Mom's Garden

[SPLASH]

Planted both of Mom's gardens today. She didn't plant much last year, but I think my melon trellis and my interest in gardening inspired her to go big again.

First we planted the side raised bed garden I did the melon trellis in last year. Sowed 4 rows of 8 Silver Queen sweet corn. If all goes well, we'll have 64 ears of some of the sweetest corn there is around Labor Day. No trellis this year but we planted Gold Star Cantaloupe plants and sowed Gold Star seeds I saved from last year (I'll get back to them) and Imperial 45 Cantaloupe seeds. Sowed Orange Tendersweet Watermelons and Sugar Baby Watermelon, My Atlantic Dill Pumpkin seeds from the 602 pound pumpkin I ordered and 4 Squash plants (Hers). Gold Star Cantaloupe is an F1 Hybrid so the seeds I saved from last years melons could end up showing more characteristics of one of the two parent plants that produced the hybrid. From what I understand, if I save seeds from this years crop, plant them next year, save seeds from that years crop and plant those seeds the next year, I have MY OWN variety of Cantaloupe with that crop. You then look for a seed company to buy the rights to the melon seeds and sell them as theirs. Not sure that I have every detail right, but I have a few years to figure it all out. My goal right now is to breed the hybrid out of it and turn it into an open pollinated (non hybrid) variety since Gold Star is my favorite cantaloupe. I'd love to eventually have the plants put out average weight melons of over 6 pounds. We'll see.

We then moved on to the main garden. 14 total tomato plants (3 varieties) 4 eggplants (first time she has tried growing them) I think 16 pepper plants, 2 slicing cuke plants, sowed many seeds of Marketmore 76 slicing cukes and Lemon cukes. 21 Kentucky Wonder pole beans that will grow up the fence, 2 varieties of head lettuce, sees from a mesclun mix and quite a few spinach seeds. There is still room for 6 more tomato plants that she will be putting in soon.
Lots of work, but enjoyed every minute of it. Once everything sprouts, I'll be posting pics of these gardens too. The watermelons and Pumpkin updates will be on their boards. Excited to see if I can get an over 100 pound pumpkin

[SPLASH]

This is the bed where I did the melon trellis last year. This pic shows the 4 rows where I planted 32 Silver Queen corn seeds


The stick in the rear is where the Pumpkin seeds are planted, one in the middle is the Orange Tendersweet Watermelon, one infront is Sugar Baby Watermelon. Gonna be way overcrowded so the plan is to only leave one vine from the pumpkin and we'll see how much more trimming will be needed. She didn't give me all the space I wanted


And this is why. Nasty squash plants. YUCK!


Closest is a newly bought F1 Hybrid Gold Star Cantaloupe. Behind is seeds from last years Gold Star and behind that is Imperial 45 Cantaloupe seeds planted. Also going to be overcrowded.


Now the main garden. Gypsy Peppers, 4 Eggplant (first time growing) and 4 Jalepeno's


2 Juliet Tomatoes


Bonny Best and Rutgers tomatoes


Beefsteak and Lemonboy Tomatoes


Garlic I planted last fall. 12 out of 16 came back after winter


Sweet Slicer cukes



Between the 2 Sweet Slicers I planted Marketmore 76 slicers and Lemon Cukes seeds (first time growing Lemon cukes


This area has a mesclun lettuce mix, two different head lettuce varieties, and Spinach


21 Kentucky Wonder pole bean seeds are planted here along the fence


The Peach Tree I bought Mom for Mothers day last year


It's loaded with I'd say close to 200 peaches. No way these thin limbs can support that many full size, so if the tree doesn't drop some, we'll be plucking so the branches don't break.


Happy Gardening

[SPLASH]

Went over to Mom's today to see how much is involved in setting up the tent (used her backyard) and we did some work in the gardens.
This is as far along as the corn is, had to replant 8 seeds since something (chipmunk I suspect) had pulled them up and ate the seed.


Her squash


The Gold Star cantaloupe plant is growing good and has male flowers starting to open, the seeds from last years' Gold Star sprouted and were then pulled and eaten, and the Imperial 45 had 2 sprouts that haven't been eaten yet. I replanted more of each

Didn't take any pics of the main garden today. Something has been eating the bean seeds and cuke seeds so had to replant those and thin the lettuce that was coming up.

[SPLASH]

Update..........

Her squash is doing great with many yellow summer squash on them and butternuts just starting. Cantaloupes on the right are pathetic. Doubting I'll get any this year. Don't know exactly what the problem is other than the messed up weather at the beginning of the season.


After the chipmunks/birds picking out my corn plants and replanting I ended up with 26 or 27 plants.


I got in there last week to weed and she did the rest yesterday morning. Her peppers and eggplants are looking better


I pruned these tomato plants last week (a little late), but they look pretty good.


The cukes started really rough, but are coming back


All of the lettuces are doing great in the shaded part of the garden. First year growing lettuce and very impressed.


The little peach tree dropped most of the peaches since they were too heavy for the tree to handle, but some are still on and look good.

[andymaviglia]

Very nice Splashy. Dont dwell on the failures, you're garden besides the melons is looking great. As the garden grows so does the gardener.

[SPLASH]

Thanks, andy. I don't feel bad because I did something wrong, I feel bad because I don't know what happened? Plus, melons are my favorite plant in the garden. Oh well, I did great last year for a beginner, guess this is my sophomore slump.

[SPLASH]

Dropped a resume off to a company near Mom's house so I thought I'd stop by, get the dog out of the cage and play a bit while they were at work. My corn is HUGE! Biggest plants nearing 8 foot. Just starting to develop the tassles so I should get ears forming soon. Then the fun begins...........
First time growing corn and made a dumb move by growing a white corn, so it will be difficult to tell when the ears are great for picking.
Lots of flowers on the pumpkin plants, but all males so far. The watermelon has it's first male flower, and cantaloupes all males too. I really failed with the melons this year and not quite sure why? Only difference is no trellis this year so I'm blaming the weather. Too wet for too long in the beginning. Forgot the camera, but nothing really to show anyway.