Melons and Corn

Bob Bauer

September 03, 2016 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: 1 minutes

August 29, 2016

As the melon vines get pulled up they get wrapped around the artichokes to thicken the mulch for winter. It looks a bit unsightly at first but as the vines turn tan it begins to look like a big birds nests with green pterodactyls poking up from the middle..

Garden art at its finest..

August 30, 2016

We just started on our fifth planting of corn and the ears were so sweet, tender and juicy that I dug out the old seed package to see what kind it was. It's Extra-early Spring Treat by Lake Valley Seed. I've never paid attention to the type of corn we planted, I just got the earliest to mature. These mature in 68 days which is plenty early, so they will be what we plant from now on..

The ears are 8-9" long and it's sugar enhanced. Four foot stalks don't waste a lot of energy growing tall, just grow big ears. Dumbo corn..

August 30, 2016

The cantaloupes are not turning orange when they ripen this year. I've always been able to walk by a cantaloupe mound and pick out the ripe ones, but this year I have to push on every stem to see if it's loose. Some have rotted before I get to them..

I pulled my seed stash out to find what kind they were but didn't have an open pack. I did have two unopened packs of Hales Best Jumbo so I guess I'll be planting them next year, and the year after that, and the year after that etc etc..

September 03, 2016

As more and more melon vines get pulled up the garden begins to open up with brown mounds scattered about. The emptiness is not unpleasing in some yin yang kind of way that I don't completely understand. The mounds get a coating of compost so they continue to improve through the winter and I focus on the parts of the garden that are still producing..

One year the mounds got planted with purple cabbage and I spent all winter watching them slowly die. Not a good idea..

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