We have picked two or three Sugar Baby watermelons so far this month. They are a nice size to fit into an already crowded fridge.
S. with Sugar Baby Watermelon
- Washed clean
Cut in half
Sliced and ready to eat.
Dad! It's getting HEAVY and my feet are BURNING on the sidewalk!
And then, way down here (where only the most dedicated readers will read) I’ll make an offer. If you would like to try this variety of melon next year, just let me know and I’ll send you some of the seeds. First 3 who ask will get seeds in the mail, as long as you ask before August, 2008 is over. You’ll need AT LEAST a 4×4 foot space to grow these, and to make it fit in that space you’ll have to keep turning the vines back in again every couple days. Mine are growing in a 6×8 foot raised bed, and there ended up being about 6 vines. It is also possible, although a LOT of WORK to grow this watermelon on a trellis. When trellising this melon, you have to sling the fruits so their own weight doesn’t break them off the vine in the wind.
I made a 5 pint batch of homemade Ketchup tonight, using the spice packet from Mrs. Wages. It turned out to be a really good sauce, but I’ll be damned if it didn’t take almost 3 hours. It had better be REALLY, REALLY good.
Chop tomatoes, boil 25 minutes. Strain out the skin and seeds (takes a long time), then boil the pulpy juice another 20 minutes. Add vinegar, sugar and spice packet, boil again. Then can into prepared jars with prepared lids and boil them another 40 minutes.
Homemade ketchup canned in pint and half-pint jars
Seriously, it had really better taste awesome. Or maybe I’m just tired.
I just found a link from another blog to the cutest garden blog ever. It is written by a 6 year old who is learning to enjoy writing without the restriction of being forced to spell everything correctly. Good for her!
Here is an example…she wrote a post about Strawberries:
stobares
- stobares
a stobare is firs a green plant. than a flaor.than a stobare
Excellent job Megan! Keep up the good work.
Yardlong green beans
Just for fun, I planted a packet of “Yardlong” green pole beans this year. They have flowered and are starting to make skinny bean pods. According to the information on the back of the seed envelope, they taste best when picked at 18 inches. Yes, each single green bean will be at least 18 inches long! If left to grow, the pods will be over 3 feet long, hence the name.
If they do taste good, I’ll leave some to go to seed and plant them again next year.
Update: I found one bean that was ready to be picked tonight while I was out in the garden. See below. I included the US Dollar for scale, mainly because I don’t have a geologist’s hammer. 
"Yardlong" green bean
The cucumbers are growing up the trellis I made from sticks that fell into my back yard this March and April. I just laid them out on the ground in an arrangement that worked, tied them together with twine and stuck them in the ground.
A homemade cucumber trellis
This is actually (like most of the photos I post) quite a large image, so click on it to see it enlarged. In many browsers, you then have to click once more to see the full original size. There is a good amount of detail available if you’d like to look.
The jackolantern pumpkin we grew got ripe late in July. How long can I leave it on the vine before it just rots right there in the garden? The stem is still quite green as is the vine attached…
EARLY pumpkin!
We don’t plan on eating this (maybe the seeds) so if we could get it to last until at least September (fall decoration!) that would be great. Anybody with experience care to enlighten me? It’s several inches larger than a basketball, so putting it in a refrigerator is out of the question.
