Bye Bye Melons

My Cantaloupe up and died! I have no clue what happened. As you can see from the disturbing picture below, there were still plenty of them left on the vine, but almost overnight the vine turned brown and the melons stopped growing.So, I pulled up all the dead Cantaloupe vines along with the no-so-dead-but-tastes-like-crap Watermelon and threw it out. The picture below is my attempt to piece together the sod that I removed from the new gardens in the front. For some reason this reminds me of that scene from the movie The Silence of the Lambs where the guy had sown together sections of skin from all his victims. YIKES!

Yes, I've been wasting lots of water, watering this strip of grass like crazy. I have no clue what I'm doing, but I figured it was worth a shot.

I still have tomatoes, jalapenos, bell peppers, basil and oregano left but as I'll try to transplant sod as I go as long as it looks alive.

We've Got Melons! Part Deux

This the first Watermelon. It's the Sugar Baby variety. As usual, I had no clue if it was time to harvest this thing. A while back I had done a baseline thump test and when I thumped this melon 2 days ago, it definitely seemed way different from the baseline thump. I had read on the internet that I should wait until the stem part started to dry out before harvesting but the stem was still green as ever tonight. The decision maker for me was that the tag said 80 days and since I harvested my Cantaloupe several days ago and it's tag said 88 days, I decided to go for it.

I was not very impressed with this melon. BUMMER! On a scale of A+ to F with A+ being the awesome delicious Cantaloupe I harvested the other day and F being any gag reflex inducing Brussel Sprout my mother ever made me eat, I'd give this a B-. It could be that I made a mistake by harvesting it right after all the rain we've had over the last week. Maybe that made it less sweet?

I think I'll wait until the stem drys out before harvesting the other one. If it doesn't taste way better than this one I'll definitely choose another variety next year. I'll grow Watermelon again for sure because I love the way the leaves look, but I need way more flavor than this to justify what a space hog this plant is.

Melon Watch and Other Stuff

I only have 2 watermelons but they seem to be doing okay. I notice they haven't really grown much at all in the last week or so. These are Sugar Baby variety and since I've never grown them before (or any other for that matter), I have no idea if they are close to full size or not. Compared to the Watermelons, I have way more Cantaloupes! Probably 8 or so and the plants are starting to bloom again. This is Ambrosia variety. Mr. W doesnt like Cantaloupes so I'll be eating these all myself, or giving them away.

I think these grape tomatoes are my favorite tomatoes so far this season. I absolutely love the way they look on the vine. So much that I hate to even pick them. They are also muy delicioso.

Ugly window box planter update: These are going to be returned. After they have been in my possession for 24 hours, I think they are uglier than ever. But the real reason is that Garden Buddy and I are gonna do a weekend warrior project - we are building planter boxes! This is scheduled for August 10th. I've ordered my lettuce seeds and I think August 10th shouldn't be too late to plant them. According to the garden calendar on the Illinois Extension website, I should plant lettuce on Labor Day. I'm so excited about the project! Who knows, if it turns out right and we don't saw off any digits, maybe we'll build a big pergola!

Belatedly In Aw

This is my best friends garden from 8 years ago. She planted this garden in our then backyard (we were also roommates) and as you can see she did a great job. I should state that I have absolutely no recollection of the garden being this big and awesome. I remember that she would frequently talk about how happy she was about various garden goings-ons and she'd beg me to come out and look at it I'd never do it. I couldnt figure out why she would want to spend all that time in the miserable Memphis summer heat. In my defense, I think I was obsessed with a boy who I was in a long distance relationship with at the time. If it did not pertain to him, I simply did not care. I don't regret my boy craziness because that guy is Mr. Wonderful and the reason I moved to Chicago and am living happily ever after. However, I do regret not being supportive of my friend and her fabulous garden, so I thought I'd express my joy now, 8 years late. I'm sorry I'm tardy...During my best friends gardening days, she spent so much time in it and talking about it that we all referred to it as "her boyfriend." Isn't this trellis pretty? I'm wondering how I possibly never saw at least the trellis? I mean I know I went out there at least one time just to shut her up! Man I was mean - I feel bad...

This garden is also the one that is planted in the yard immediately next to the worm farm that I wrote about in my Garden Bloggers Muse Day earlier this month. In case you didn't read it, my father started worm beds to make money but they all escaped into the soil during a storm. After that, the yard always had ridiculous amounts of worms in it. They continued to live and multiply for 2 decades. My grandmother owns this house and my best friend and I lived there 20 years after the worm catastrophe and it was in this same yard that my best friend grew the most amazing watermelon I've ever tasted.

Bff - I'm sorry for not being a good friend back in those days. I was one selfish bastard. Your garden was awesome! Now that I have my own garden, I see why you loved it so much and why you wanted to share the experience with me. 8 years later, I am so envious! Nice work!

Week in Review

First baby watermelon

1. I found watermelons! The one in the picture is golf ball size. I have no idea how long it'll take before we can eat it but I'M SO EXCITED I CAN'T WAIT!
2. I asked for plant suggestions and got a bunch of great ones, went shopping and bought many from the list! I'll post the list this week.
3. Carol called attention to my blog on her blog. I FEEL FAMOUS! (I also feel famous when I get reblogged on Garden Voices.)
4. I found an awesome strawberry pot on Craigslist.com for 5 bucks! I was a bit paranoid to go to the lady's house but she was SO NICE! Thank you nice Craigslist lady!
5. I used some of my fresh basil! I made tomato basil soup.
6. I planted one of the Coral Bells in the sun, it freaked out, I moved it behind the little peach tree and it perked up after the sun stopped shining on it. I don't want to move it to the front yard. Come on CB, you can do it! Would it be crazy to put an umbrella over it? I saw that on somebody's blog.
7. I unknowingly shopped at the same plant place as Mr Brown Thumb, another Chicagoan.
8. I ruined another 2 pair of gym socks from gardening. I wear gym shoes and then my socks are just disgusting.
9. I found out what the unknown bushes are outside the house and got some great advice on how to improve my curb appeal. Thank you everyone!
10. I put fish emulsion on my flowers. It smelled and looked disgusting and due to that I will probably never use it again, unless it turns out to be a magic plant potion. I don't know if I got some up my nose or what but I still smell it. YES, I showered.

First of freshly picked basil

Garage bedRoses are looking good. Grass - not so much...Shopping spree

Muse Day - Watermelon and Worms

Nothing in the cry

of Cicadas suggests they

are about to die

-Basho

Understanding the value of worms

My father has always been a hustler

He's done some interesting things to make a quick buck

Once he bought a truckload of watermelons really cheap and

made us sell them on the side of the main road leading into our subdivision

I was a teenage girl - I nearly died from heat exhaustion and embarrassment

After a few hours, people started bringing the watermelons back

demanding refunds

they were all rotten

My favorite hustle was worm farming

Grow worms in something that looks like a shallow coffin to a child

split in half after they outgrow the coffin

repeat until you are rich

The funny thing about worm farms is that

when it rains they try to escape

The remedy for this is to shine flood lights on the coffins during the storm

I have no idea why this works - stupid worms

Ironically, my father never seemed to be around when it rained

Time after time my mother

cussing and running in her heavy house coat

hurried to shine bright lights on the worms

Until one day she became fed-up

the worms escaped into the dirt

Twenty-five years later the soil on Owen is rich

My roommate grew the best watermelon I've ever tasted there

because my father has always been a hustler

Be sure to visit Sweet Home and Garden Chicago where Carolyn Gail is hosting Garden Bloggers Muse Day

Hand pollination

I found and pollinated 4 girl watermelon blooms. I really don't think I did this right since I think I read that they should close again after they are pollinated and I did not notice them doing that. I tied a ribbon on each one so that I could keep watch on them. I sure hope this works. The 2 cantaloupe plants also have blooms all over but I can't really tell which is the girl and which is the boy with these so they are on their own.

I also used a drill today for the first time ever. I hung my trellises on the back of the garage. I love this drill and I'll be looking for other ways to use it. These things have been leaning up against the garage for a month because I thought it would be so difficult to mount them. It was easy! Who needs handymen!

I am my Watermelon's pimp

During my daily reads I noticed that Christa over at http://cc-calendula.blogspot.com/ was sporting a nice sized melon on her blog. I was very shocked because last week when I read her blog where she posted her baby watermelon pic, I was saying to myself "I have one of those too!" but mine shriveled up and died a few days ago (RIP baby mel). So as I'm reading her blog I realize that there is some fertilization/pollination/plant-sex type of activity that needs to go on before any melons can be born and that, much to my surprise, what I THOUGHT was a baby melon, was just a swollen "ovary" - GROSS!

So I did more research and then the pieces started falling into place. Ohhhhhhh there are boy and girl blooms - THAT'S why they look different! Ohhhhhhh, THAT'S why people are complaining about not seeing bees (i thought they were nuts). Ohhhhhhh that's why it turned black and died!

And since I too have seen no bees, I'll be setting out on a mission to artificially inseminate my watermelon starting tomorrow. I have to say I'm fairly grossed out by this whole thing, but I do love watermelon and it is my favorite thing in the garden and it's only right that it bear fruit, yes?

The Cicada wants to be my boyfriend

In case you haven't heard, Chicago is presently infested with the "17 year Cicadas." In my area, they have been manageable but today I had a fatal altercation.

After battling with my weed wacker for weeks I finally threw it in the car and drug it to Ace Hardware. Thank you bald Ace Hardware guy in Forest Park for fixing me up! I'm officially boycotting Home Depot! Anyway, I took it home, cranked it and started working and then I noticed a few Cicadas in my yard. The next thing I know, the things are dive bombing me! I think they thought my weed wacker was another Cicada tryin to get it on! So one of them comes flying at me and my reflex reaction was to use the weed wacker as a sword or some other weapon, and, you guessed it, the Cicada was chopped to smithereens! I feel bad about it! Sorta. I kept trying to tell myself that the news people said they will not hurt me but it didn't help. Every time one came at me I tried to fight it off with the weed wacker. At one point I hit my grill and a everything on it went flying. I was screaming like a 5 year old. I don't care what they say, these things ARE dangerous! I thought about asking Mr. Wonderful to fight them off me while I finished trimming the backyard but they freak him out as much as they do me. At some point I just gave up. These things are only suppose to live for 3 weeks. The weeds will just continue to look like crap for a bit longer...

Here's a few pictures from today. I think my favorite thing in my garden these days is the watermelon. I think the leaves are so pretty! I had to redirect it because it was headed for the patio. I didn't realize that these things actually grab onto whatever is in it's path. Am I suppose to have a trellis or something?

Rose Garden after straw. It actually doesn't look so bad and the roses are all doing pretty well, even the sickly one that I thought wasn't going to make it.

Garage garden with straw. I think I've killed the grass around these beds by letting the crap that I dug up lay on it for too long.

Foundation bed

I finally decided to try my hand at composting! Since I have no container whatsoever but lots of stuff to compost, I decided to throw it over beside the garage and see what happens. I don't plan to leave it there because I'm worried that it will damage the fence or the garage. I also won't be putting any food there because I'm way more afraid of rodents than I am of Cicadas.

One final note on Cicadas. I googled them and I think it's actually the male that makes the noise so I guess those were girl Cicadas attacking me.