I Grew a Watermelon!

With the dismal luck I've had keeping squash plants alive because of that darn squash vine borer, I was really surprised to find a watermelon growing in my backyard.

One of the reasons that I think this plant might have made it while all my summer squash didn't is the fact that the stem of this plant is really, really, prickly. Maybe the squash vine borer moth can't find a comfortable place to lay it's eggs!

Here's a couple of close-up shots of the stem:

Of course, there's more to nature than Cucurbitaceae-killing moth larva. With such a hot, dry summer, the squirrels were particularly adamant about getting at this unique specimen of sugar water.  Despite the daily check-ins on my baby melon, I was surprised when I saw the little imprints of squirrel paws on it. So I covered it with bird netting and stuck lots of intimidating sticks around it.

Once the squirrels noticed that I was protecting that little green blob, reverse squirrel psychology kicked in and they were even more inclined to brave the unstable netting and get their little paws on it.  I eventually made a tent out of chicken wire and winter-weight garden cloth and completely covered the watermelon. It worked pretty well, except when the wind blew it over or I forgot to re-cover it after sprinkler day.

Then one day I noticed that the watermelon was splitting.  I found it hard to believe I could over-water a plant during the hottest summer in Austin, but the split could not be ignored. So I went ahead and picked it, wondering if there would be enough undamaged flesh to even recognize it as a watermelon.

You can see the split on the side that had started to dry out a bit.  The little white divots are squirrel tracks (my best guess). Also note that the top of the melon still maintained the little Dairy Queen curl where the melon had attached to the stem.  I wonder if the fruit had grown bigger if the watermelon would have eventually rounded out to a nice oval?

After cutting away the bad parts, I ended up with enough edible watermelon for two people. And the taste? Incredibly like watermelon. It wasn't too sweet and the texture was firm. I was able to save some of it to enjoy the next day with breakfast. My pride and amazement rekindled.

Unfortunately, that was the only fruit produced all summer on a rather long, gangly vine. I've got another watermelon growing now that's about the size of my fist, but as November is right around the corner, I doubt it will have time to mature.

Next year I think I'll try more watermelon vines. I'll plant them on the shadier side of the tree ring so that the soil near the roots doesn't dry up as quickly during the summer heat and let the vines run roughshod through the herb garden.  So far that watermelon is the biggest fruit or vegetable I've ever grown, and I'm eager to try more of that next year!

A Summer of Okra

As you may know, I became a fan of okra a few years ago when I started getting it fresh from the farm and cooking it myself.  Turns out, my fears of the much-touted slime factor were misguided. Same too, my expectations that it had to be deep-fried or nothing. In three years, I've gone from avoiding this vegetable in the kitchen to napping under it's shade in my backyard. Weird. But cool.

In 2008 I got my okra from Johnson's Backyard Garden CSA, and professed my ignorance as to what to do with it. I found out that okra is popular in Indian recipes, and since I wasn't a fan of deep-frying in my kitchen, I gave them a shot. They were freakin' awesome tasting. I made them with each bundle of the lady finger I got form the CSA that summer and fall. The only down side was that the recipes were more involved than I was used to making. Cooking okra took a lot time. Worth it, but not always practical. Sometimes the okra went bad in the fridge before I had a chance to use it. Boo.  I wish I'd thought about pickling then....

So by 2009, I decided okra was a pretty cool vegetable. It also had the distinction of handling our Texas summer heat, so I planted 3 okra plants in my 3x3 foot square-foot garden box. I gave each tiny seedling a whole square foot as was recommended somewhere on the internet. The results: unimpressive, but successful. The plants were plagued by aphids, but the buggers were kept in check by knocking them off daily either with water from the hose or my hand. The little pests didn't seem to hurt the okra that was produced, and we ate it when we could supplement our 'harvest' with the okra from the CSA.  The plants grew about three feet tall eventually and produced maybe 3 okra a week. (Hence, the air-quotes around harvest.) I noticed that the plants, while easily a foot wide, were pretty spindly. I resolved to plant them more densely the next time.

In 2010, I planted 16 okra seeds in my upgraded 4x8 foot square-foot garden. I planted them with corn, squash and peas in a modified, failed three-sisters garden plan. I'd heard that corn needed a lot of fertilizer to be successful, so I began fertilizing weekly with seaweed extract almost immediately. It was my first committed effort to regularly fertilizing since starting my garden experiments. Well, the corn never really produced anything edible and died half-way through the summer.  The okra plants had a different experience, which I'd like show in pictures.

2 feet tall plant, okra next to serrano pepper

4 feet tall plants

about 6 feet tall

I'm guessing 8 feet here

Long story short, I've got some okra plants that are about 8 feet tall now. In the afternoon, I can lay down on my garden storage bench by the fence and daydream through the branches. The one green okra plant has a 'trunk' now that's almost and inch and a half in diameter. The burgundy okra plants are slimmer, as are the fruit the produce, but still impressive (at least to me).

Lessons learned:

• Fertilize your plants often, at least while they're small and not yet setting fruit.
• Aphids only seem like a big problem when the plant is 2 feet tall
• Planting both green and burgundy okra can produce some odd-looking, hybrid fruit. I think I'll stick to just one color next year so I can save seeds
• Okra plants are pretty flexible, even when they're big. If a tropical storm is coming through, I should use stakes to help support them
• Even if a plant bends way over, it can still produce okra
• Plant okra towards the north so that the rest of the box can still get some sun
• Burgundy okra is too long and skinny to be a good pickling okra, as it's too tall to fit in the jars without squishing. Use the green okra from the CSA for that.

Our harvests don't require air-quotes to describe any more. We have to keep picking them every 2-3 days to keep them from getting too big and tough. We've been able to give some to friends and still have enough to enjoy ourselves (we're still getting some from the CSA as well). Our okra recipe repertoire has expanded to included tasty, yet quick side dishes. It's been a summer of okra, and it makes me kinda proud.

Unexpected Gifts from the Rain

So after getting almost 9 inches of rain this week, the grass is crazy long, the fences are still drying out, and there are a few less birds visiting the fountain.  This morning I took a Town Lake walk with M and saw remnants of the flooding there: weed-draped benches, beached docks, and long expanses of muddy muck where the trail used to be. When I got home I took the time to walk around the park in my backyard and see how things were drying out.

The okra plants that had fallen/bent way over under the force of the wind and rain had start to grow in an "s" shape back towards the sky.  I found more twine and posts to force them upright. Then I picked a plate of okra.  Those plants are hardy.

The tomato plant is draped way down over the basil and pepper plants. I have a trip to Lowe's planned today to see if I can find some better supports.  For the record, still not cool enough at night for tomatoes, but I'm not giving up early this year.  I'll keep that plant going until the first freeze before I give up!

There were also a few surprises.  This volunteer didn't look like the usual suspects when I saw it on Thursday, so I let it grow.

Turns out it was a rain lilly, and more popped up in the lawn and herb garden within the next couple days.

Funny that they don't crop up from being watered with the sprinkler.  You definitely need a good soaking before they emerge.  Not sure how they propagate but I'll leave them be where I can so that they have a chance to come again after the next big rain.

Moving on. In the back of the yard near the strawberry patch everything looked normal. Then I thought I saw  a pot of gold coins tipped over near the rosemary. Turns out, the jack o'lantern that I'd dumped by the fence to rot last year had a heck of a lot of seeds.

I doubt they'll grow into anything, but I suppose I should still clean them up.  Or maybe see if the squirrels do...
And finally there were these little surprises sprouting up from dried husks of ancient purple alien flowers.

Artichokes back from the dry dust of summer! The one on the top left is really close to the thyme (upper left corner). I hope the thyme learns to grow northwest because it's going to be fighting for sunlight in another couple months if that artichoke continues to grow. The artichoke sprout from the second plant is not looking as strong, but now that I know it's there, I'm going to make sure to water it regularly.  Hopefully these plants don't need 8 inches of water a week to grow, but it's still exciting to see them after months of nothing.

Tropical Storm Hermine

I went out to check the rain gage this morning and measured 7.92 inches.  This amount is since it started raining on Monday.  I didn't check the gage yesterday b/c I didn't want to get soaked. Lazy science! I didn't even realize we had a tropical system in the area, but I had heard in passing that it was going to rain Tuesday and Wednesday, so I shut off the automatic drip irrigation to the garden.

But 7.92 + inches in three days? I'm a little concerned about root rot in my raised bed now.  If it doesn't rain too much more today, and is able to dry out quickly, perhaps this isn't a big concern.

I hope the pecan tree in front is enjoying this good soaking, though.  It was showing signs of heat stress, according to my amateur research and opinion.  Might not be a good year for pecans (again). Bummer.

Another problem with the rain is falling down plants.  The okra plants were the worse hit.  Most of them were over five feet tall at the beginning of the week and this morning, about half were laying completely on their sides.  The main stem was still pliable and they hadn't uprooted themselves, so I bent them back up and then tied some twine around the whole lot of them.  Now they're squished together in places because it's still raining and I only hastily wrapped them together, but I hope the triage helps. Between me and the rain, a lot of okra blooms are on the ground. Might be the end of okra season for Andromeda this week, but it was a fun ride.

August in the Garden

Not much big band excitement in the garden these days as we're all buckling down and surviving the hot, dry Austin summer. But there's lots of little happenings that keep me getting out into the back yard.

I Planted some Small Wonder spaghetti squash and some buttercup squash a month ago. I'm going to train the squash vines up a trellis again to save space. Amazing how the little squash tendrils find things to climb on. I saw this the other morning:
The basil plant is a leftover companion from a tomato plant that couldn't take the heat and bit it. I left the basil there because he looked happy. And now the winter squash plant has a big buddy to hold on to, at least until it's tall enough to reach the first rung of the cage.

And speaking of biting it in the heat, the buttercup squash were not doing too well in Austin's afternoon oven, so I went to the garden store yesterday and bought a random amount of 40% shade cloth. Why random? Because I didn't want to leave without shade cloth, but I hadn't really figured out how much I needed or how I would install it. But this is just a practice garden, right? So in the morning humidity, Dan and I came up with this:
The plant supports were leftover from something, hence the asymmetry. But it's getting the job done for the time being. Pretty sure the structure won't stand up to a storm or stiff wind, but with this high pressure system camped over us, I don't think I have to worry about that. Dan's picking up a few more supports at H.D. today so we can protect the other box as well. Then I'll feel better about starting up my new crop of Fall veggies in the next couple weeks.

And speaking of Fall veggies, I planted some pumpkins seeds in early July in an experimental plot in the back of the yard. None of the first seeds sprouted. I don't think they were getting enough water from the sprinklers. So I started a new batch. About half of those have sprouted and for the most part look pretty good.
Dan's not sure they'll get enough sun back there. I'm more concerned about squash vine borer (SVB) attack. Experiment or not, it was disappointing to have those little turd moths ruin my zucchini plants earlier this summer. The white tent behind the back plant is my ghetto attempt at a row cover. One woman at the nursery suggested covering the plants in the evening and at night when the SVB is more active. I'll try covering one mound and spray the other mound with a pepper-based deterrent and see what happens. I don't have row covers for the winter squash so will just try deterrents on those. Perhaps with a little more vigilance, on top of my limited but growing experience, I'll have squash a plenty this fall.

How Does My Garden Grow, You Ask?

So we've got one of the hottest Austin summers on record happening here, and as I type this, the dark storm clouds seem to be happy just providing shade and not actually providing water. I feel like I'm living a Sting song.

But nonetheless, I continue to attempt to cultivate my small garden patch. Dan helped me create the vertical supports so that I could train my mini-pumpkin and winter squash vines to grow up. The pumpkin is on the left and the winter squash is on the right in this picture:

Despite it's smaller size, the winter squash is beginning to bloom. I think these flowers will eventually become squash, but I have no idea how long until that happens.

For the record, I did grow the squash from seed, but all the other plants in the garden were bought as fledglings. I tried starting an eggplant from seed this month, but it's been over 2 weeks and nothing has sprouted so I might have to cheat and check out the nursery offerings this weekend.

Oh yeah. And all the cups and trowels and junk in my garden is my white-trash way of trying to keep the neighborhood cats from using my garden as a litter box. Yuck!

One Summer I Started a Garden

So after reading In Defense of Food, I started talking to Mom about cooking and the idea of trying to grow my own vegetables even though I don't have the green thumb to tackled a 'real' garden. Then she mentioned that her mom's (?) generation had planted Victory Gardens during the war. And after I started searching on victory gardens, I thought. "Most gardens are too big. I should write a book on how to garden in smaller batches. I could name the book square-foot gardening." I went to Amazon.com and sure enough, there was already a book called square-foot gardening and also tons of blogs from people giving it a go.

So despite the fact that we've had 100 degree heat here in Austin, I decided to start my own small patch and start getting the mistakes out of the way so I could learn something about growing food. Here's what I've got so far:Luckily we have a great organic gardening center where I can bag my own garden soil for $3/25lb bag. I just filled the 3x3 foot box with that and a little compost. I also bought 2 pumpkin plants, basil, oregano, rosemary, and garlic chive plants to get a jump start. But for fun, I also bought winter squash seeds. I planted one seed in the corner last week and it already has 4 leaves. Yeah!

I'm still worried about bugs, birds, and the fact that it's just darn hot, but I'm looking at the whole endeavor as an experiment. So I can't fail as long as I log everything and figure out what went wrong, right? : >

ps July 2008 is when I set out to start learning by doing. What a time of year to be inspired to be outdoors!