Posted on September 9, 2023September 9, 202308/08/2023 belated friend melon Friend of the garden Ziggy the dog found this very smelly round thing on a plant that his human planted! It is a Madhu Ras melon from seeds that I gave Ziggy’s human from last year’s harvest. Apparently the first one didn’t taste great (maybe due to sudden rain?) but the second was properly sweet. Our vines have flowered but not fruited this year and I suspect I haven’t put them in a sunny enough spot.
Posted on August 19, 2022August 19, 202208/19/2022 I tried cantaloupe in my oatmeal this morning, hoping it would be magical like peaches, but I think they’re best eaten cold and alone. The melon, not the person doing the eating. Gram is too tall to stretch under this chair. He came out from under the chair to stretch, then went back under the chair to continue observing his Doggie. Two new blooms on the two leaf senna!! I think one of the juniperleaf cuttings had some nearly ripe seeds on it and they sprouted!!! I kept them in standing water in the shade for the first few days as a cutting, then moved them to a dry spot but still in the shade, where they are now. Still watering every day. This is additionally interesting because the seeds I collected from the original juniperleaf in the winter have not sprouted anywhere I put them. I was reading today in Nokes’ germination book that sometimes fresher seeds don’t have such an impermeable seed coat. A few little grasses in the backyard where I sprinkled the native grass mix from Plants of the Southwest! The mix was blue grama and buffalograss.
Posted on August 14, 2022August 14, 202208/14/2022 fermenting slimy seeds I did some reading and it seems like we should actually be fermenting the canteloupe seeds, so I threw out the others (which were crunchy with dried goo/slime). Here’s the seeds from today’s snack. White currant tomato seeds looked pretty fermenty in the cupboard today so I rinsed them in the strainer and plopped them onto a paper towel. We set the paper towel by an air vent. This has worked for these seeds in the past, as this year’s plant is from harvested seeds.
Posted on August 10, 2022August 10, 202208/10/2022 giant cantaloupe This Madhu ras cantaloupe melon is 827 g, almost twice to a third as big as previous melons!
Posted on August 6, 2022August 6, 202208/06/2022 tiny successes The fall obedient plant has some tiny flowers. One partridge pea has pods! This is important because it’s an annual. I have 2-3 individuals that were blooming at one time so hopefully the seeds make. Did some tomato pruning and found a lot of tomatoes, one Madhu ras cantaloupe melon, and Paula got an okra.
Posted on August 4, 2022August 4, 202208/04/2022 Fall obedient plant is thinking about blooming! I think over the winter I’ll move it to closer to the bird bath to get more water. One of the two leaf sennas has buds!! The fluttermill primrose in the rock garden just keeps blooming!! This “live forever” from Judy is budding. I thought this was a plant hopper. It’s insect poop. Technically this is called frass. 😏 This fuzzy plant came with some wild onions I got at Mom and Dad’s. I am hoping it might be snow on the prairie! Paula said the mysterious pumpkin was ready. While we were outside, we checked out the cushaw squash. Already longer than Paula’s arm to the elbow!! Shackleton was neutral about the pumpkin. Tuqu was interested in the pumpkin and smelled it carefully. Shackleton was repelled by the fragrant Madhu ras cantaloupe. Tuqu tried to touch it. Today’s two harvests plus the watermelon from the farm share.
Posted on July 31, 2022July 31, 202207/31/2022 melon debut for this year Paula wields the knife. Oh no! Bad spot in our canteloupe! The bad spot carefully removed leaves us with snack size halves. They were cold and delicious. Saving seeds from this variety, Madhur Ras melon. I put it in the hot shade on the west facing front porch. It has a lot of melon goo on them that we couldn’t rinse off, so maybe they’ll be easier to clean after drying.
Posted on July 31, 2022July 31, 202207/30/2022 pretty! Good thing I’ve planted the borer resistant cushaw squash! It is a native moth and it sure is pretty. A Madhu ras cantaloupe melon slipped its vine so we figured it was ready. The only red yucca that’s sprouted from Judy’s seeds is doing good in its new spot. It has a third leaf now. Briar found Shackleton. He was not as happy as she was about this. The dog corner of the prairie
Posted on July 5, 2022July 5, 202207/05/2022 Baby cushaw squash! Recovering from removal of benign sebaceous cysts is more complicated than either of us expected. Purple hulled pinkeye cowpea. I really like the little signs Paula got me for Christmas. They stand out well. A gray hairstreak on a Madhu ras canteloupe flower. Paula’s Coryphantha sulcata is blooming! In fact, it has two. She says it had six earlier this year too. New tiny moth – a spotted thyris! Bee butt in loofah gourd. Paula made Thai green curry for dinner. It contains last year’s garden white currant tomatoes (from frozen, so that works well), garden onions, and garden walking onions. The Texas buckeye is very angry. I put a hose out to soak there. Jeanne has let me know the wild ones do this too, so maybe it will recover. Possibly purple prairie clover from free packet from prairiemoon.com? A second round of standing cypress flowers on a different plant. A volunteer Carolina snailseed in the front yard. Will Rogers Zinnias are looking good in the rainbow garden. Briar loves escorting Shackleton for a walk. Shackleton doesn’t know why we have to ruin a good thing by bringing the dog. We were about to go back inside, but she got up and scooted closer. He turned to glare while she got a treat for laying down. Shackleton says no eye contact. Here you can pretend there is no dog, only lush, succulent grass and corn.