Mini Sugar, Baby!

I picked the small watermelon from the container. It was easy to cut open and it had a sweet aroma when I cut it in half. The aroma wafted into my nose and I knew it was going to be good. I started cutting into it and had a piece. Delicious! I think I actually waited too long to pick it because I had to cut off a few overly ripe pieces but I got a nice sized bowl of watermelon. 

Smaller of the two container watermelons 

Cut in half.

My sizable bowl of container watermelon, it was so nice and sweet. 

Melons, Finally!

For the last week or so it's been tomatoes and nothing more. At this point I think 20lbs are going to go to waste which is not what I wanted. All of the references said not to go to big but I can say Patch was the perfect size even with the extra containers. Potagar may have been too big with too many tomato plants for our own good. 

Anyway after days and days of just tomatoes and some growth of the other plants but not much because its been unseasonably cool, first rainy, then hot, now cool. This summer has been the worst for a garden but like I was saying after many days of nothing to report I picked a watermelon. It wasn't as big as it should have been but it was ripe and sweet. Pretty awesome coming from a container. 

Weak Spots

Fencing Weak Spots...

When I was out in the garden yesterday I shuffled through the raised bed with melons in it because I wanted to see if we had any signs of watermelon growth and we did. Sadly, they had been bitten into so I decided to find the weak spots in the fence allowing something small in to bite them. I think I found it. It was the start of the fence where I used a insertion poll rather than staples and the wooden polls Mr. S installed. That was the weak spot I found and seems like the only weak spot. When I came out today none of the tomatoes close to the ground had bites taken out of them nor did anything else. Either the animals weren't out last night, not likely because the items on the ground have had bites everyday since ripening started, or the weak spot I chose to reinforce was the "weak spot." I hope by picking the bad melons the plant will put energy into growing new ones and do it soon because watermelons need long hot days and we only have 6 weeks left of summer. 

Harvesting...

I harvested a couple of onions, yellow tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, tomato-berries, and a cantaloupe. The cantaloupe wasn't so much a harvest as a picked from the ground. The larger of the two container cantaloupes finally made its plunge to the ground. I haven't cut it open to see what it looks like yet but my guess is it fell because it was too big and/or as big as it was going to get. I transferred the container melon into the Patch raised bed. Transferred both trellises as well. I forgot to get a picture but ill get one after the rain. Things were wilting and since it was going to rain or was supposed to rain, and did, I didn't want to water or over water. So glad to get some rain, funny how things change. I'm hoping the extra space keeps e container loupe alive. It may not produce but it was so pretty and all of the sudden it wasn't. I'd like to keep it pretty at least for another 6 weeks. 

Today's harvest. B-E-A-utiful!

Time After Time

Progression of Gardens...

Over the past few weeks the hot long day plants have been growing wild. I made a point of capturing all the stages of those plants (and others) because there growth has been so obvious and so quick. The raised cantaloupe and watermelon bed started with two 3 inch cantaloupe plants that shot up covered two four foot trellises and kept going. It finally started to fruit at the beginning of last week and boy is it fruiting we have at a least 6 viable melons of all different sizes. My sweet potato slips started off slow finally grew into slips and were transferred with a disappointing "death" and revival. The leaves came in two weeks ago and in the last week the two plants, that I didn't yank out because I thought they were dead, have grow six plus inches in vines. The watermelon container started off slow and didn't grow for weeks then it doubled in size and Tripled and quadrupled all over the bamboo trellis until it started fruiting. When it started fruiting all of the little melons were shriveling up and dying except one. Finally, we got a second one a week ago and now the plant has grown 6-8 inches of vine that I've had to stake because the trellis is full. That vine has a third melon on it. It's tiny but you can tell It is viable and won't be shriveling like the others that have come since the first and second. 

Here is a little pictorial of the plants progression and current state...

First viable Bush Sugar Baby on the first week (L), the 2nd week (top R), and the 3rd week (bottom R). 

The Bush Sugar Baby plant when it was first transplanted from newspaper seedling pots to the recycling bin (L), it doubled in size after no sign of growth for 3 weeks (top R), and now it has covered the trellis and grown vines so long they needed to be staked (bottom R). 

Sweet potatoes over time. The slips finally came out after 8 weeks (L), I planted them in the beginning of the 9th week and the shriveled (top R), and now they are at least 6 inch long vines (bottom R). 

Cantaloupe bed first planted (L), a few weeks later the plants were half way up the two 4 feet tall trellises (top R), and now they are a few inches taller than the trellises (bottom R).  

Cantaloupe bed fruiting. All the different sizes of melons at different stages, currently on the vines. 

Transferred the Pepper Container...

Because the tomato plants have basically taken over all of the neighboring beds the only pepper plant that was doing extremely well was the pepper container. Today I decided that since a bunch of the plots in Patch were now empty that I would transfer the container pepper to give it the space to grow. I took a big chance by guessing that the roots had run out of space and the plant would plop out of the container as a whole. I was right it was like an oversized seedling pot. I turned it over pulled it out and replanted it in the PM raised bed. I watered it with some sea magic and am hoping we get some good sun, which we did today despite the initial clouds dissipated, so that gets the long hot days it needs during this tender time.

Transplanted pepper plant. I thought I had a full photo of it in the container but I didn't, all I had is the top right image of the peppers that started there growth in the container 2 weeks ago. Part of why I thought it needed more space was that the peppers grew quickly then stopped just like my cantaloupe container. 

Melon Baby

Cantaloupe...

The cantaloupes in the raised bed are finally starting to grow in, there are at least 3 of all different sizes. One is flat which is really weird but I'm excited because these should grow to full size. The ones in the container haven't grown for weeks so I picked the smaller of the two so that all the energy went into to growing one. I didn't expect any so getting 2 is amazing and 1 good would would be a miracle considering how small the container is.

Picked container cantaloupe.

Interior of container cantaloupe. 

A second watermelon was hiding under all of the leaves. Pulled it out so that it could get sun. The yellow on the right is where it was touching the ground. 

Fuzzy Tiger

Held Hostage...

When I see an insect that scares me I always freeze up, especially when I'm inside. I am terrified of caterpillars. When I was 4 I went to NCRC a beautiful mansion transformed into a preschool with expansive grounds covered in blackberry trees and caterpillar nests. I used to like the little gypsy moth larvae they entertained me up until that faithful day when one fell on my tennis shoe and I froze. It was the first occurrence of me freezing at the sight of these fuzzy creatures and I didn't know what to do. I felt like I couldn't pick him off, even though I held them all the time up until then, and started shaking my foot. The thing was stuck. I started to panic and shook harder and harder with a final dramatic fling and I'm sure eminent death. Since then I've been phobic when it comes to any caterpillars so when I intended to check on container drive this morning and saw a fuzzy brown caterpillar sitting in the middle of the walk, my only path, I froze. I felt like I was being held hostage. I couldn't walk over to the drive and I didn't want to let him out of my sight for fear that he'd find his way inside or into my plants where he'd "get me" later. So I stood there frozen thinking of how to get rid of him. Finally I saw the yard stick and grabbed it. I slowly approached the fuzzy worm with the stick and pushed him a bit to see if he would attempt a mad dash. He didn't. I actually think he was dead; dropped by some evil bird to frighten me. After pushing him around for another second or two to check the status of life I chopped him. Guts shot out so I felt comfortable that he was dead and flung him, with the stick, under the table where he'd shrivel and disappear out of sight. 

I moved into container drive slowly, just in case more were about. I checked the containers then ran inside. I was still too thoroughly creeped out to stay out. When I got inside I looked up "brown fuzzy caterpillar" and got "wooly bear", a lot, which was incorrect but then I found out that it was a garden tiger moth larva. Gross! I'm starting to think that gardens attract too many gross worm varieties for my particular phobia. 

Garden tiger moth or some other variety of tiger moth larva.

Eggplant grew another inch overnight. 

Darker and darker! This sugar baby should be ready in a couple weeks! 

Pepino

Ripe for the picking...

I went out early this morning to try with the squash again but it was overcast and sunny in short intervals so the flowers weren't open again. I looked around the bottom after giving up on stigma rubbing and noticed that the crookneck plants are taking over the patty-pan space and some of the space in the cantaloupe bed. We do have some nice medium crooknecks growing so some cross-pollination is taking place between the crookneck flowers but the patty-pan has not only been invaded but hasn't grown anymore fruit, at all. 

After checking on the squash I went over to Container Drive to check on the watermelon, cucumbers, eggplant, strawberries, and peppers. I looked into the cucumber container and saw a medium size cuc was ready for the picking. For some reason I shuffled the leaves and an enormous cucumber popped into vision. I was amazed. The container is half the size recommended for growing cucumbers but keeps producing and produced a cucumber more like the store sized ones. I picked it, it was ready and took them inside. After that I went back pick a strawberry and took a few pictures of the progressing melon and eggplant. 

Since it's been sunny and extremely hot the last two days I decided to water everything with sea magic and spray the foliage. I made a gallon of sea magic mix in a pitcher for the spray bottle and made 6 gallons of sea magic in the water can (at separate times). I watered and sprayed everything then went inside to shower. After my shower I took out the ripening tomatoes I picked yesterday and snap a flick of the last two days hull. Our harvests are looking better and better. We would have had more tomatoes today if I was scared to pick them because of the hornworm. I even had a nightmare about it. Ugh! 

2 days worth of harvest. 

Our first eggplant has grown almost an inch each day for the last 3 days. 

Largest cucumber, yet, peeled and chopped. 

Watermelon 5 inches wide and 4 long. It's starting to really weigh down the branch. It probably weighs 2.5lbs. 

Picture Update July 13 2013

Picking fruit...

I've done little gardening these last few days because of the rain. We had one of the worst and longest storms we've had in almost ever, the other previous night. I did get out with enough time to pick the ripe tomatoes in the container, some berries, and another cucumber. I'm so glad that the 8G container was slow. It's slowness allows us to have some dries because the other containers are not really producing any longer, least of all the Topsy. What a waste. 

Cantaloupe melons.

Strawberries in 8G container.

Super chili hot peppers 

Bush Sugar Baby turning black. 

Tomatoes picked from container. 

Salad Lunch

Tomato Salad Lunch...

This afternoon was overcast due to the expected rain but I went out to check on everything anyway. There was a cucumber that promised to be ready soon and I wanted to check on the ripening tomatoes. It seems like the only tomatoes that have shown any color, minus the ones in the container in Patch, are the ones touching the ground in some way and those have been getting ripped open, eaten in parts, or rotted from touching the ground. So I wanted to make sure I got any ripe ones out of there before that happened. It turns out I was too late for all except one. It was perfectly red and ripe with not a rip or bite to be seen. I grabbed it and two more that weren't ripe enough yet but would get torn to shreds if I didn't pick them and I grabbed to onions that were poking out of the ground. They were the perfect pearls. Then I went over to the cucumber container to find two beautiful cucumbers. One was still a little spiked so I left it to grow for another day or two. The other was the longest cucumber we've had yet and ready to eat. I took my soon to be salad inside and washed everything off. Then I grabbed a cutting board and started chopping. I took pictures along the way... When I was done with my salad I was so psyched. I had such a sense of accomplishment. With all the disappointment from the rainy summer I never thought I would get to make lunch from the veggies I'd worked so hard to grow and picked a few minutes before. The salad was amazing and even mo amazing was the way I felt about it. I really am proud of what I've done. I hope they'll be more salads in my future but if there aren't this ONE was worth it all. 

Veggies and fruits before there swift chopping. All the ingredients I used in the salad minus spices.

Cross section of the tomato and pearl onion. 

Ingredients chopped and ready to mix in a bowl with olive oil and red wine vinegar. 

After lunch...

I not back out and took a few pictures of the other goodies growing steadily...

First sizable watermelon in the container. It's almost doubled in size since I first noticed it a few days ago. 

Large ripe strawberry in the 8G container. I'll pick it tomorrow. 

Red super hot peppers starting to get bigger in container. Still light enough to grow straight up. No color on any yet. 

A Pregnant Girls Dream

Pickles and Watermelons...

I went out to check on things just briefly because it threatened to be a bad stormy day. I picked a few strawberries. Tried putting up some more fencing and noticed that in "container drive" things were finally starting to set fruit. The pickles and watermelons are finally coming in. The watermelons are much further behind but you can see those little striped rounds starting to form. It's pretty amazing. I didn't know if either would set any fruit at all. 

So excited! 

The little fuzzy striped ball is the first stage of fruit growth for the bush sugar baby. 

A baby that I found, fallen off. See the stripes? 

A bush cucumber, the first one. The one that looks the most like a cuc but I think it looks like a pickle more.

Second cucumber a little further behind and a little weirder looking. 

WATCH! Fruit Set

Fruit Setting...

When I first started my garden I didn't quite know what all the references meant when they said "fruit set" which caused me anxiety to no end. Things change when fruit starts to set in... I could of guessed that it was when the fruit started to grow but I didn't know what point in there growth was true setting. So now that I do know and can tell you that it means when the flowers start to turn I wanted to show you. 

All of our plants are at "fruit set" or have been "setting" for awhile now. 

How does your Garden Grow

In the HEAT!

The plants have absolutely boomed. I was 1000% right. The heat has changed the garden completely over the last 4 days, for the better. 

Tomato Plants...

The tomato-berry plant that didn't grow one inch taller for two months has grown about a foot in height and has put on about 4 more blossoms. Mr S. pointed it out to me and I was shocked. It's completely shot up. 

The first tomato in the far right and front plot has doubled in size and all of the tomato plants are breaking out of there tepee stakes. I had no idea they would get so big and be so strong. The tomato plant in the back, on the right, has completely cured itself. It use to had rust and now its a beautiful vibrant green and large plant. The tomato that was taken down by my wooden "Charlie brown" box trellis has overcome its shock and grown about 4 inches in width along with all the rest. It's amazing, truly. 

Plants are so big there breaking the tepees. 

Carrots...

The Danver126 carrot plants have shot up in part I'm sure to the thinning and most of all because of the heat. They are at least 3 inches taller and much fuller. The red core Chantenay's are doing the same. They haven't grown as tall as the Danvers but they are filling out and looking lush. I think the red cores needed the warmth but don't have the same properties a the Danvers. I specifically chose Danver126 carrots because they are one of the few varieties that likes the warm/hot weather opposed to the usual  cool/warm weather carrots enjoy. So it makes sense that the Danvers are thriving just a little more. 

Seascape Strawberries...

The 5G strawberry bucket, the container I thought was a dud, is doing better than the rest. Te plants are at least a foot tall, the berries are bigger and closer to being ripe enough to pick, and there are at least another 20 flower buds ready to bloom on top of the 30 strawberries already growing. It's unbelievable because it was the slowest to start but has changed so quickly and surpasses the rest. 

The 8G bucket is just doing okay. It has a few strawberries but the plants are much shorter and the berries much slower. They'll definitely produce a few tasty morsels but I don't think I'll be getting a pint from each of the 4 plants in that container. I may be wrong like I was with the 5G container but its doubtful. They should have rooted and strengthened and started to grow, in height at least, by now. 

On the other hand, the Topsy Turvy is doing very well. It has at least 20 berries growing at the moment and another handful of buds in the waiting. The plants are about 10-12 inches tall and the berries are big. Not quite as big as the 5G bucket just yet but big enough. The Topsy Turvy has finally found a stable spot. The hook is holding and the plants seem to thrive from that and the heat. 

I wouldn't be surprised if I was eating my first berry by Weds. of next week. 

Biggest berry in the 5G bucket.

Bush Sugar Baby...

I planted the watermelon plants in the recycling bin container a few weeks ago and like the tomato-berry plant the little seedling hasn't grown almost at all since the transfer. I was worried that I had shocked them or that the day of chilly weather had stunted them permanently. That wasn't the case though they needed that long hot day heat just like Smart Gardener said they would. The watermelon plants have absolutely tripled in size. They have four huge leaves that were not there Sunday. The heat has awakened them and they are ready to work. It's great. That's really all I can say. I've been looking forward to eating two main items from my garden; watermelon and strawberries. So I'm excited to see that they are finally moving. 

Original size at transplant and for the few weeks after.

Size after 4 hot long days. Still looked like the above on Sunday. 

Cucurbits...

The patty-pan and crookneck squash plants are doing pretty well they aren't in the best spot for there needs. The raised bed tends to become completely shaded after about high noon. So they haven't gotten to enjoy the hot days as much a the other plants but they are still thriving. The patty-pan plant has 4 new squash blossoms. The left-back crookneck has 2 yellow baby squash on it that have grown about a quarter of an inch and the front-right crookneck has new blossoms and one baby squash growing. So they are doing well but would be doing better had they been able to enjoy the direct sun more. 

The cantaloupe in the container had grow significantly in width and height and has 3 new blossoms on it. The cantaloupe still in the Bonnie store containers need to be planted, desperately need it. They have blossomed and grown and I'm sure there running out of room but the bed they were supposed to be in has an enormous amount of grass growing in it. Way more than that of the problematic squash bed. That's why we haven't transferred but need to.

Left-back crookneck plant.

Cucumber flowers. 

Everything Else...

Everything else is growing well and has loved the heat. Even the lettuce and spinach have remained crisp and are standing tall. The sweet potato plants in Potagar are doing amazingly but the ones I planted in Patch yesterday don't seem to be doing that hot. They were all wilted and dead looking when I went to water them today which is weird because sweet potato plants absolutely love the heat. They were the plant that required the latest transfer date. So I don't know if it was the slips or the overbearing heat right at transfer but they aren't looking too hot. I hope they make it.

The lemon balm has doubled in width and is a beautiful shade a green with a beautiful fragrance. The basil is taller than ever and the green beans finally have beans forming. 

Slippery Roots

Planting Slips...

I went outside this morning and thoroughly watered everything. It was unbelievably hot out and the plants needed the max amour of water they could take for the week. Watering was not much easier today with the hose because I had to unroll it and only water the roots. If you water the plants leaves in very high sun and heat the leaves can burn. The entire plant can burn. So I made sure to water very carefully at the base at each plant and around the soil. Once I was done with that I filled up the watering can and walked into PM and watered everything liberally at the roots. I then went back to refill the watering can, another 2 gallons, and saw that the roots on the slips had developed a little but the leaves were dying so I decided to plant them. Mostly because I didn't think they would produce great roots for much longer without completely dying out. So I grabbed the glass and went into PM with the slips, shovel, watering can, and basket. I planted the 4 of 5 slips that had roots, a bit. I figure since people plant slips without rooting them first that mine will make it especially since they have a few nice and thick roots already starting. The raised bed in Patch is officially filled except for the one little, very little, strip plot which I'll fill with radishes. I had but they didn't germinate. I filled the watering can once more and watered the spinach, watermelon bin, cucumbers, and seedlings yet to be planted then I went inside becAuse the heat was unbearable. The garden will look completely different at the end of this heat wave. It won't really end because we're about to be in June but it will go down to the high 80's put of the mid-90's and the garden will have flourished. Already is...

Potagar Patch- Video Update

Written...

I went out this morning to check on everything after the wind and cold and things were pretty good but not great. The wooden tomato cage I built was blown over and took the tomato with it. The cantaloupe plants that were in the greenhouse were completely wilted from the chill and the one planted was too. As the sun warmed up things got better and Mr. S. rebuilt the wooden cage so that it was sturdier and not, as he called it, so Charlie Brown. Other than that I didn't do much gardening because I wanted the sun to just warm everything back up. It rained last night so no watering was necessary and even if it hadn't rained I wouldn't have watered because that would have slowed the soil warming process. I thought the strawberries would be affected but they weren't, they are looking so amazing. I have at least 6 sizable berries and 25 small berries that look like they'll become sizable. I have about 50 flowers that should become berries. It's amazing! I took video of it all for you to see.

Video Update...

The video upload button isn't working so you'll have to click the link below to watch on YouTube...UGH!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLT46uNoBYY

Video Patch

Video Update 3...

I promised you guys a video update of everything so here it is. How everything from the spinach container, to the radishes, to the melons in the greenhouse are doing! And how long they've been doing it! 

Seedling and Test Updates

Update...

Sorry, I've been sick since my birthday so I haven't been able to catch you guys up on the goings on of Patch or Potagar Schoultz. So I decided to do a real test update as my first entry back. The last time I wrote I talked about the weird occurrence in the green bean and spinach patches. Nothing has happened like that since. I have since planted the tomatoes, basil, and lemon balm. A few of my tests and crops have come to life too.

Mesclun Mix: Planted on April 16 and germinated April 17. Half of the seeds were soaked and half came straight from the packet. The primed half germinated after 15 hours and the control group after about 36 hours. They'll need a lot of thinning but have been growing healthfully since planting. The roots appeared mid-prime. I planted the primed seeds just by making sure the roots were finally covered with compost.

Planted April 9 and now about 4 inches tall and ready to transplant when the weather cooperates. This pot had 4 primed seeds only one germinated but it is the tallest and best looking so far.

Primed lemon balm seeds planted on April 9 and germinated about 6 days later. Now we know they made it into the cup. 

Planted, uprooted, and replanted from April 16-17. The uprooting has not slowed there germination and priming the seeds has sped it by a few days since they have started to sprout as of today April 21.

Control and scarified watermelon seeds planted on April 9 have started to germinate 12 days later. Scarifying the seed seems to have made no difference in time and they took longer than the primed seeds to sprout. Although they did not move out of place like the first bunch. Priming may make seeds a bit lighter.

Seascapes have doubled in size in the last 10 days and are starting to show signs of blossoms.