Fiber Fool

Follow the feats and foibles of a fiber fanatic.

Watermelon Watch Wednesday

Filed under: In the Dirt — Kristi at 8:38 am on Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Remember this cute little guy? Check out what he looks like now!

It’s a bit smaller than a volleyball now and getting darker skinned gradually. This variety is to have a black skin. I’ve read melons are ready when they sound hollow, which it does to me, or when their belly is yellow(rather than white), which this one is. But I think we’ll just keep an eye on it for a while since it isn’t black yet and the other sign I read about hasn’t happened yet - the curly tendrils nearest it should be turning brown and break off easily. The bed has filled in nicely and overspilled to the south. There are many melons set in various stages so I think we should have a relatively drawn out harvest which will be nice. We also should have plenty to share to friends and family as well. Hopefully we’ll have some things we can take down to the family wedding at the end of the month!

Remember this poor looking basil? Well look at it, and its fellow row mates now!

It seems it was just at the awkward stage where it just didn’t look like it would make it, but it has. We haven’t made a large harvest from it, but we’ve been pinching back several leaves every time we cut the globe basil. We’ve also taking to dressing pizza with homemade pesto (as well as many other things). To see more photos of the garden check out the set on Flickr. It is order oldest first, so the last 13 or 14 photos are from this mornings stroll to the beds.

I got an e-mail yesterday from Organic Gardening and it had a link to a great article about how to harvest many things at their peak. But they skipped winter squash. Anyone have any idea how we know when to pick our white winter squash? It is white almost from the get go. We also had a small one drop. I’m guessing from the high winds we had on and off all weekend. I’ve found their newsletters helpful throughout this growing season. I should consider subscribing so I’m ready for next year’s garden!

10 Comments »

Comment by Kara

August 8, 2007 @ 9:44 am

Oh my goodness…that’s a real watermelon. Crazy!

Comment by Alison

August 8, 2007 @ 9:58 am

Cool watermelon.

Keeping with your Monday’s rant about public toilets. They are so OBVIOUSLY designed by men who have never had to fit themselves and two small children into a stall when some of the stalls are so small that it’s hard to close the door with just one person in there. We won’t even go into why they don’t just put twice as many stalls into women’s bathrooms as the men’s in large venues. (I’m a bit crabby today, too :-)

Comment by Julia

August 8, 2007 @ 10:13 am

Wow, that watermelon exploded! Practically overnight! Keep reading those newsletters - obviously you’re doing something right!

Comment by Rebekah

August 8, 2007 @ 10:50 am

How cool! I tried to grow watermelon once, but mine all split before they were big. We just don’t have enough water in our garden or the proper soil.

Comment by Chris

August 8, 2007 @ 4:20 pm

Your garden really did well, didn’t it?!

Comment by Leigh

August 8, 2007 @ 7:40 pm

Mouthwatering! I’m really enjoying your garden. I used to get Organic Gardening. I learned a lot and it was very helpful.

Comment by JessaLu

August 8, 2007 @ 9:27 pm

I am *so* jealous of your watermelons…none for me this year :o(

Comment by Carrie K

August 8, 2007 @ 9:59 pm

That watermelon looks so big! And has lots of company in the watermelon patch too. I bet it’ll taste just fabulous.

Winter squash? Now?

Comment by Debi

August 9, 2007 @ 1:07 am

Can’t help ya with gardening tips but I’m excited for your watermelon baby!

Comment by Kim

August 10, 2007 @ 6:07 am

Great watermelon! I can’t grow them up here….the growing season is too short.

Winter squash, I harvest usually just before an expected frost in the fall, which up here in NH is usually mid September. :-)

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>