Canteloupe Update!

I know you are DYING to know what my single lonely cantaloupe looks like today, right? Well, dun da da daaahhh!!!!



:) I think I can pick it tomorrow. Not sure why we are waiting until tomorrow, but Farmer Ben said it needed another day....

We have a cantaloupe!

So, as an update to my black thumb of gardening post here. You can see my teeny cantaloupe plant. Well, the chives and lettuce didn't make it. Apparently I can't plant anything that requires too much attention or knowledge, because it may be days or weeks before I remember to water it and I just don't have the time to go read about how to grow things right now. :-/

Well, it seems cantaloupe does not require much! Our teeny plant has become a monster and taken over half the flower beds/grass.

And on a more exciting note, we actually have a small cantaloupe or two.

I have no idea if this will ever be edible, but I'm pretty pleased with it still. Hopefully the bugs won't find it before its big enough to pick! I was told by a friend who is MUCH more successful at growing fruit/veggies, to put the cantaloupes in tied off panty-hose once they grow to keep bugs/critters away. I never thought I'd get that far, but I may have to stop by walmart!

Some randoms over the past week

This is Logan riding home from Dee's house. She was really wobbly so I looked back there to see what she was using to stand on and its Sierra! She is standing on Sierra's back to look out the window. Poor Sierra... she's so abused.
Also, I had a wonderful surprise when I got home... 2 years ago I planted some day lilies in my front yard. They normally look like this:But when I got home, I had a new one!!!
What a fun surprise! I wish they all looked like this.
This lilly below is my favorite one, because I bought it on sale for $3, it was shoved under a table nearly dying and had 2 puny stalks on it. I was poor but really wanted a lilly in my yard. Look at what it has become:
Last year it grew so tall it touched the gutters!

Gardening

I know you guys are dying to have an update on my "lettuce" so here you go:
But fortunatley I did find out why you should NOT plant lettuce in the summer (aside from the obvious picture). Ben's co-worker told him that if you plant lettuce in the spring, it will sprout up really quickly and grow little flowers... (see picture above...) so ben said, hmm... interesting.... (without mentioning that is exactly what ours did). So take note... only plant lettuce in the winter. I should probably read some instructions next year.

Gardening

Ben and I love to grow our own vegetables, for the simple reason of, I'm cheap... and its way cheaper to grow a dozen tomatoes than to just buy one. Well this year our "garden" was unusable because Ben is supposed to be redoing our backyard. He's very slowly building a retaining wall that will hopefully soon make our backyard tiered up our rock mountain and I will be able to plant all along it.

So - this year we planted a few things in some planters out front, thinking all would be well.

Let me show you how my "Romain Lettuce" is looking:

Now, I'm not positive, but I can't really remember seeing Romain lettuce look like this in the grocery store.

Also, please see my second pot of Romain lettuce, that has now grown a twin:

We're attempting to grow cantaloupe for the first time too. Its still a rather small plant, and we were told a great tip from our friends Johnna and Michael: that when (if) we grow cantaloupe to put them in panty hose while they grow to keep bugs and animals from getting to them!

Here is our baby cantaloupe plant so far :)