Tag Archives: cantaloupe

Home Sweet Cincinnati

As much as a long drive home can be boring, tedious, and literally painful, I always love when you get the first glimpse of “home.” Whether it’s a familiar highway exit, a “Welcome to ___” sign or, in our case, a view of the city skyline, there’s always something special that signifies what’s near and dear. Tom and I even went out of our way (kind of) to make sure we crossed the Ohio River to catch this glimpse of the skyline – we both agreed it was more eventful than taking the back-roads route home.

When we got home, I was excited to find that my veggie garden seems to be picking up. It’s the end of August and I’ve only harvested 2 cucumbers and 1 lonely little strawberry!But I was able to pick this assortment this week:

Yep, that’s a cantaloupe! I don’t think it’s quite ripe yet, but I’ll give it a couple of days on my kitchen counter and hopefully it will be ripe enough to eat! I can’t remember what type of tomatoes those are. I thought the smaller two were Romas, but they might just be some kind of salad tomato. I think the larger two are Brandywines. My notes got all jumbled when I transferred my seedlings into the ground. I’ll have to do a better job of tagging my plants next year!

What do you have planned for your weekend? I think I’ll be making some kind of tomato salad. And hopefully enjoying some fresh cantaloupe!

(You can follow me on Instagram @onuwriter06)

Wild Thing

After 7 weeks, it has become pretty clear that I did not give my garden enough space. While my father has always told me that plants grow better when they’re closer together, I think my makeshift square-foot method was too close.

Case in point:

It’s outta control!

The zucchini squash and cantaloupe in front have just started growing under the netting fence. Due to some recent rough winds from a storm, the tomatoes are all leaning precariously forward. The netting fence doesn’t seem to be doing much good at this point! Although maybe it’s keeping the deer and rabbits at bay? I’ve seen plenty of each in our yard, but none of the plants appear to be chewed up or missing from our garden (would I even notice at this point? If they were just nibbling here and there??)

Oh well, even it if looks a bit unruly, the veggies are growing! Tomatoes are cropping up, a few cucumbers are tucked under the leaves, and, what I’m most excited about… a cantaloupe! A baby melon on the vine!

Wahoooooo! I rationalized that if I got one edible melon out of this plant, it’ll have paid for itself, haha!

It’s Aliiiiiiiiive!

Thought I’d share another update on our veggie garden! It’s been 5 weeks since we planted our garden, and things are literally bursting at the seams!

The squash is like the vegetable version of the Incredible Hulk – see how the leaves are squished up against the netting!! But no zucchinis to eat yet.

I have a tendency to make a lot of impulse purchases from the veggie, fruit and herb section at Lowe’s. Weird, I know. I guess it could be worse. This summer’s impulse buy was 1 tiny cantaloupe in a 3-inch pot. Fast-forward 5 weeks and it has completely consumed the left-hand side of the bed. It’s growing up the side of the netting and sending little shoots out that grasp onto anything within reach – zucchini stems, the tomato plants, etc. It’s threatening to overtake the strawberry plant behind it, but I’m keeping it in check with my handy dandy clippers! I think this means I’d better create a more solid plan before I plant next year’s veggies!

 

My 4 cucumber plants have a lot of small shoots on them, and one in particular is starting to look like an actual cucumber! Hopefully it’ll be ready to harvest soon!

I also noticed a few tomatoes hiding among the leaves…

I definitely waited a little too long to transplant my veggies – I know a lot of people have been harvesting for a few weeks now. But maybe this means we’ll be reaping in fresh produce into the fall months!

Vegging Out – Part II

I have finally taken the leap & planted my veggies in the ground! Eek! I know it sounds silly, but this was kind of a big deal for me, mostly because I have an uneasy feeling that every deer within a 10 mile radius is going to feast like there’s no tomorrow. And I’ll be left with a bed full of half-chewed leaves.

But anyways, let’s get to how it went down. First, I chose the area that I wanted to use, then Tom & I cleared it. I loosely referenced square-foot gardening guides, and decided to try a 3×6 area:

clearing the future garden space of leftover straw from the grass seeding

Tom used the end of a shovel to section off the area, and then we began digging up the grass. We added 4 bags of topsoil and mixed in 1 bag of manure. We bought the cheapest topsoil and manure we could find at Lowe’s (the brand is Gardener’s Pride). Once it was spread around to our satisfaction, we drew 1×1 foot lines in the soil with the edge of our shovel so I could break down plant placement within each square.

1×1 foot sections — ready for planting!

I lined up my plants, and once they were in the right spot, in the ground they went! Here’s a shot of the final product (before we draped them in netting to keep the critters out):

the finished product

I won’t insult your design-savvy eyes with the rudimentary Microsoft Word table I drew of the bed plantings. Just know that I have it for reference 🙂  Hopefully, in the next few weeks, we’ll be reaping in crops of tomatoes, green bell peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, cantaloupe and strawberries!

Have you ever tried square-foot gardening? What was your experience like?