Showing posts with label melons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label melons. Show all posts

Sunday, June 6, 2010

back from camping ...

... to discover that the melons and squashes I planted have sprouted.  I was afraid I was going to have to replant the entire patch -- but most seem to have some growth going (though one sprout was detached from its root -- how and why I don't know....)

Now the little guys just have to grow to fill in the trellis I made for them.
I wanted them to go up rather than out so I made a structure out of premade cedar trellising and steel fence stakes.  As a young woman I used to make fence for the Forest Service (among other things when we weren't fighting fires.)  It was a real pleasure to get one of those fence pounders back into my hands...

Saturday, April 10, 2010

internal saturday

Funny how things have been chugging along so steadily that finishing my bamboo bed plantings and removing yard waste counted as a slow day.  All told though, I spent too much of my day in my head.  I have been trying new things with too little information and second guessing my warm season planting plans. 

The kids and I tried sprouting seeds as if completing a seed germination test this past week (diggin food has nice pictures and video here.)  Since the basil sprouted (their tails weren't nearly as long as the ones in Willi's picture), we potted them up.  I am not sure this will work.  We left them with little bits of paper towel attached.  Not a big deal because I have heard the sprout roots can go right through the towel -- but I don't know if the leaves can go right through and I didn't know which end of the sprout was up at planting (it is easy to lose track with three helpers under the age of 6.)  I wish I had kept track of what was going on so I could learn from our effort.

And in the second-guessing department, I am sure my melons will be unsuccessful if I plant them as planned .  Only two of my four varieties mature in 85 days or less (important in the Pacific NW) -- and even these might need more heat than the east-facing wall I intended to plant them under will provide.  So now I am thinking about moving the melons to a location with more afternoon sun.  But where?  My best bets are in the front yard.  And the best of the best locations is in the spot I was going to make a sunflower castle for the kids.  So what to do...?

For now I will shoot for a good night sleep (unlikely, we have a sick sleeper who has already been up several times) and will try more action and less worry tomorrow.