but if anyone is interested in what was said, I’ll be happy to provide it if you let me know in a comment.

Here’s a bee that captured my attention while they were planting during class. I love bees!

This was an interesting side note from Rosina – apparently it has been found that ADD/ADHD is linked to a magnesium deficiency. And what is the first nutrient to deplete from the soil? Magnesium. Could there be a correlation in regard to diet, she wondered? In any case, it certainly won’t hurt to make sure your veggies and fruits get fertilized and replenished minerals. Epsom salt adds magnesium, fyi. Apparently there’s info on the package about how to use in a garden.

With trusty Googling, I read that symptoms of low magnesium include light or restless sleep and daytime sleepiness. That’s me to a tee – I’ll need to see what my energy levels are like on days where I do or do not eat nuts, spinach, oatmeal, or bananas.

A final note — Rosina’s helper added this message, which I’d like to pass on: “Teach children and others to be caretakers of the soil, for the next generation.” So many kids never venture outside, much less learn to garden, in this era of technology. How will they protect the Earth, if we don’t teach them to love it and nurture it?

There’s a Master Gardeners organic gardening class on Saturday. I might try to go to it, too.

GBBD Aug 09–The Short Version

Posted on August 15, 2009 by Meredith

After taking an Organic Vegetable Gardening 101 class today, I get to jump straight into painting my garage, so I can’t wander the yard with the camera. But I’m sneaking in this one picture for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day — it was an exciting surprise bloomer for me. I planted the species last fall and not once had it bloomed until about a week ago, when all three of mine bloomed at once. It’s a Cenizo (Leucophyllum frutescens), a common landscaping plant here in Austin, as the contrasting purple blooms against the silvery-green foliage is a striking sight. The little fuzzy hairs give it a very soft appearance.

Cenizo is a beautiful, low-water-usage, heat-AND-cold-tolerant, any-kind-of-soil, sun-to-part-shade, dry-soil, nectar-providing, shelter-providing, screen-providing, deer-resistant Texas native shrub, explaining its huge popularity around Austin. How’s that for a list of credentials? It’s also known as Texas Sage, Purple Sage, and Texas Barometer Bush, among other names. It gets the name of barometer bush because of its tendency to bloom with rain.

One pet-peeve of mine, though: This plant is at its most gorgeous when only lightly pruned but mostly left to natural growth. Some people chop it to shape it, turning a once-beautiful plant into a hideous disaster. Keep Cenizo Wild!

Tomorrow I’ll post some of the veggie gardening tips we learned at the class. And now I’m off to paint! I don’t know why I used an exclamation point there, like I’m excited about it…

The Pests Cometh

Posted on August 13, 2009 by Meredith

My last post was atypically serious for me, so I feel the need to cleanse with a standard “ack, my garden” post. Bit by bit, the pests are starting to find my garden. What if they tell their friends?

I knew what those ants on my pumpkin vines were up to, so I was prepared mentally for yesterday’s discovery, if not emotionally. The aphids had found the pumpkins. I thought about reaching for the soapy water, but the affected leaves were few, so I removed just those leaves and stuck them in the soapy water instead. I know I can’t continue to do that, but I wasn’t worried about affecting the plant — people sometimes pinch off whole vines in growing their pumpkins. One or two leaves shouldn’t be a problem. But there will be more aphids, so I best prepare the soapy spray.

Today I got up to check the garden and found that something had chopped off a large section of one of the corn plants. This was no grasshopper, unless it was the big dude from the other day back to seek revenge. What might it be? Opossum? Dog? No evidence on the ground to help me solve the mystery.

The garden’s not too far from my bedroom window. I need a spotlight and a switch inside the house so that I can spy on the garden from time to time during my insomniac moments in the night (brought about by the cats attacking my toes and dogs who are either thirsty or need to go outside having drunk all their water). Perhaps a bright light will help me catch the culprit in the act. Of course, if it’s not mammal-caused, then perhaps it won’t do me a bit of good.

Most of the corn is fine and healthy. But a few seedlings stay small, victims of terrible regular feasting by a vicious corn-eating monster. You thinking what I’m thinking? Grasshopper.

NEWS FLASH: This just in. Either the evil grasshopper from two days ago came back to the garden, or I found his cousin, who jumped up to the trellis wires. He expected me to run and get my camera, I know, but instead I removed both my flip flops and sandwiched him in between. Gruesome, you say? Did you see what he did to my poor corn plants? Remember, he makes babies. Or she. Or it. The Thing. No pictures. I’m not that gruesome!

I noticed that two of my pumpkin plants are starting to show strange discoloring to their leaves. I don’t know whether this is normal or some sort of powdery mildew or other disease. Only some leaves are affected, and only two plants. What does this mean? Or am I showing my newbness and those are perfectly normal pumpkin leaves and all pumpkins do that?

While I was taking pictures, this black bug flew down. What is he?

The leafminer flies are frequent visitors to the plants. Though the damage of their larvae is slight, it’s unsightly. Not slightly unsightly, hoho.

I’m checking the plants daily for more evidence of squash vine borer eggs and for more of those little unknown red bugs. The closest thing I can come up with on identifying that bug is flea beetle, but there don’t seem to be any pictures to support this.

I know it’s only going to get worse. But I’m still going to do my best to keep all these and new pests at bay! <breaks out the boxer gloves>

Whole Foods Lets Us Down

Posted on August 13, 2009 by Meredith

I want to state immediately that Great Stems is not a political blog by any means; it’s a garden blog. Anything political does not provide the mood I want to feel and express in my blog. But this blog isn’t just about gardening – it’s about green, healthy, sustainable living. Many of the people who read this blog are not just gardeners – they are organic gardeners and consumers who are very health conscious and money conscious. And many of them have been long-term Whole Foods shoppers. And it is this reason that I’m writing about yesterday’s article from John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, in the Wall Street Journal. Like many consumers, I’ve been severely let down and disillusioned to the effect that I question whether I’ll be shopping at Whole Foods anymore. This is not a decision made lightly, mind you. And if I, not a political person by any means, am standing up in anger about this article – well, it should tell you something.

In the article, John Mackey has launched a campaign against health-care reform. Surprising, isn’t it, coming from the CEO of a company whose stated values are “caring about our communities and our environment” and whose very consumers are progressive-minded. His article is in direct opposition to the values Whole Foods has claimed to represent. Mackey supports independent healthcare insurance companies that will ultimately deny people care in their most critical of medical situations. He supports high-deductible health insurance plans that only the wealthy can afford. Furthermore, Whole Foods is now using registered lobbyists, including Michael Torrey from both Bush administrations and Stephen Cannon from the Reagan administration.

Responses from outraged consumers on the Whole Foods website were immediate and are almost countless because they continue to grow, and John Mackey’s hypocrisy has in effect started a massive boycott on his own company. He’s alienated the very people that provide his paycheck.

That John Mackey wants to take health care in the opposite direction of reform is just a slap in the face to his consumers and the communities Whole Foods claims to care about. So many people out there have had massive neglect from their insurance companies at times of most critical need, to the point of death. I know others who have gone to other countries for surgery to avoid the high costs of similar treatment here in the U.S. Though my family hasn’t had a similar situation at this point in our lives, we still have seen the problems with our current healthcare system directly, having just this year had to spend $2,500 in hospital and doctor fees for the one-hour visit to the emergency room for an x-ray and a temporary splint for my son’s injured arm (it wasn’t even officially broken; nor do the costs include any of the follow-up care from another doctor). I have other family medical stories, too – but they all boil down to this: medical costs are eating us alive.

In addition to his eight suggested “reforms” in regard to health care, Mackey states: “Unfortunately many of our health-care problems are self-inflicted: two-thirds of Americans are now overweight and one-third are obese. Most of the diseases that kill us and account for about 70% of all health-care spending–heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and obesity–are mostly preventable through proper diet, exercise, not smoking, minimal alcohol consumption and other healthy lifestyle choices”

Yes, Mr. Mackey, that is true. But it costs far more to purchase healthy foods than it does junk food, and your store is one of the most expensive out there. It has earned your company the nickname “Whole Paycheck” rather than “Whole Foods.” Perhaps in addition to healthcare reform we need to look at food reform. As I’m learning now, even the costs of starting one’s own garden is enough to deter people from trying. Well, I might have once complained about the costs of starting a vegetable garden, but if I take the money I would have spent at Whole Foods and put that into my garden – now THAT’s money-wise sustainable living. As one consumer put it, “Perhaps average folks would be able to shop at your stores if they no longer have to pay outrageous sums for crappy insurance coverage.” I’ve been wanting to visit some of the more local markets across the city. So thanks, John Mackey, for steering me their direction.

Cantaloupe Sex Ed

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Meredith

And the mistakes I’ve made, SO FAR.

Here’s what I did wrong. I’m going to be happy that this list, as far as I’m aware, is short.

1. I grew cantaloupe from the seeds of store-bought cantaloupes. To be fair to myself, I didn’t know any better! So don’t do the same thing — sure it’s tempting, but hybrids, if you bought one from the store (most of them are hybrids, apparently), will give you heartache or at least some stress. Read on to find out why. To those I gave seedlings, I will report my findings as I find them out, and I greatly apologize for any grief you experience!

2. I took a picture of the giant grasshopper, and it got away. I’m still kicking myself about this one, and it only happened yesterday. The babies are hard enough to catch. If you see a big one, don’t try to capture the awe in regards to its size or even impressive markings. Just kill it. It will eat and make babies. Something eats bits of my corn, and I blame him. Or them.

Here’s what I’m doing right (again, as far as I’m aware). Top-Ten List! Top-Ten List That’s Really in No Particular Order!

10. I gave my cantaloupe seedlings a raised bed and trellis in which to grow to their heart’s content without getting trampled by dogs.

9. I learned about square-foot gardening and went ahead and spent the big bucks to give them a good soil in which to grow. Even the in-ground pumpkins got a healthy dose of compost mixed into their soil spots.

8. I lovingly give them water each day, and I know to hold back on water as fruit maturity begins to happen.

7. I learned the difference between male and female flowers and what “self-fertile but not self-fertilizing” plants are.

6. I learned about and am quite willing to help my cantaloupes’ pollination. I don’t have many bees here yet, so I have to do what I can to help (I did see one of those big black ones this morning, but he didn’t linger long at the cantaloupe flowers; I also see an occasional sweat bee).

5. I check them each day for bugs and kill anything that looks menacing. Unless it gets away while I’m taking a picture, that is…

4. I’m being a good mom by growing the cantaloupes at my son’s request, and along the way I get to teach my kids about plant life cycles and good gardening practices (and/or my mistakes!).

3. I gently guide the cantaloupe vines up the trellis to give them something to hang on to.

2. I learned about companion planting and put in marigolds and corn in their raised bed.

1. And most importantly, I love them and talk to them and love them some more!

And there you have it. I’m so excited to have thriving cantaloupe plants, but I’m worried that I’m growing a hybrid. So I’m seeking words of wisdom from the experienced cantaloupe gardeners out there! And Cat at AmloFarms has some blooming male flowers (from REAL seeds) she can share with me for pollination purposes. This cantaloupe thing is getting pretty complicated, haha. But for the sake of my cantaloupes, I will drive across town and back! Thank you, Cat!

The cantaloupes are happily growing up their trellis and trying to grow out wide, too.

We’ve had male flowers for awhile, and today (day 38) I found my first female. Here’s how you tell the difference. The easiest way is looking at the flower stem.

The male rises from the vine with a single plain stem of its own.

The female has a cute little bulge that will become the fruit if pollinated.

Here’s a baby female bud.

You can also tell the difference by looking at the inside of the bloom, but here’s where I’m unsure about the condition of the inside of my cantaloupe blooms. The male stamens will have pollen, but I can’t tell whether mine do, haha.

And the females will have their stigma ready to receive pollen. But mine look quite green, so I don’t know if mine look the way they should (I’ve seen pics with them yellow).

All the same, I did my best to get some pollen from the male to the female. At first I tried q-tips and a paintbrush, but I saw hardly any yellow on either. So I finally pulled off some male flowers and exposed their stamens and rubbed them on the female.

No idea whether any pollen grains stuck.

So experienced cantaloupe gardeners, should I be seeing lots of yellow pollen on the males? The male pumpkin flower (just saw my first two today!) has a lot of pollen, that’s for sure. And ants. First blooms, day 38.

Here’s one of the giant plants. They have a long way to go to reach full size. Egads.

From what I’ve read, if I read correctly, the female flowers should be ok and just the males might be sterile. But I don’t know whether the females are sometimes sterile, too. And even if pollination happens, will I get a regular cantaloupe out of it or some dud?

And while I’m asking, let me ask this: Can someone identify this red bug for me? The bigger versions of it are black, but I don’t see any of those on the garden yet, but last fall I had a ton of all sizes in a bunch of fallen leaves. Even the people at Natural Gardener couldn’t name them for me. I kill them when I see them now. But I’d like to know what they are. They are not tiny lady bugs, that’s all I know.

In other garden news, I decided to do something with my broken tools. Please tell me this looks like a flower, because it’s supposed to, HA! I will probably paint it at some point, but it’s growing on me (hehe) as is, too.

You can see the evil chinaberry in my very nice neighbor’s yard behind it — it’s been my nemesis for many a year. My neighbor finally had it cut down several months ago, but the workers left the stump and roots, so of course it’s been growing back with a vengeance. We cut it again just to prevent seeds and it’s back — so the neighbor is getting the tree people back out to properly kill it. Not sure they’ll succeed if they don’t get the roots out. I’m having to close my eyes and ears about the herbicides they’ll probably use… But I’m so thrilled to have a neighbor who is trying to help with the invasives problem!

Sugar pumpkins continue to grow and confuse me. They just aren’t eager to send out tendrils, but growing they be, with new bloom buds forming.

sugar pumpkins08-12-09.jpg Marigold seedlings! Only about 6 took, but I have more seeds to try with.

And much of my corn is happy. A few seedlings are getting chomped by something <evil eye at grasshoppers, even if they aren’t to blame>, but the rest are growing. I never really realized how beautiful a corn plant is until all this growing stuff.

And I’ve planted 8 pole bean seeds so far. I’m making use of the far corners of the trellis squares (ok, according to square-foot gardening, those squares belong to the cantaloupes but they were just sitting there empty! seemed so wasteful). I’ll be planting more along the fence once I amend the soil. My wonderful oldest son dug out the weeds from that area for me this morning. This whole “raising kids to work on the farm” was a brilliant plan of the pioneering farmers!

I planted Black-Seeded Blue Lake Pole Beans. The seeds look like engorged ticks. Don’t they sound wonderful? But I hear they are delicious. No, really. Really!

And we had another frog in the dog pond. Not surprisingly, he’s just as cute as Murray! Pictures soon!