Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you well. It has been very dry here and we finally received 1 1/2″ of rain a few days ago. I was very thankful there wasn’t much wind so the sweet corn didn’t blow over. I was prepared, though, because it always happens this time of the year. Just when i start picking corn… The rows have been hilled to the max so I would have plenty of dirt when I need it. Hilling also helps keep it standing to a point, but in high winds it will blow over anyway. The above photo and the one below  were taken on July 13… The ‘Silver Queen’ on the right was planted on May 23 and has been tasseling for a week or so. The beginning ear leaves are coming out closer to the top of the plant than with ‘Incredible’ (right side). There are four double rows of each variety 25′ long (or so). They look very happy.

The above photo is a view from the northeast corner.

On Friday May 14, I had been working in Clinton. I knew there was a storm on the way, and it wasn’t going to be good. Rain wasn’t all that was coming and the sky was telling the tale. I got home and was getting ready to take a nap when the phone rang. The preacher called and asked if I could pick up a lady and her daughter from the ER because he was out of town. I had to drive back to Clinton to to pick them up and bring them back to Windsor where they lived. I was happy to do but I checked the weather first. The weather channel indicated the storm wasn’t going to hit until 7 PM, so I thought I could get there and back by then. After I was on the highway about 5 miles, I didn’t believe the Weather Channel… The wind picked up about 8 miles from Clinton then it POURED!!! The pickup was blowing all over the highway and at times I couldn’t even see the lines on the road. A;; I could think about was the sweet corn. By the time I got to the ER the rain and died down to a sprinkle, but just as I pulled on the highway it hit again. It poured all the way back to Windsor and only died down once the we got into town.

When I came home, I drove by the garden and it didn’t look so bad. But, the wind and rain weren’t over yet…

The rain and wind finally stopped at 8 PM so I went to have a look. GEEZ!!! The ‘Silver Queen’ at around 8′ tall got the worse end of the deal.

The above photo is the dividing line between the ‘Silver Queen’ and ‘Incredible’.

This is a view from the front of the ‘Incredible’. Not near as bad… I had to wait until the next day to stand the corn back up because the ground was so muddy.

On May 15, I went to the garden and stood the corn back up. It took over and hour but all was well. It would have made a great new post about standing corn back up. The first one, “How Does Corn Stand Back Up”, was published on July 1 in 2017 and has had 3039 views so far. It is still getting a lot of views… July 1 in 2020 was the worse when “The Day After: A Miracle?” was published.

Sunday, July 16… Another severe storm is on the way. I think it was about 30 minutes before it was supposed to hit, so I went to the garden to work on the tomato vines. Some of them were getting carried away and needed to have their support tended to.

Bush Green Bean ‘Provider’ on 7-16-23.

The ‘Tendergreen’ and Contender’ Green Beans have been a disappointment 4 double rows 25′ or so long only produced 7 quarts of green beans after several pickings. Even though I watered them every 2-3 days (one night I forgot to turn the water off), the heat and hot wind caused the flowers to abort and fall off. Of course, the watering helped knock off the flowers as well. I had picked a few ‘Provider’ green beans but they were just getting started. While I was standing the corn up next to them I noticed I needed to get busy picking them. I picked A LOT! I wound up with a full 6-quart stock pot to put in the freezer.

Sweet Corn ‘Silver Queen’ on 7-16-23.

I was thinking about picking more sweet corn, but the weather had other plans… I went ahead and took more photos after I was finished with the tomatoes.

Watermelon ‘Sugar Baby’ on 7-16-23.

The Watermelon ‘Sugar Baby’ are doing well. The above photo is the biggest one. I like everything BIG, so I surprised myself by planting small watermelons. I planted them late, but I think they will be fine. They seem to be growing fast.

Tomato ‘Goliath’ on 7-16-23.

The ‘Goliath’ tomato plants are growing fast as usual. I like ‘Goliath’ for the size of their fruit and because I like to watch them grow.

Tomato ‘Goliath’ on 7-16-23.

They grow big clusters of HUGE tomatoes. No problems with army worms “yet”.

Tomato ‘German Johnson’ on 7-16-23.

The Tomato ‘German Johnson’ have been one of my favorite for big tomatoes with a great old fashioned flavor.

Tomato ‘Celebrity’ on 7-16-23.

Of course, I planted ‘Celebrity’ which seems to always do well and tastes very good, too.

Sweet Corn ‘Ambrosia’ on 7-16-23.

Ummm… The ‘Ambrosia’ has been so confusing this year. It was planted the same time as ‘Incredible’ on May 3 and it refused to grow (except on the other end). Corn can be weird, but I have never seen anything like it. It was watered every 2-3 days for 2-4 hours, was fertilized twice, and it has just baffled me. The plants on the other end grew taller while most of it is 3-4 feet. It is supposed to be the same size as ‘Incredible’ like it was in 2021… Even so, I have somehow picked 22 ears, some not so good, but a few have been perfect. If you have grown ‘Ambrosia’, it can be confusing to know when the ears are ready. Yellow corn, like ‘Incredible’ (for example) have good sized ears (with the husks on) that feel nice and full. ‘Ambrosia’ isn’t like that. Even though the silk is dry and appears ready, they and much narrower. You will get fooled if you pass them by. So, you wait a few days and realize they were ready before. But, there are those ears you think are ready that are not. DOUBLE GEEZ! You can check by using your fingernails to open the wrapper leaves, but if the corn isn’t ready, the bugs get in and have an easy snack…

Sweet Corn ‘Ambrosia’ on 7-16-23.

Even the smaller stalks are trying very hard…

Pardon the grass… The grass and weeds have started growing since the rain.

So, around 1:30 when the last photo was taken, the wind was blowing and the storm was about to hit. At least that is what the radar showed when I went outside. One of those where we would be right in the middle of the “orange” when was heavy rain… As I was writing this post I was waiting for it to hit and go back out afterwards for a final photo for this post. The corn had already been whipping around and I was prepared to stand it back up again… But nothing happened. I checked the Weather Channel and the storm completely disappeared!

Well, it takes a while to write a post, so at 3, I had to go check the garden…

Hmmm… The sun was out…

Everything looks fine!

The corn is only slightly leaning….

WHEW! That was a close one. It amazes me how the storm vanished like that!

Now I can take a nap and maybe pick corn afterwards. I have already picked 91 ears…

Until next time, be safe, stay positive, and always be thankful. Get as dirty as you can, it will be OK. I know, because I have gotten plenty dirty this past week and I am feeling GREAT!

The garden from the southeast corner on 6-18-23.

Hello, everyone! I hope this post finds you well. I took photos for a garden update a few days ago, but I decided I would take a fresh batch on Sunday. Everything is growing quickly and doing very well for the most part.

We received 3/10 inch rain overnight and it was cloudy all day. These photos were taken from 1:27-1:34 PM. By early evening the sun was shining. There was more rain in the forecast a few days ago, but that has changed to sunny and 88-90° F through Friday. The intense sun causes the leaves to droop during the afternoon, but they perk back up once the sun goes behind the trees across the street. When the leaves don’t perk back up, I may have to water the next day (early evening). I don’t like to water when plants are in the sun, but I think that is just my preference. I have read the pros and cons of watering in the sun vs. early evening. Early morning could be better, but I am not an early riser…

Allium ampeloprasum var. ampeloprasum (Elephant Garlic) in the garden on 6-18-23.

The cluster of Elephant Garlic I planted a few years ago is spreading nicely. I really like it mainly for their flowers these days, but I do like using it in Italian cooking. I have A LOT in the flower bed on the south side of the house, so I will be saving some of the heads.

The row of tomatoes on 6-19-23.

The row of tomatoes is in the same row as the garlic and the asparagus is at the end…

One of the tomatoes on 6-18-23.

The tomatoes are doing GREAT for the most part. There are a couple that are kind of spindly for some reason. They are blooming up a storm and there are a few small tomatoes. Several years ago I read that tomatoes like growing in the same place year after year so that is what I have done. I think in 2014 I put them in a different area and they didn’t do so well. I was watching a video from Hoss Tools (they have A LOT of videos about gardening on YouTube) and he recommends changing locations because of soil-born diseases that affect tomatoes. I haven’t had any issues with diseases, so until I do I will keep putting them in the same location. Hoss is in a southern state and prefers growing determinate varieties over indeterminate varieties because they seem to provide better leaf coverage which prevents sun-scald. I remember when I grew tomatoes in Mississippi the flowers would fall off when it became very hot, then set flowers again once temps a little. That was frustrating because I would wind up with a lot of green tomatoes at the end of the season. My neighbor, who was also a gardener, put the green tomatoes in paper bags in a cooler where they would ripen. I set a lot of them on windowsills and they would ripen but they didn’t have much flavor…

Green Bean ‘Contender’ on 6-18-23.

I kind of screwed up when I planted the green beans which won’t happen again… I plant the sweet corn 36″ apart and normally do the same with green beans. For some reason I decided 30″ was enough between the green beans. I can barely get the tiller between the rows… That’s not really a big problem since once the garden has been tilled a few times the weeds and grass kind of stop growing between the rows. That is especially true this year with the lack of rain. If you look at the second group of beans in the back half of the garden, you can see a whacky problem… It isn’t really a problem but tilling took a bit of maneuvering.

Green Bean ‘Contender’ on 6-18-23.

The ‘Contender’ green beans are shorter and the flowers are growing under the leaves for the most part. The plants are still growing as well, so I will have to hunt for beans when I pick them.

Bush Green Bean ‘Tendergreen’ on 6-18-23.

The ‘Tendergreen’ plants are taller and still growing. Soon, all the green beans will fill the gaps between the rows. At least that’s what usually happens with ‘Top Crop… As the plants continue to grow, the vines get heavy with beans, and the wind blows, harvesting can become interesting…

So, looking at the second half of the garden you can see the fourth row of sweet corn (from left to right) matches up between the rows of green beans… I planted the second planting of corn 36″ apart, as usual, but they don’t line up with the green beans which are 30″ apart. Plus, I planted the greens beans from right to left, while the sweet corn was planted from left to right. Maybe I should say east to west and west to east… I noticed this when I was planting the corn but I couldn’t very well do anything about it. I pointed that out to my son when he was here and he said no one will notice but you. Hmmm… Anyone who sees it could tell something is off. Maybe they think I did it on purpose. Normally, everything I do is straight or level, so this is way off for me.

Bush Green Bean ‘Tendergreen’ on 6-18-23.

The ‘Tendergreen’ produces these “runners” above the plants where the flowers are produced. This should prove interesting making me wonder how many flowers will fall off in the breeze and rain (or watering). Heat will cause a lot of flowers to abort anyway. I am quite sure there will be plenty…

Watermelon ‘Sugar Baby’ on 6-18-23.

The ‘Sugar Baby’ watermelons are coming along but they are quite small. I need to how between the hills…

Watermelon ‘Sugar Baby’ on 6-18-23.

The package of watermelon seeds says to sow a “few seeds” over a hill 9-12″ tall and 2′ across. When plants are 3″ tall, thin to cutting to 3 plants per hill… Hmmm…  I’ll admit I haven’t planted many watermelons. I think I did get planting the seeds 1/2″ deep right. 9-12″ tall hills?!?!

Sweet Corn ‘Ambrosia’ on 6-18-23.

In my opinion, this planting of ‘Ambrosia’ has been a little weird. The seeds were planted at the same time as ‘Incredible’ but they haven’t grown as well. Maybe they need more fertilizer…

Sweet Corn ‘Ambrosia’ beginning to tassel on 6-18-23.

The taller plants of both varieties are starting to tassel and…

Sweet Corn ‘Ambrosia’ on 6-8-23.

The ears are starting to develop. Since most of the corn came up a week (or so) late because of lack of moisture, I may have to do some hand-pollinating.

Sweet Corn ‘Incredible’ on 6-18-23.

Here you can see the ‘Incredible’ looks much better. The ‘Ambrosia’ and ‘Incredible’ need to be hilled up and de-suckered again. I should write a post about that… Sweet corn needs to be hilled up especially if you have nice loose soil…

Sweet Corn ‘Incredible’ on 6-18-23.

One of the stalks of ‘Incredible’ has striped leaves. I noticed several when I thinned the ‘Silver Queen’.

Sweet Corn ‘Silver Queen’ on 6-18-23.

That’s the way it should look! It rained the day after the ‘Silver Queen’ was planted, so germination was perfect and the corn emerged evenly.

Bush Green Bean ‘Provider’ on 6-18-23.

Double oops! The ‘Provider’ green beans… They came up just fine and are doing GREAT. You know, when you look down the middle of two rows it looks like the plants are smaller at the end and the row becomes narrower. It is the same when you look at a street with a row of buildings on both sides of the street. It is a matter of perspective… In this case, the two rows are definitely closer toward the end because that’s the way I had to plant them. Somewhere, somehow, a row was planted crooked… I couldn’t even get the tiller all the way through. I had to back it down as far as I could go then till forward. Now I have to hoe 6-8′. Once the beans grow and fill it will look normal. These beans need hilled…

Eggplant on 6-18-23.

I almost forgot about the eggplant! The two eggplants have grown A LOT in the past week. This one has a flower…

I noticed a peanut hull in the garden this past week I thought was really strange. Half of the hull was in front of the green beans and the other half was between the tomatoes and the fence. Where in the heck it came from is a mystery… There were also rabbit tracks along the west side of the garden. I haven’t seen a rabbit here since last year. Rabbits don’t last long around here because of the foxes, hawks, and cats.

There’s always something to do in the garden every day. I am behind on re-potting the Alocasia, and I promised some of the succulents I would re-pot them as well. A weird thing happened with one of the Amorphophallus… One was starting to emerge and not the other when they usually emerge at the same time. I stuck my finger in the pot and didn’t feel anything, plus the Oxalis in the same pot weren’t coming up either… So, I decided to check out why.

I found the Amorphophallus and Oxalis rhizomes at the bottom of the pot like it had been knocked over and someone just tossed the dirt and everything in. The Amorphophallus had roots and it had sprouted… UPSIDEDOWN!

Well, that’s it for this post. Until next time, be safe, stay positive, always be thankful, and GET DIRTY!

Garden 2023 on 5-31-23.

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you well. I don’t know about you, but it seems summer is officially here in Missouri. I do like the way it cools off in the evening, though.

I am very thankful the riding mower didn’t break down like it did in 2022 before I was able to get the garden mowed off. That’s why there was no garden in 2022. If it is as dry all summer as it has been, the yard won’t get mowed that often this year.

I planted 4 double of ‘Incredible’ and 4 double rows of ‘Ambrosia’ on May 3. The rows are 25′ or so long and there is a 4′ space between the varieties. Well, let’s just say the space is not exactly straight for some weird reason. This is the first year I was able to get the garden all ready to plant in April. In fact, I think I tilled it twice in April when it is usually too wet until May. Since I use dad’s old rear tine Troy Built, the garden gets nice and fluffy and you have to wait a few days before it gets planted. Anyway, dad always said the ground needs to settle a little before planting, so I always thought it was best. A nice rain would have done the trick, but that didn’t happen. I went ahead and planted the corn on the 3rd with the old Garden Way seeder. I always complained about the way it planted corn… Sometimes the seed wouldn’t get in a hole and I would have to wait until it started coming up to know where to replant. In 2021 I decided the heck with the seeder and planted it by hand. Well, I still had to replant A LOT even though I put 2-4 seeds every 8″ apart. It was because the seed rotted for some reason… SO, this year I went back to the seeder, and if I noticed no seed was in the hole of the plate, I would put 2-3 in the hole. You also have to tilt the seeder somewhat. The soil was still so fluffy the wheels on the seeder left a kind of a trench. I didn’t water because rain was in the forecast…

As I mentioned in the last post, my sister and niece came to go plant shopping. Besides going to all three greenhouses here, we went to Clinton. Actually, I talked them into going because I needed green bean seed and I also wanted to buy seed for white sweet corn. Unfortunately, there was a crop failure of ‘Top Crop’ Green Beans so I had to settle for an alternate route… Normally, I would have brought home a pound of ‘Top Crop’ but I settled for 1/2# of ‘Contender’, ‘Provider’, and ‘Tendergreen’. Hmmm… I planted either ‘Contender’ or ‘Provider’ when I was in Mississippi because of crop failure, but I can’t remember which one. I could look back in the old photos to find out for sure, but what the heck. So, I bought all three varieties because that’s what they had that wasn’t white-seeded. So, I planted 2 double rows of ‘Contender’ and 2 double rows of ‘Tendergreen’ on May 8… The seed works wonderfully with the seeder. I decided I would wait to plant the ‘Provider’ until later so I wouldn’t have so many beans to pick all at once. The other reason was because I wasn’t so sure where I was going to plant them… I also bought a 1/2# ‘Silver Queen’ Sweet Corn…

Some of the corn had come up by the time I planted the beans, but most of it had just grown roots but seemed to be waiting for moisture.

I decided to give up on the weather, so on May 10 I watered down the rows of the sweet corn and green beans. The trenches made by the seeder worked great when I watered. I didn’t want to water the whole garden with the sprinkler, so I just drug the hose between the first two rows and watered the rows on each side. When I was finished with the first  2 rows, I drug the hose out, skipped a row, and repeated the process. The next afternoon, the rest of the corn was up! It was like a miracle!

Once the beans started popping up, I watered again and they were all up the next afternoon. I can honestly say, I have the best crop of corn and beans I have ever had without replanting.

I planted 4 double rows of the ‘Silver Queen’ Sweet Corn and 2 double rows of ‘Provider’ Green Beans on May 23. ‘Silver Queen’ is an SU variety so the seed is much larger than ‘Incredible’ and ‘Ambrosia’ which are SE varieties. It was a little more tricky to plant, so I had to make sure seed was in the hole of the seeder plate. The ‘Provider’ seed was also larger than the other two varieties. That night we were blessed with 9/10″ of rain.

On the 30th, I planted a few hills of  ‘Sugar Baby’ Watermelon. I checked, and the last planting of sweet corn and green beans was starting to come up. I watered again, and the next afternoon they were out of the ground. I planted ‘Sugar Baby’ Watermelon so I won’t be going through the ordeal I did with the ‘Black Diamond’ a few years ago. No getting excited about how big they are getting and screwing up to see when they are ripe. A friend of mine told me his neighbor grew these and they were great, so I thought I would give them a shot… It’s about a month late planting them, but I didn’t plan on growing any until I noticed a bare spot in the garden. 🙂

Of course, I have tomatoes. Four each of ‘Celebrity’, ‘German Johnson’, and ‘Goliath’. All I need is a few plants, but I always bring home too many. I can’t help myself! I also planted a couple of eggplants.

OH, I almost forgot to mention the new mole repellers… A few years ago, a rep from a pest repellant company in China sent me a couple of mole repellers if I would write a review for them. I agreed so he sent me two… After a few weeks, one quit working but the other one continued to work until last fall. There are A LOT of listing on Ebay, so I decided to buy a box of 4… I put 3 in the garden and one in the corner bed next to the house. One of the 3 in the garden works great and would get a 10 out of 10 rating (for now). One of the others in the garden gets a 3 out of 10, and the other one in the garden gets a 1 out of 10. The one in the corner bed gets a 0. There is a new mole run right next to it because it is so quiet! I checked it again yesterday and I think it has completely quit.  The old mole repeller came on at different intervals and stayed on at different intervals. The company said it was so the rodents wouldn’t get used to it. Well, now that theory has gone out the door. All the listings on Ebay and their website say they come on every 20 seconds and stay on for only a few seconds. Some of the reviews have a similar experience, especially if they buy more than one…

Ummm… Several weeks ago, well maybe earlier than that (like in April), I found Stouffer’s Eggplant Parmesan in the frozen section at the store. It was just enough for one meal and it was delicious. The next time I went, and every time thereafter, they didn’t have it. I even checked at Walmart… So, I decided to buy a couple of eggplants (actual plants) on May 5. I haven’t grown any since I lived in Mississippi, so it will be an experiment. I know they produce A LOT!

I already made my own Eggplant Parmesan… Despite I bought “an” eggplant before I found a recipe that called for three and didn’t buy another one for a week. I opted to make the recipe smaller, then wound up using 2 zucchini to replace the missing eggplant, had to go to the store to buy another jar of spaghetti sauce and another package of mozzarella cheese. It turned out YUMMYLICIOUS! I found out zucchini wasn’t a good substitute when baking with eggplant… The eggplant cooks MUCH FASTER than zucchini which stayed a little crunchy even after baking an additional 20 minutes. This recipe was quite a process and I took photos for a post along the way. I wrote a post and decided I better wait until I don’t use zucchini… The recipe is supposed to have a “crunch” to it, but not because of the half-done zucchini… You know what they say, FAIL means FIRST ATTEMPT IN LEARNING. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Before I wind up this post, I have to show a photo of the Strawflower…

Xerochrysum bracteatum ‘Mohave™ Apricot’ (Strawflower) on 5-31-23.

I should have brought home more of these. I have always wanted to try Strawflower and have bought seeds in the past they didn’t come up. When I was at Wagler’s Greenhouse on May 15 (to buy more plants for Kevin’s Planters), I found a few and brought one home. The tag says ‘Mohave™ Apricot’ Bracteantha. Hmmm… It is actually Xerochrysum bracteatum ‘Mohave™ Apricot’. This plant needs more water than the African Daisy next to it, but its flowers are a big hit! The colors are amazing and very bright and the flowers actually feel like paper. They really do feel like the dreaded fake “strawflowers” glued to cacti at garden centers only these are real. It is kind of late, but I need to go see if Wagler’s has more. They are GREAT!

Until next time, be safe and stay positive, always be thankful and GET DIRTY!

Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well. I also hope your garden looks MUCH better than mine. Earlier in April, I was all ready to plant the garden and was hopeful I could get it planted about the first of May. I had the seed and the garden had been tilled more than once. I was waiting for the temperatures to warm up so I could plant but that didn’t happen. All through May, the temperatures stayed too cool. Then came the non-stop rain… The farmers in the area that managed to get their seed planted early said when, and if their corn did come up, it just sat there. Most farmers didn’t get their corn in until late, and what they had planted earlier had to be replanted. There are only a few fields where the corn looks really good right now. I didn’t get this sweet corn planted until June 3 and 4th. Fortunately, I did get a much better stand than in 2020 for the most part. There were some iffy areas where none of it came up, which was weird.

I planted the sweet corn all by hand this year, single rows instead of double, because of seeder issues. It is frustrating when you are using a seeder that doesn’t plant properly and you didn’t notice until the corn didn’t come up. This year, I planted 2-4 seeds 8″ apart. Nathan helped me on June 3rd and started out planting the Ambrosia (bi-color counterpart to Bodacious). I started out planting Bodacious in the next section. After putting a single seed 8″ apart, I decided we should plant 3 seeds 8″ apart. That way if one or two don’t come up, there would still be a third one that might. SO, we both got 4 rows, 25′ long planted the first day. Then, on June 4, I planted 4 rows of Incredible… BUT, still not all the corn came up. I checked and what didn’t come up, mostly the Incredible, had germinated, had a nice tap root, but the top part died before coming out of the ground. That is weird!

There are two reasons I planted single rows instead of double… For one, standing the corn back up when it blows over will be much easier. The second reason is spacing requirements. When I used the seeder to plant double rows, a lot of the corn was too close together. I attempted to transplant some of it to bare areas, but too much soil fell off the roots and it didn’t work out very well. When I harvested the sweet corn, I noticed A LOT of the stalks didn’t produce any ears. Even though I did put over 300 ears in the freezer, I think I can get just as many by proper spacing and not as many stalks.

I didn’t have the issue with moles because I put the mole repeller in the middle of the sweet corn. Even so, there was a mole run a few days ago, but the seed had already come up…

I don’t want to talk about the peas… Absolutely not. I planted them twice… I planted only 8 tomatoes instead of 20 because that was a bit much. I planted 4 Celebrity and 4 Brandywine. Celebrity was a hit last year and I haven’t tried Brandywine since I lived in Mississippi… In Mississippi, the flowers would fall off during the heat of the summer then set fruit once the temps cooled off a bit. As a result, by the time we had our first “F” in December, the tomatoes still hadn’t ripened. The flowers won’t fall off here (usually don’t anyway) so HOPEFULLY I will have Brandywine to try.

OH, I also planted four rows of Top Crop Green Beans next to the Ambrosia.

The above photo is from the post June 22 Garden Update & Tomato Trellising in 2020. I had watered the corn I think a day before then a storm came and blew it over for the first time. According to the post, we got 1 2/10″ of rain… I am not sure when this corn was planted without going back and reading older posts.

SO, over the weekend it has rained. Nathan and I were in Clinton Friday afternoon and we had to wait to come home because of a HUGE storm. We left Wal-Mart and were driving down a street and all a sudden it started pouring. The wind blew so hard the car was fishtailing. SO, I found a spot in the driveway of a cemetery and waited. Once it seemed where I could drive, I pulled up the street and Nathan rolled down his window… Of course, the rain blew in. I said, “What did you do that for?” He said, “So I could see if anything was coming.” HMMM… Well, the window won’t roll back up on that side (power windows) very well and then my glasses were wet so I couldn’t see anyway. I put a new power window motor on the driver’s side last summer, but not on the passenger side. If someone rolls it down, it only goes back up partway and stops. After a few minutes, it will go up a little more. It takes a while, but it will eventually go all the way. I guess Nathan was having a panic moment and forgot…At least it was on his side so I guess he learned a lesson for the day. Actually, it was his second but I will not go into the first.

Over the weekend we received 6″ of rain! There was already a half-inch in the gauge Friday morning, and almost 3 when we got back home. Then, over the rest of the weekend, it rained a little over 3″ more. There is rain in the forecast every day the rest of the week…

SO, even though it will be a while before I can till the garden and pull weeds and grass, the rain gave the corn, green beans, and tomatoes quite a boost. They doubled in size in one day! Yeah, I will be very busy when the ground is dry enough because right now, I can only look at it… 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

The GREAT thing is we got rain AND the corn didn’t blow over…

Well, I better close for now. Take care and be safe. Be thankful and GET DIRTY!

The watermelon patch on 7-20-20.

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you all well. The past few weeks have been very busy and I finally finished picking the sweet corn a few days ago. I only had time to pick a 5-gallon bucket or so almost every night. I started this post on July 15 and just now had time to finish it. Sometimes time flies by and sometimes it just seems to drag. When it comes to watermelons the anticipation will drive you completely insane. I have taken 48 photos of the watermelons since June 7 which kept getting out of date for a post.

SO, today is the day I finish… Hmmm… I think I said that to myself several days in a row starting with last Sunday.

Gardening has its ups and downs and this year has been no exception between standing the sweet corn back up several times and the armyworms on the tomatoes. As always you deal with these problems and move forward. You learn that once you have picked the sweet corn you don’t have to worry about the wind anymore. You learn that the armyworm problem only lasts so long then their time has passed. The kale, well, it to had its pests and I think there were more than just what I knew about. The snap peas turned out to be snow peas which was a disappointment. I did get more and I planted about half of the seeds on August 1. The lady from the garden center assured me that the ones she planted turned out fine so I took her word for it (just like I expected snap peas in the first place). The tomatoes have done great and I had plenty to eat and give away. The sweet corn fooled me despite several issues and I was surprised to add 380 ears to the freezer. More than ever before and without help shucking it. It will last until the next harvest if I can stop eating 2-3 every night for dinner.

THEN, THERE ARE THE WATERMELONS just taking their sweet time enjoying life at a snails pace as if nothing else is going on in the world around them… 

Before I get too deep into this post I think I better be completely honest with you. Although my grandpa was one of the local watermelon kings in this area until his death at 83 in 1981, this is the first year for me. I did plant a few seeds in an area behind the chicken house in 2017 but that doesn’t count. I planted them in an open area and the deer or something ate some of the plants and they just fizzled out. During my childhood, I was around a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables that my grandparents and parents grew. Eating juicy, sweet, ripe watermelon with my grandpa was always a special treat. He got a lot of joy taking his vegetables to the Missouri State Fair and Calhoun Colt Show and won a lot of blue ribbons. Watermelons were one of his specialties and he saved seed from the best of many varieties every year. One year someone gave him seeds from a yellow-fleshed watermelon which he grew the following year. He didn’t like the flavor so he didn’t save any of their seed. The next year he wasn’t too happy to find out they had crossed with some of his prize melons and he still had several with yellow flesh…

Every year I get some pretty good watermelons but sometimes they are just so-so. I have always longed to relive those days as a kid with a mouth-watering, juicy, sweet watermelon. I mean, one that is just so AMAZING and dripping with juice, so sweet and flavorful you will remember it for a lifetime. So, I decided I was going to plant watermelons in 2020…

My grandpa planted several varieties every year. I remember Kleckley’s Sweet, Crimson Sweet, Charleston Gray, Black Diamond, Dixie Queen, some variety of Rattlesnake, and probably others I can’t remember. One of our favorites was always Black Diamond. Finding a Black Diamond these days is like pulling hen’s teeth so I decided that is what I would plant… Black Diamond…

WHEN TO PLANT WATERMELONS?

Watermelon ‘Black Diamond’ on June 7.

Some of the old-timers used to say to plant watermelons on the first day of May in your shirttail. Hmmm… What does “in your shirttail” mean anyway? I guess it means to get out of bed bright and early on May 1 and plant watermelons before you even have your first cup of coffee. You haven’t slept all night because you are thinking about getting up early to plant the watermelons. You get up, put your pants and shirt on, put on your boots, and go outside without tucking in your shirt. You may even go out in your boxer shorts but you have to put on a shirt or you aren’t following the rules.

Some of the “rules” say to plant 5 seeds per hill and thin to three plants after they come up, but you know how I don’t like to thin. I planted five seeds in five hills and if they all came up they were allowed to remain. There are a lot of ideas about planting melons and one site said to make hills five feet in diameter. Hmmm… Many people just plant them in rows “so many” feet apart and don’t bother with hilling. You can even buy plants from garden centers (and online) and transplant them. I opted to buy 25 seeds from a seller on Etsy and I planted them all. Ummm, most of them came up.

Watermelon ‘Black Diamond’ on 6-20-20.

COMPROMISING WITH BLACK DIAMOND FOR SPACE…

I knew from the start there may be an issue with space because Black Diamond is not a space-saving watermelon. One thing I want you to remember, so you can remind me later in the comments, is that Black Diamond watermelons take around 90 days (3 months) to ripen (after germination). They can grow to 50 pounds or more in optimum conditions and 75-80 pounds is not uncommon… I will talk about this more later on.

My garden, or the garden, is roughly around 3,000-3,500 square feet. I am not sure exactly. Anyway, there is roughly 55′ from one end of the rows to the other and I would say dad made the garden fairly square. That doesn’t count the distance around the rows to motivate the tiller and walk. In the beginning, I planned on four double rows of sweet corn divided in half for ‘Incredible’ and half ‘Peaches and Cream’. The row of tomatoes goes on the other side. I needed space for the row of kale and snap peas (which turned out to be snow peas). Then I had the ‘Jing Orange’ Okra to plant. I found the old ‘Broad Windsor’ Fava Beans which shared the row with the okra. SO, from the sweet corn to the row of fava beans and okra left roughly 16 feet for the watermelon vines to spread. SO, made five hills down the center of that 16′, allowing 10′ feet on each end plus walking space…

Then, a friend had issues with rabbits and deer eating his green beans, so I volunteered to pant a row of green beans. That left about 12′ for the watermelons… At first that seemed OK because the watermelons grew very slowly. Then, as the weather became warmer, they took off. I begin to wonder about my sanity. I figured when the watermelon vines got close to the other rows I could just turn them or MAYBE cut the vines and I could keep them from sprawling over the entire garden. Then I got to wondering about pruning…

What a cutie!

A side branch on 7-26-20.

HMMM… PRUNING WATERMELON VINES… 

I always remembered my grandpa telling me not to step on the watermelon vines because it would kill them. But I wondered… Could I prune them like tomatoes? So, I got online and read a little about it and watched several videos on YouTube. Normally, apparently, you start out pruning watermelons from the beginning, leaving a single vine and cut off all the side branches. Once one of the flowers on the vine produces fruit, you cut off the vine so it won’t grow past that point. That puts all the plant’s energy into producing that single watermelon. You can leave two if there is another one by the time you get around to it. Hmmm… OK, so I screwed up in the beginning by not watching the videos in the first place.

Pruning 1-2″ past the watermelon.

SO NOW WHAT?

By the time I started pruning my watermelon vines they had almost reached the rows on both sides. LUCKILY, the main vines had just started flowering when I began pruning and I could get somewhat inside the patch to remove the side branches. Now, you have to realize only 1 out of 7 flowers will be female and produce a melon. This kind of complicates things and I started looking at the flowers to see if there was a difference between male and female flowers.

Watermelon ‘Black Diamond’ flower…

They all looked the same to me, unlike zucchini, where you can tell fairly soon which is which. I was pruning watermelon vines every night as long as I could. It worked very well, actually, and it seemed like I was able to train the main vines not to go into the rows of beans and okra. Once the side branches started flowering I had to hurry to get them cut off so I wouldn’t see a melon. There were already several melons on many of the main vines but it also seemed like there were A LOT with no melons at all. I thought maybe I should remove all the vines with no melons but by that time that would have been ridiculous…

Vines produce side branches which produce side branches which produce side branches… Well, that could be a bit of an exaggeration but who really knows. Once the highway system of branches gets out of control you can’t dive in and start snipping.

As time went by, I could tell the newer side branches were flowering much sooner than the older vines started. That made it harder because if I saw a melon on a side branch I could not remove the whole thing. I just cut it off after the melon… Despie knowing those little melons may not make it to get ripe because of the “F” date sometime in October. This is a learning experience and it allows me to know just how long it takes to make a watermelon…

Watermelon vines growing up to he green beans on July 26, 2020.

After a week or so of pruning, I could no longer get inside the patch. The vines were growing so thick and there were even side branches sticking up everywhere in the center of the patch. I started concentrating on the perimeter of the patch and forgot about the middle. When I wanted to cut a vine, I would kind of pull it up to see where it was coming from and cut it off as far up as I could. Sometimes I was able to step inside the patch a little to get even farther.

The next thing I knew I had the issue with the armyworms on the tomatoes. That took time away from the watermelons for a few days until I got them under control. THEN, I started having to pick corn every evening. The watermelon vines started getting out of line BUT, the watermelons were getting bigger…

Baby frog…

As I work in the watermelons I see baby frog and toads. The leaves provide a lot of shade and even though it hadn’t rained for a while the soil under the leaves was still fairly damp. It was strange having worms on the tomatoes, kale having their pests, Asparagus Beetles on the asparagus, Corn Earworms and other bugs on the sweet corn but no critter issues with the watermelon vines…

SO, HOW DO YOU TELL WHEN A BLACK DIAMOND IS READY TO PICK?

WELL, it is kind of like this… They say patience is a virtue but sometimes it is a pain in the neck. Over the years I have heard many ways to tell when a watermelon is ripe. Some people thump on it and listen for a certain sound. I read once you can use a straw placed a certain way on the melon and if it rotates lengthwise (I think) it is ripe. Some say the belly has to be white or yellow. The advice I am getting online now is that the tendril opposite the stem the melon is fastened to has to be completely brown. At that point, the melon is supposedly as ripe as it will ever get.

Dried tendril on a ‘Black Diamond’ Watermelon on July 26… About 56 days after emergence and at least 34 days to maturity…

But, for Black Diamonds, it isn’t quite so easy…

1) TENDRIL TEST: The tendril being COMPLETELY BROWN may only indicate it is beginning to ripen.

The belly is supposed to be white or yellow…

2) BELLY COLOR: Yes, the belly has to be yellow or white. If not, it isn’t ready. This melon weighed probably around 25 pounds.

The scratch test…

3) THE SCRATCH TEST:  Watermelon rinds get harder as the melons mature. If you can scratch the surface easily, it isn’t ready.

ONE OF LIFE’S EMBARASSING MOMENTS…

WELL, I suppose everyone has a few of “those moments” when the waiting for something is over. Not that it should be over, but we get too anxious and we just can’t wait any longer. Watching those watermelons getting bigger and checking their tendrils, their bellies, and doing the scratch thing is exhausting for the mind. I had completely ignored the fact that they were planted around the last part of May…

Hmmm… On July 31…

I debated and debated. Waking up in the middle of the night thinking about that watermelon… The big one that isn’t ready and the other one whose tendrils are dried and has a white belly. So, on July 31, curiosity, anxiety, wanting a ripe melon got the best of me…

Scratch test… PASSED!

I did the scratch test and it passed. OK, so not really. I had trimmed my fingernails the night before and I didn’t scratch it all that hard because I really wanted it to pass the test. Out of camera view, I scratched it harder and it didn’t pass. Hmmm… What good is hiding the truth if you are going to admit to a lie?

Belly test… PASSED!

Before I cut the stem I checked the belly. If the belly was still been green I would have left it alone…

I took it to the house and washed it off. Then I looked for my scale. You know, I couldn’t find it anywhere. GEEZ! I messaged a friend and asked if she had a scale I could borrow. She asked what i needed I for and I told her it was a secret. She said I could borrow it so I went to get it and gave her some tomatoes… It weighed 23 pounds…

NOT FUNNY!!!

Well, I suppose I completely lost my senses. I completely forgot about the most important rule…

4) DAYS TO MATURITY…

This one is the hardest to remember but probably the most important… Instead of #4, it should be #1 (maybe it is #1, but im my mind it wasn’t). Even if your melon passes everything else but hasn’t gotten to the right number of days, you may very well be disappointed if you cut it open. There is a fifth rule but I forgot what it was. 🙂 Try to remember when your watermelons started coming up and count from there if you planted the seed in the ground. If you are transplanting them, you start from that date instead of when they started coming up. So, for me, My watermelons should start ripening around the first of September…

OH YEAH! #5… HARDNESS OR ROUGHNESS…

One of the biggest on August 4…

This watermelon weighs AT LEAST 40 pounds, or at least I think so. It was so big I had to move it around because the vines were beginning to cut into it. I moved it sideways to give it more room… Here it is on August 4 with September 1 being 90 days to maturity. I didn’t look at its belly but I put my hand under it to check the firmness. As you can see on the left of the photo, the tendril is NOT brown… The skin is getting rougher. Once I pick the first ripe melon successfully, I will have a better idea when the rest will be ripe. Practice makes perfect and PATIENCE is a virtue… HMMM…

There are MANY watermelons in the patch, one even larger than the one in the above photo. It’s hard to tell because Black Diamonds are noted for producing LOTS of big leaves and I can’t see what is in the middle of the patch. Sometimes I get a glimpse of one I hadn’t noticed before through the leaves.

Watermelon patch on August 4, 2020.

The patch looks pretty good in my opinion. It seems well mannered and I really didn’t have that much trouble getting the vines to stay confined to the area I needed them to be in. If I had have let them ramble, they would probably just about filled the garden by now.

I can hardly believe I finished this post… Now maybe I will do one about the sweet corn. Maybe I will just read your posts for a while…

Right now I am fighting a cold or something. Last week was strangely cool and I have been traveling on a lot of dusty back roads and talking with quite a few different people. Last Thursday my sinus started plugging up and I started feeling a cold coming on. I amped up the Vitamin C and Elderberry and also started taking Alka-Seltzer Plus. It hasn’t really helped that much… No headaches, no fever or anything just sinus congestion. I hate using the nasal spray but I have to breathe somehow.

Until next time, be safe and stay positive. Stay well and be thankful of your blessings.