Monday, September 28, 2009

September 28, 2009

Where have I been hiding?  Well, sitting at my computer.  I think I've mentioned that I have an addictive personality.  Well, when the site was down, I got hooked on Facebook and the various apps that it entails.  /sigh  Can you say time-sink? 

Anyway, I felt compelled to post tonight so I'm back.  I promise to try to squeeze in a post as often as I've got something to say.  This is the time where there is not much happening in the garden.  My tomatoes have all succumed to blight or whatever, as did my cantaloupe. 



Unfortunately the Minnesota Midget Cantaloupe never got beyond baseball size.  I know they're supposed to be small, but not THAT small.  So now I've got two seasons of growing those under my belt and have come to the conclusion that they just don't work in my climate.  I know others have made it work, but I'm guessing it's in a greenhouse.  Last year I planted late and they never got beyond golf ball size.  This year I had them in my container ASAP after the last frost date and look at the results.  It's just not hot enough for them to mature in their 57 day window. 

Thankfully I've got two tomato plants that may still have a shot.  One was a volunteer and the other was a sucker transplant. 



This volunteer basically took over the carrot section and the isle... I ran out of tomato cages.  It's got some great looking tomatoes on it, but they're still green.  I may have to pull them and let them redden inside.  It worked last year so I'm hopeful if it comes to that.

I hope you're late summer garden looks better than mine!

11 comments:

  1. My beautiful spaghetti squash & pumpkins I had growing up my ladder trellis look about like your cantaloupe do now. I'm leaving them on the plants hoping there's enough life in those very slightly green vines to ripen them a bit more. They're coming in before this weekend and I will be so disappointed if they don't ripen! Most of them have at least partially turned color, so I think they'll do the same thing the tomatoes do.

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  2. Your volunteer sure looks happy and healthy. Hopefully you will get some off the vine ripened fruit from it. I got alot of tomatoes off my blighted plants that went on to ripen nicely off the vine. Still have about six of them in the garage that are about ready to be used.

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  3. It's getting right to the finish line on harvesting tomatoes for us northerners. The strong winds we had blew over the cherokee purple plant, but I'm still hoping to get those tomatoes. Maybe I'll just bring in the big ones.
    My melon experience matched yours. The ones I brought inside after the vines died ripened up but had a very mediocre taste.

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  4. sinfonian - long time no see! I think everyone's gardens are starting to finish for the year. I'm glad you blogged about something.

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  5. Good to see you back. Have fun with the rest of the tomatoes. It feels pretty good to me to clear out the garden; I hope you get some enjoyment of it.

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  6. Rich you're back, how did I miss that! How did your bins do? I harvest spuds on the top level but yield was not the highest, about 18lbs from the bin in total.

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  7. Glad to see you're still around. Hope that boy of yours is enjoying Kindergarten.

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  8. Hi! I love facebook too! Such a great way to keep in touch with friends!

    Your boxes look really nice. Sorry about your blight... sigh...

    Had to pick all my tomatoes as cold has set in here in Wyoming... well... at least for this week. We've got snow all around us in the mountains.

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  9. Glad to see your back!

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  10. Glad you are back. I accumulated everything I need to try potato growing in bins next year. Did you grow potatoes this year? How did you do, or did the blight get your potatoes?

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