stubbed toes and mud pies

[flowerbug]

i never did get some fresh beans picked. waylaid by other tasks...

i did pick some melons again today. two larger ones and three small ones that were turning color. so that answers my question about if the small ones would grow bigger or not. the larger melons were better and one of them was wedged between rocks and the stem even came off when i tried to pull it out. so it was ripe. flavor was edible and better than the smaller melons which were ok, but watery more than sweet. still ok to eat. about five more melons on the plants yet to pick, a few should be ready when we finish eating these up. mostly smaller ones now and i think one larger one.

i think most of the watery flavor was because of lack of sunshine, a lot of rains and not as many leaves left on the plants so not as many sugars available to go into the melons.

bean picking, drying and shelling is going ok.

project almost done. maybe i can finish it today.

 

[digitS']

The first Gris de Rennes melon came home with us, yesterday.

It had begun to change color and the stem came off when I tried to cut it. The melon certainly smells good. There is cantaloupe in the fridge and, this morning, I've already eaten some of that twice. There are a few more on the deck but I will cut into the Gris as soon as there is a fridge vacancy.

This is very close to the end of the melon season. The 3 late Gris should have some time to ripen.

I'm overwhelmed with tomatoes. The beefsteak varieties have just begun to ripen and DW sliced several different ones for an attractive plate of them for dinner. I will put a picture of one of the baskets of cherries on @Zeedman 's thread when we have some decent light. Maybe the smoky grey sky will be okay ...

There is no way that a picture of the beefsteaks can amaze anyone. They range from about 6 to 8 ounces with a few, a little larger. This size isn't really substandard for my tomato patch. What is so different is how late those plants are. It's as if the huge number of fruit slowed them ... I wonder if I can claim to have learned that on @so lucky 's thread. Want them early - thin or just wait.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

feels so good to have this mostly done at last...

Garden Tasks | Anthive

Things of interest that have happened or gotten done around here...

www.anthive.com

 

[flowerbug]

@digitS' i'm not sure how long they keep, but supposedly a few days after picking in the fridge after cutting up they say three days is it, but we've not ever had any last that long here. since Mom likes them cut up i do that for her.

i haven't had any melon yet today. i have hardly eaten anything at all. i'm about to warm up some macaroni and tomato juice.

 

[flowerbug]

quite the comparison to before and after, but to show the difference between the pea gravel and the limestone it would have been nice had been a sunny day today, but that might happen tomorrow or Monday...

cost in new materials? $0 everything used was already on site.

all the pea gravel used was removed from another garden, the added chunks of drain tube were removed from that garden and then all the surrounding pea gravel was moved. wood was either buried or cut up and will be used for something else.

hours of labor? hahahahahaha!

 

[digitS']

I thought that it would be ugly-when-ripe!

It was fully ripe ... and, very fragrant and sweet. Very nice! Ripe by 11 September might work. I'll be watching (and sniffing at) the other 3. It would be a shame if they over-ripen!

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

View attachment 36953

I thought that it would be ugly-when-ripe!

It was fully ripe ... and, very fragrant and sweet. Very nice! Ripe by 11 September might work. I'll be watching (and sniffing at) the other 3. It would be a shame if they over-ripen!

Steve

looks very good to me! we just had a bowl of melon here. i think i will have to check tomorrow to see what might be ready. not sure if one of my brothers likes melon but i'll give him some seeds if he'd like some to give to his friends and to plant himself, but he doesn't have that much sun where he's at so it may not work for him to try to grow them, but he does have a lot of friends to pass the seeds around to... heehee... evil plan to take over the world with melon seeds is progressing...

 

[flowerbug]

as i was taking pics the other week i also took a quick few shots of the irish moss bit that i rescued last year (after trying to get rid of it thinking it might be an invasive weed i didn't want in the creeping thyme). so i moved it after i determined that i really did want to keep it around. so then it survived the winter (the first important test of any plant here).

early this spring.

looks like a little green volcano now.

closer...

for full sized images links are on the project page:

Mosses and Others | Anthive

Interesting other plants...

www.anthive.com

 

[flowerbug]

a few selected squash pictures.


the varigated/mixed color type:

and the baby blue hubbards, if these are babies i don't want to meet the parents!

Edibles | Anthive

Some of the tasty treats from the gardens...

www.anthive.com

 

[flowerbug]

yesterday i cleaned up and baked all the little squash we had, several were at the yellow inside stage and not really even worth the effort so those are in the scrap bucket and will get buried today.

i was not impressed with the buttercup variety we tried this year, but we'll give it one more try next year before letting it go. to me the taste and texture were more like an acorn squash than the buttercup (perhaps it crossed with acorn squash) i was expecting and while that was edible it wasn't what i was hoping for...

i still haven't cooked up any of the hubbards - i hope they age well.

otherwise things are fairly normal here, other than the big hail storm we had and cleaning up that mess in the garage, it has been routine, drying beans, shelling beans, etc. i finished up the last picking of beans in getting them shelled but they do need to dry some more before they get sorted the first time. keeping on top of shelling and getting the pods buried in the gardens has kept my room fairly organized for a change. i like having a bit more space like this. i can do some more cleaning and organizing tomorrow if i remember (there's a better chance i'll be doing something else... )...