Betty and Bam Bam

Betty, the cantaloupe, was finally ready for our stomachs. She was about to fall off the vine, so I took her inside. Sadly, I have no pictures of her flesh because I gave her to my little sister to take back to her dorm at Vanderbilt University.

Below: Beautiful Betty

My sister reports that she was delicious and beautifully orange and sweet. Good-bye Betty. I had a lovely time raising you.

Below: Bam Bam, the watermelon

With a ton of watermelons, we decided to harvest another one for a summer's day treat. The flesh was pinkish, but it was sweet.

Betty has other brothers and sisters that are growing. I say about three little ones (more about them next week), but I don't know how will survive and who will die. There used to be five little ones, but two of them withered away. I guess the vine was not strong enough to support that many fruit. I'll keep you all posted on the cantaloupes' development.

Cabbage and Betty

My lone cabbage head is slowly growing into an actual head. It looks pretty cool. I'm thinking it'll be October before I can actually harvest it. But it looks very pretty as it grows. And the bug problems that I had earlier in the summer are now just an old memory. The leaves look very healthy.

Below: The cabbage head


I have an update on Betty, the cantaloupe. She is looking pretty good, and it won't be long before I can harvest her and eat her delicious flesh.

Below: A picture of Betty from last week

Betty is actually a small cantaloupe, but I think her small size means that she will be much sweeter once I eat her.

Introducing Betty

I hope everyone had a great weekend! As you probably know by now, I try not to blog on the weekends because I try to relax.

Happy Monday to everyone.

Although my dear cantaloupe, Freddie, was delicious and so juicy, he was not the lone cantaloupe (as I've recently found out). As Freddie matured, a new cantaloupe formed. I didn't know if it would die (as my other baby cantaloupe did), but it survived!

It's growing strong! Already starting to lose its fuzziness ("babyhood").

Below: Introducing "Betty"

I've decided to call this new cantaloupe "Betty." I love the "ie" sounds, lol.

Betty is now the lone cantaloupe on the vine, unless another baby forms. I'm thinking that she'll be the last one of the season. But you never know, I might get pleasantly surprised!

The End of Freddie

Today, I bring you happy news... or perhaps tragic, depending on how you interpret it. Remember my lone cantaloupe, Freddie? I am happy to report that he has been harvested from the garden.

I've been waiting for him to become ripe for weeks. I didn't know when to harvest him, but Luka and I were taking a stroll in the garden yesterday, and as she was trying to chase the grasshoppers. (She was on her walking leash at this time; we had just finished Luka's afternoon walk), I happened to glance over at the Freddie. To my surprise, he had detached from the vine and just sitting there for me to pick up. Of course, there were ants all over him. But I picked him up and brought him inside to splice open!

Below: The ripe cantaloupe, Freddie!

I was a little concerned at first because he was now a yellowish color. Before he was a little green, but I guess this just means that he was ripe. At first, my sister wanted me to wait a few days before splicing him open, but I couldn't wait that long. I've been waiting for Freddie to be ripe for some time now, and I figured it was a good sign that he fell off the vine.

Below: But look, the stem end is still green. I think this is a good sign.

When I spliced Freddie up, I saw the orange goodness that made his flesh and it was yummy! SO juicy and just plain delicious. There aren't any other words for it. It was SO good. The best cantaloupe that I've ever tasted. Good cantaloupes from the store are hard to come by. This was amazing.

Below: Freddie's "body"

In sad news: the Vietnamese Catholic community is a very close-knit community across the U.S. So when we heard about the bus crash in Texas, everyone was extremely sad. My mom is actually at the religious festival that the people on the bus were headed. Here is the news article about the accident. Please pray for the families of those injured.

The evolution of the lone cantaloupe

Today, I will tell the tale of the lone cantaloupe, and how it grew in my garden. Sit back in your chairs, take a sip of coffee, and relax.

Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Nguyenland, a petite gardener with black, shoulder length hair saw a green seedling at the marketplace. Hmm, she thought. A fresh cantaloupe in the summer time would be a wonderful idea.

S0 with the help of the king, she went home and planted the poor seedling amongst her other vegetables. Two tomato plants, three eggplants, and one cabbage head. She planted the cantaloupe seedling in the middle of her bed.

When the day was over, and sweat overcame the young gardener, she overlooked her cantaloupe seedling and smiled. This will work out wonderfully, she mused.

As the days and weeks passed, the small seedling grew and expanded in the bed. One day, our young friend came out and found beautiful yellow flowers underneath the green foliage.

How exciting! She thought. A little babe is just around the corner!

The weeks continued to pass, and the insects and bugs came out of hiding. But that did not deter our gardener. She came out every day to water and to check her plants. The mosquitoes, ticks, and chiggers took large chunks of her legs... And yet, she still watched her plant patiently, awaiting the big day.

Then one day in June, she came out and was shocked to find not one, but two baby cantaloupes had formed! Female flowers! She gasped!

Sadly, one of the baby 'lopes died in the coming weeks. But one remained strong. A fuzzy little one gave her hope of the future!

And this little cantaloupe grew... and grew. Despite the heat and drought, the little thing did not give up. It grew slowly at first... Then the fuzziness of its childhood started to fade away. The young gardener could not be happier to see her baby grow!

On one sad day, the young gardener had to say good-bye to her garden--temporarily. She headed to the beach for a week for fun, relaxation, and a tan. She slowly walked away from her cantaloupe--which she decided to name Freddie.

Good-bye, Freddie. I hope you grow big and strong, she said.

A week passed, and when she returned, she saw that Freddie had grown larger than she had expected. And all of his fuzziness had disappeared. In its place, a thick white skin had appeared.


And only a short week later, Freddie grew and became recognizable as a small cantaloupe! Although he still has some growing to do, our young gardener is slowly anticipating the day when she can harvest Freddie and slice him open for a summer's day treat!

I hope you enjoyed the story of young Freddie and his beginnings. :-)

Now to end on a silly picture of Luka being funny!

The Melons Have Arrived!

The fruits of my labor have finally arrived! The over abundance of yellow flowers from the watermelon and cantaloupe plants have given birth to baby melons. It’s so refreshing to see them. And they are growing so fast. The melons seem to be getting larger each day.

Below: The baby watermelons

There are five baby watermelons in total. They are growing at different rates, but you can already see the stripped markings on its skin. They are going to get so HUGE. I don't remember what variety the watermelons are (the tag has been blown away by the wind), but I do know that this variety is not seedless and can grow up to 60 pounds. It might be a hybrid of some kind.

I hope the vine can accompany its growth. I had thought about the trellis/fence idea for these melons, but after seeing this fruit, I’m going to leave the melons alone. I’m afraid that if I do anything, it may strain the plants and hurt my chances of getting ripe and juicy watermelon.

Below: Baby cantaloupe

One of the cantaloupe flowers has given birth a rather nice size baby cantaloupe. Its skin is rather fuzzy right now, and I’m guessing that it becomes smoother as the cantaloupe grows in size. In another month, I shall be feasting on some delicious homegrown fruit!

Maybe the watermelon and cantaloupe will grow at different rates, so I can harvest them at convenient times. Ha! I doubt this, but one can always hope.

For now, I’m excited to see this growth!

Attack of the melons

When I decided to grow watermelon in the raised bed, my father said to me "this is not going to work. It's going to take up too much space." I ignored him and was adamant that I would have watermelon by the end of the summer. Oh how naive I was!

I planted three small watermelon seedlings from Lowe's. They were so cute, and I didn't think they would take over like they did... But man, they are growing and taking over everything!

Below: Take a look!



These watermelon plans share a bed with some roses (mostly dead now because the season has passed), corn, and edible elephant ears. I think the official term is "called taro, but its a variety of the elephant ear decoration plants that many Southern gardeners plant. My family plants the edible variety. We plant them for food. My mom makes a spicy tomato and bean sprout soup with it.

Below: Edible elephant ears

We planted the watermelon 13 inches away from each other, and you would think that would be enough. But it's not! They are growing and starting to intersect with each other. It's like one big line of watermelon leaves. Crazy!

Does anyone have any advice on how I can control its growth? I wouldn't think allowing the vine to grow upwards would work. The watermelons would be too heavy for the vine to support it. Do I just live with this problem with no solution in sight?

Maybe the watermelon fruit at the end of the summer will be my reward.

Below: The watermelon flowers. All male...


The watermelon isn't the only melon that is spreading and taking over! The cantaloupe has grown and is really taking over too! It has a dozen or so yellow flowers.

Below: The cantaloupe (In the middle of the bed)

One good thing about the cantaloupe is that there is a tiny baby cantaloupe that is going to be formed! It's fuzzy right now, but so very adorable!

Below: The baby cantaloupe and its momma flower


So I pose the question again: how do I control these melons from going wild and taking over?

All about Melons

Last week, I blogged about the watermelon plants at my parents’ house. Today, I thought I’d revisit them. There are three in total, and they are spreading very quickly. I took my dad’s advice and planted them far apart (2-3 feet) from each other. It’s a good distance, and they continue to grow.

Dave from the Home Garden mentioned that I should pinch off one of the flowers that were growing on watermelon # 1. So I did, and I’m waiting for the plants to get longer. Hopefully more flowers (and melons to follow) will start growing.

Below: The Three Watermelon Plants

They all look the same, but they are growing at different speeds and are different sizes. They are healthy and not dried up like Cam's watermelons. I'll have to post pictures of the SFG ones soon. They do not look healthy.

Above: Cantaloupe

The cantaloupe that I planted in one of the raised beds has started to flower. There are two yellow flowers underneath the green foliage. They are very pretty and look healthy, so I’m looking forward to progression of these melons.

As you can see, this circular raised bed isn't the largest, and the cantaloupe is already starting to take up a majority of the space. I hope the bell pepper, tomatoes, and eggplants (planted around the bed) don't mind. Ha! I guess we'll see.

Below: The cantaloupe flowers up-close

The cantaloupe plant, like the watermelon, really likes to spread. Not a surprise since both are melons. I wonder if I’ll have enough fruit for a salad.

Random Story:

Once when I was a teenager, a bird pooped out a seed of some kind. Weeks went by and no one noticed a little plant that grew. A month or two later, a baby watermelon started to form. Then everyone paid attention. Sadly, it was not to be. The watermelon grew into the size of a small basketball, and the vine died. We opened it up and it was immature, white inside.

I hope that history does not repeat itself. Now onto testing the soil in the SFG... I see trouble ahead. :-D