Watermelons

In the start of spring we planted a watermelon plant in the front flower garden. It was really just a test to see what it would do. I had very low expectations for the outcome of our watermelon crop. Not until about 2.5 weeks ago the plant really started to grow and then finally it put on a melon. I really dont expect it to ripen before our first frost but its fun to watch. It really grows in size fast.

4ish days ago. Melon1

same melon from about, pic taken this morning. Melon1

a new one i saw this morning.  Melon2

I have started cutting off all of the new shoots of growth.  Trying to make the melon plant focus on the fruit and not growing the leaves larger.

Overview 2 "whats growing"

Whats growing?

Whel that changes kind of often around the house.
Quick List:

Tomatoes

• Sarah Black
• Beefsteak Heirloom (my uncle in law's)
• Cherokee Purple
• Green Zebra
• My Fat Cherry (there is story behind this name ill get into later)
• Jubilee
• Unknown Tomatoes being a Topsy Turvy- im testing these contraptions
• White Wonder (all season it has struggled to live, i doubt i will get my one white tomato)

Corn

• Sweet Corn
• Red Sweet Corn

Okra - the seed packet i had just said 'Okra' so that is all i can go on.

Squash

• summer squash (again this is what the packet said)
• Heirloom Lemon Squash
  

Cucumber

• Space master
• Emperor Alexander
• pickling
• cucumber (its what the packet said)

A variety of Hot peppers and Bell pepper. (ranging in all colors)

Eggplant -- what ever the most common North American variety is? assuming 'dark purple' I bought these plants at a farmers market

Ground Cherry - This is my new favorite thing to grow. This year was just a tester but next year I will plant much more of these.

Dwarf: Meyer Lemon, Orange, Lime, and Tangerine

Dwarf 5-on-1 pair tree: Bartlett, Kieffer, Moonglow, Orient and Ayres (this is still small and in a bucket. When i got it in the mail, it was about 24 inches long. I planted it like the instructions tole me to. Then with it came to life all the new growth start from the base. So i have new growth and 24 inch stick in the middle.)

Basil:

• Holi
• Sweet
• Lettuce Leaf
• Thai
• Lemon

Stevia

Prescott fond blanc melon

Oregano

Many of the above are planted multiple times. I am able to squeze all of this down the side of the town house, under the back porch and on top of the back porch. Good news is that soon we are getting a fence put in and then the garden can really spread out.

Hot Stormy Day

About a month ago we had a pretty bad storm come through our area. It was fast moving and only lasted a short 15-20 minutes.
In those minutes it dumped a very significant amount of rain, hail, high bursts of wind, and the loss of power.

I did have some damage done to the garden. I lost some corn. It completely blew over 2 of my tomato plants that were in cages and those cages were staked in the ground. I was able to save those tomato plants. Many plants looked like they were shot with a BB gun. Just had little holes all in the leaves.

This is the storm cloud starting to roll in.

There actually isnt much time between these pictures. 30 seconds. so you can see the speed it was moving.

Cherokee Purple

One of the new varieties for me to try this year was the Cherokee Purple tomato.

It had a semi ish sweet flavor. This is quickly turning into one of my new favorites tomatoes to grow.

When i find pics

I will be posting more pictures of my garden this year as i find them. So with that said, my posts for this years garden probably will not be in chronological order.

As it started in 2009

This was the first year i decided to try and grow corn. i live in a townhouse SO.... i have to be creative on where i can plant things. Luckily i am the end unit so i do have a very small side yard. That is now a raised box garden 3.5 feet by 16ish feet. Well back to my point. Corn. I read that corn can make a great barrier from the wind. So im growing some this year as a test. All goes well, next year they will be my garden end caps.

I had already started the garden this year and then i heard about the corn trick.

This is a Sarah Black tomato plant.

Half Sour

I grow my own cucumbers so we can make half sour pickles.

Its a cold process. Mainly cucumbers, pickling spice and salt. Let it sit for roughly 3 days and your ready to check it.

Overview 1

After the success of sowing some tomato seeds, I decided to start growing as much as possible in the little space that I have available to me.

Im going to sum up the past 2 years in the next couple of posts until i reach my present time.
I like pictures so enjoy the pictures and less of my typing. On thing I have a difficult time spelling and making sentences that aren't run ons.

above: eggplant

above: Green Zebras, Cherry Tomato, and Heirloom Beefstake

above: Okra "i love some Okra"

In the beginning.

This is where it all started.
A 4x3 seed starter container in a windowsill. Not really sure if I had done it correctly or not. By 'done it correctly' I mean seeded the tomatoes from the previous year. You see these seeds were not purchased from a store, rather they were given to me in the form of a tomato the year before.

My wife's uncle had passed away and just before he did he had given me some beefsteak heirloom tomatoes. At least that is what he called them therefore I do not plan on changing the name, even if it might be incorrect. I have always been interested in the process of growing food. Especially from start to finish.

I used Google to search 'How to seed a Tomato and found many results. I picked one and followed the directions. Only I had to wait, from the day I seeded them until the day I planted them to find out if I had done the seeding process correctly. I am not the most patient person so, those 6ish month were a killer. Finally, the time to sow the seeds came. It was around January and I placed 3-4 seeds per slot, added water and covered. Then I had to wait again.


Looking back 2 years ago now, I do not recall how long it took. Success!! I did it correct and up came my first tomatoes grown from seeds that I had taken from a tomato.