2009 Planters: Melon, Tomato and Herbs

This planting took place May 24th, here we have a "Minnesota Midget" muskmelon that I started indoors from seed. It was alone initially, since this small tub only holds about 2 gal. of soil. In this tub, we have tomatoes 'Amish Paste' on the left, and 'Jet Sonic' on the right. In the center I planted some "early bush bean" seeds, and the upper left corner is Italian parsley seed, upper right has purple basil.

There! No screens to protect from wildlife, as I was confident that deer and rabbits wouldn't walk up onto the deck. Will I be sorry?

Well, the late frosts and low temps struck an early blow to the melon, but these tiny leaves gave me hope for a comeback.

Hmmm...still looks pretty sad. So on June 13th, I planted some more melon seeds next to this pouter. I also planted some cypress vine seeds, a 'Volcano' pepper plant, and a "Benary's Giant Lime" zinnia (both were plants I'd started indoors myself.)

By June 21st both tomatoes are very large, but the bush bean in the center never did anything (it was very old seed, and I forgot to use innoculant.) At this point, the 'Jet Sonic' tomato on the right has some curly leaves that bug me and I'm concerned about a blight of some sort.

When July 13th rolled around it just looked too funky, so I pulled it up. The 'Amish Paste' next to it was getting really big anyway, and I didn't want it to "catch anything" (I did trim off some lower branches that looked shrively.) I also planted a NOID seedling ("no ID") in the center where the bean never grew.

Here we are about July 28th, and this little tub looks great!

The green zinnia bloom is getting started-funky!

The whole planter is really growing strong!

Look at those cute melon blooms!

The basil and parsley were harvested several times over the season...

....but melon & company were harvested prematurely! Crap! July 30th the varmints demonstrated that they have no problem walking onto the deck....

....and uprooting my poor melon!

So I stuck it back in the soil and assessed the damage. *Sigh* So much for my pretty green zinnia, and I just don't know if there's enough season left for the melon to make a comeback. We'll see...

About a month later, we have renewed growth....

....tomatoes forming nicely on our 'Amish Paste'....

...lots of them! Very cool temps are keeping them green, though.

Not much color here, although green is nice, and the cypress vine seems happy...

....climbing up my "refrigerator trellis"....

...showing off the delicate blooms.

It even scrambled up the tomato branch when it ran out of trellis!

Here's the NOID plant reaching for the sky. After scouring my seeding notes I've decided this is
coreopsis tinctoria (poor thing set buds yet never got to bloom). I've seen it listed as annual and perennial by various sources though, so I guess I'll find out this spring. Late September has me feeling hopeful for more green zinnias....

.....very hopeful!

One frost got the tomato looking somewhat droopy....

....but not the melon! All those cute blossoms, too bad my season isn't a month longer! (Not to mention the near-impossibility of a frost-free October.) The zinnia flower got so close, I cut it to bring indoors and enjoy.

Then came a harder frost...

....marking the beginning of the end. I got one tomato ripe enough to eat :(

Ah well, better luck this year! :)

Winter's on the Scene

Snow has finally arrived up here, taking longer than many locations farther south. First it was just a dusting about a week ago...

....looking rather decorative on my bamboo....
...then we got the first "named" snowstorm. (Our local forecasters like to name snowstorms like hurricanes. I think it's dorky, but to each his own :)

Sure thing, during the day and afternoon we got more....


...making the night noisy with crunching snow, yet quiet and peaceful too.

All my stuff looks cool covered in snow, IMO...

...as well as less "cluttered and junky" as my mom would say. (However I like it all, and since I'm the boss around here then mine is the last word on the subject!)

The snow brought my third cardinal sighting in all these years too...he's the red blur on the fence there. (I took this through the window and didn't get a second shot.) I just don't understand why I don't see more of these birds in my yard, but I have plenty of other kinds hanging around so whatever.
Bentley has his favorite winter spot mapped out! Seems his fur coat doesn't help as much as I'd expect it to.I decided to try and make my own wreath this year, since I have so many of the materials at hand right outside my door. I started with a wire frame from a purchased wreath I'd bought a few years ago, add some greenery...

....I used an assortment of conifer cuttings...

...then bent the wire thingys to hold it all down.

Add some red twigs from local willows...

....add some more coniferous greenery to hide the wire thingys, and some artemesia sprays...

...then some high bush cranberry branches (with berries, of course). Not too bad! Let's hang it on the door...

....looks pretty, but there's a thin spot on the right side...

...add more greenery...there! It could probably use a couple pinecones too, but I don't mind it without them, either. What do you think?

In houseplant news, my dicentra scandens 'Athens Yellow' looked very lush when I brought it in this fall. I was hoping it might not die back as usual, and just keep on blooming...
...however this was not the case.

But like clockwork, it sprang back to life after a dormancy of about a month. Now if I can get the cats to leave it alone, it should be well on its way for next summer camp on the porch.

I discovered a new "design element" for my home, courtesy of my feline room mates. See, I wanted a blanket rack for my throw blankets to keep them from becoming "cat hair blankets". But when I looked online and in catalogs, the cheapest I could find was $50, which I'm just not willing to pay. Then I noticed this ladder in the garage...I had cut it in half to keep my mom from continuing to use it, cuz' it's super old and dangerous. (She's still mad at me about it, too.) Well I think it works just fine for a blanket rack...

.....and after Bentley checks it out... ...it gets his approval for a chin rest!

The waterways still have open places, so it's too early for ice fishing...

....but never too early to peruse garden catalogs. I got three more the other day!

But my biggest winter news to date? I'm going to see Metallica!!! My friend won tickets from a radio contest to see them in January in Milwaukee, and I get to go too! YAY!!

So bring on the snow I say! Yay winter! Woot, woot! *~<];-)