My! That's a sparkling, green patch of veggies! The Marmalade Cat has a lovely realm for a stroll.

That tiny orach plant that I photographed back in April or something, was taller than I am when I cut it down last week and shook out the seeds for '08.

Can't seem to learn the too-close-for-comfort tomato spacing either, Cnetter. This season it is obviously so bad that production is being compromised. I'm permanently confined to the perimeter while DW wades thru the vines. At least, you've achieved some vertical growth with cages (?); my tomatoes are just a jungle.

Yesterday, I was so pleased to harvest the first cantaloupe. This is a new experience to have one ripen before frost. The last 3 years, I've grown Honey Girl Charentais melons and thought they must be the only ones able to ripen in my neck of the woods. They'll be along shortly but yesterday, we cut into a Granite cantaloupe - hurray!!

Overly optimistic, I tried the Passport Galia-type melon today. It is the other melon I've ventured to grow this year after the Honey Girl success. The Passport was edible but not quite ripe. I expect that a few should be fine by the end of the week.

I am absolutely delighted! Melons are very nearly my favorite food. There's a watermelon out there with fruit but the jury is still out on it. Can you tell us about your experiences with melons??

Thank you for the pictures and congratulations on a beautiful garden of goodies.

Steve's digits

Thanks for sharing Cnetter...very nice!

I love your leftovers garden.

I haven't had any luck with melons, not even one is forming. This is the first time I've ever planted them.

My gourds are forming though. One of them is the birdhouse gourd vine which I planted very late when I got it on sale for like 50 cents not long ago but there is already a nice size gourd growing. We are excited about this one.

I'd love to see your gardens someday :)

I don't usually grow melons because they aren't nearly as productive as just about any other cucurbit I grow. But this year I didn't need more winter squash or pickles and really didn't need more gourds, but snuck a few in. So I had room to try melons. There's only about eight or ten melons out there right now that are almost ripe, but the vines are starting to make more right now. Hope those ripen in time.
I found one little melon with it's tendril brown and its underside deep yellow, so I tried it. It was red in the center but had too much white on the edges so I'm given the others more time.

On the opposite end of things, productivity wise, the summer squash got away from me again so the chickens ate well.

Ok, Cnetter - what did you do to get them ripening so early? I planted some seeds - which did nothing, so then I bought some plants from the nursery. One seed of course, then germinated.

So now I've got lots of vine, with lot's of blooms, and a few little marble sized fruits that have been that way for some time now. Everything else in the garden is growing and ripening great guns, except for the cantalope. Any ides what might be slowing it down?

I started mine in the cold frames around the beginning of May, so they got a head start.