Melon Experiment

This is the first year I've been able to grow anything for real, and outside. I decided to try and grow melons (watermelon, canteloupe and honeydew) and they worked surprisingly well. I went with two types of watermelon, red and yellow.

A friend asked me if I were planning to grow a square watermelon... When I said just trying not to kill them was goal enough for the year, he made me a "watermelon box" and told me to try it. I have engineer friends :) I put one of the small yellow watermelons into the box....

On July 30th, after about two week in the box, the yellow watermelon looked like this:

View from the stem end, about two weeks after being put in the box

And view from the back, where the melon is already growing against the plastic sides...

 But a few weeks later (Aug 20th), there was trouble!:

The melon is escaping! The box was glued and screwed together...

I left it on the vine another week, and this is what it looked like when I brought it to the patio:

It only got worse over the next week...

The box had deformed so badly, power tools were required to open it. When viewed side by side with a "non-boxed" watermelon from the same vine, it appears pretty obvious what happened:

Boxed (top) and non-boxed (bottom) melons from the same vine, plus a tape measure...

Both melons were about 9 inches high, but the non boxed melon (bottom) was almost 16 inches long, while the box constricted the other one to about 9 inches long. It does look pretty cube-ish though:

It's kind of like a cube...?

So maybe a bigger box (or stronger box?) would work? Maybe next year... but I'll either have to make a new box, or get someone to make me one, because this one is toast!

The remained of the box... the pins were so deformed they couldn't come out...

But still a pretty cool experiment! Hopefully they both taste good... except I'm wondering what I'm supposed to do with two huge watermelons now...

Pollinators in the Garden

With the hot weather cooling off just a bit, I took a look outside to see what was buzzing around the garden. I used to be scared of anything that looked like it could sting, but most of the buzzing creatures seemed happy to have their picture taken.

I did see some things that I did not expect, like this blue-striped bee/wasp?

sitting on the white butterfly bush in the back garden

 There were more on the Coreopsis, along with bees and wasps of the yellow-variety:

The blue ones did not like sharing, and were big enough to push the smaller wasps off.

This shows  how distinct the blue markings were. They might be mason bees?

I thought this picture came out rather interesting - the wasp (?) is making a bee-line for the Coreopsis verticillata 'Route 66' ...

It's free!

what look like three different species on the same plant.

 This big black bee (a carpenter bee, I think?) was buzzing around the Salvia greggi. At first I thought the sound was a hummingbird, it was so loud...

The best picture was blurry - the thing would not sit still, except on the other side of the bush!

 But the award for the biggest thing buzzing around the garden that day went to this guy:

Sitting on the back of a bloomed-out sunflower, eating?

It was LOUD, and kind of bumbly, but when it finally stopped moving, it looked more like a giant beetle than anything else. I tried to use both Bugguide and What's That Bug to try and id this guy, but I'm still not sure what it is...

For more (and better!) pictures  of pollinators, there is Alan's post at It's Not Work, It's Gardening. His pictures are gorgeous!

Back!

It's been a crazy two weeks - between an unexpected work trip, and a broken computer (it won't turn on! at all!) I need to get back on the blogging band wagon. Thankfully, the garden turned out the bear my absence well enough (except for the crazy grass, that grows everywhere I don't want, and the aphids), so I should have some new things up soon. The broken computer has been replaced... if only getting rid of the aphids was as easy... They disintegrated my watermelon plant!

grass, aphids and watermelons... sigh.

First Harvest

Since this is the first year I've planted vegetables, I was very excited when some of them were ripe. The first ones were a bunch of Lemon Cucumbers, that I harvested at a couple of different sizes:

4 lemon cucumbers, eaten, and made into cucumber water

The smaller ones were so good I just ate them like an apple! I also made some cucumber water, and pickles (adapted from this recipe here). They're really good right off the vine, but I have found they don't store very well. Even a day later, they get a bit mushy.

The second plant that started ripening was the "black cherry" cherry tomatoes:

First six cherry tomatoes. All eaten shortly after this picture was taken!

 Unlike Carol at May Dream Gardens, there was no elaborate ritual for the first tomato, but they were tasty none-the-less. The first yellow tomato was also ripe, but I ate that one so fast, there was no picture! The first of orange sweet peppers met a similar fate. I need to be better at taking pictures!

In the next week, the first watermelon should be ready! I already can't wait... There is also a watermelon-experiment on-going... pictures to come soon!

New Plant: Agave Schidigera

When I first started redoing the front garden three years ago, I ended up with a lot of grasses - mainly blue fescue (Festuca glauca 'Elijah Blue'), pink muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaris) and Mexican Feather grass (Stipa tenuissiam). They all provide a very "soft" look, and what goes better with soft than spiky?

This one shouldn't get more than ~1 ft diameter, which is good.

There's another new sorta-spikey addition to the front garden bed: an Agave Schidigera!

This is a smaller Agave, that only grows to be about a foot wide and tall, and instead of teeth, it has these cool "threads" instead - kind of like the false red yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora) It does have spines though. It's currently sitting next to a blue fescue, and they're about the same size - I think the contrast between them in kind of cool:

And this one come with a cool surprise - 7 pups/offsets! Since it is right next to the path, I didn't want an entire colony of A. Schidigera, so I pulled off the pups and potted them up into their own containers:

All the pups! Now I just need to figure out where to put them. On the slope?

Now I've got plans for an all-agave (but different types!) front row for one of the beds in the back garden! Or they'll go on the slope... Maybe in a container or two?

Butterfly Bush

The front garden has (basically) three beds - the main one, the dry creek bed, and the "filled with rocks" bed. For the first year, there was nothing in the latter (other than rocks, which I inherited with the house) because there was no way to get water to it. After finally fixing the third sprinkler valve, I picked out two Buddleja davidii 'Black Knight', which are surprisingly drought and heat-tolerant.

These haven't  been pruned to the ground since they were planted. I'm still trying to decided if I should?

These plants taught me an important lesson - plants have to suit the site! See how one (in the background) is much bigger than the other, even though they were planted at the same time?

They were the same size when I bought them!

That's because the smaller one (foreground) spent about a year in a different spot - right next to the front door. Which only gets full-sun for about 2 hours in the morning, before the column and roof line put it in full shade. It was NOT happy there, so I moved it its current spot. In less than a year, it about doubled in size (and started blooming). But obviously the other one is still bigger...

The smaller plant - that's now hiding the sprinkler valves and hose reel. Full sun = good

Their dark purple flowers have the best scent, and look great against the white of the house and garage

This means, of course, I can't even change the paint scheme of my house! :)

  Last year, something was eating the leaves (turning them into lace almost!) but it doesn't seem to be impacting them this year. They started blooming in early June, and if I remember to dead-head them, will keep going! There is a new one in the back garden - if it blooms this year, I'll be interested to see if it's the same one or a different color...

Garage Cleaning

A few weeks ago, I was looking for a tool (my ultra-sonic distance estimator). No wonder I couldn't find it:

My tool storage in the garage. That black stuff is weed fabric for a project...

   Wait, maybe it's here:

In that box? Or under the pile of potting soil bags?

The orange ball just showed up on my lawn one day. It looked like an ING commercial. I'm not sure why I still have it.
And the mess wasn't even contained to the garage! Maybe I put it here:

On the back patio.

...in the cardboard box that I put on the patio three years ago and has been sitting there (through rain and what not) since then.
Hm - maybe its time to clean and organize?

Step 1: get all the stuff off the shelves and "organized" into categories:

The random pink umbrella (unused!) is another mystery item

Believe it or not, that's "organized" into piles right there. And I don't know why I left my car in the garage for all this - you'd think I would have moved it.

While cleaning, i squealed many times because of spiders and other creatures. In the desert, even the spiders are deadly:

Black widow! You bet I jumped...

I usually let creatures live, but I draw a line at kinds that can kill me living in my garage...
I know my organizing style is more "put like items in containers" than "put everything in an exact place on a peg board" (knowing your shortcomings is important!), so some clear plastic bins (with no lids) later, it looked like this:

Much better! And I can open my tool box without having to reach into dark places...

It's all organized in "areas" now: painting, outdoor irrigation, gardening equipment, indoor plumbing, tools, car washing, etc. I need a couple of more/larger containers - one for my parents' motorcycle stuff, a larger box for the painting supplies, but it all looks much better. The weed fabric is neatly rolled up on the top shelf.

On the other side, there is now room for the black bin. That's my compost bin (an on-going experiment). I have to keep it in the garage if I have any chance of keeping it "semi-moist" like its supposed to be. I refuse to water my compost-pile on a daily basis...

Compost bin plus extra "brown" materials in the bag - maybe it will turn into leaf mulch?

I even managed to condense all the stuff from the other side of the garage also, making room for my soon-to-be-improved wheelbarrow:

The orange ball is still there...

And I finally got rid of the mess on the patio:

Now i can actually use the grill!

I found an even-larger black widow in the "box of horrors", which I ended up just throwing away (without touching it!)
I discovered I have three watering cans... how did I end up with three? However, my ultra-sonic distance estimator... is still missing!

(sort of) Garden Visit - Santana Row

This isn't really a garden, but an upscale, outdoor shopping area in San Jose, CA. I was struck by their landscaping and use of plants while visiting family. I remembered when this opened, the goal was to create a "European", "urban village". I'm not sure how many villages have Gucci, Tesla and Crate and Barrel stores, but they did do an excellent job with the plants...

There is a riot of color to greet you at the entrance:

There are Canna's, butterfly bush, and a mass of annuals... and it really clashes with the red curb...

In front of Pottery Barn, there are some purple bananas and a big container with a single Agave in it:

The Agave was in remarkably good shape for being right by the enterance

There were three containers with the purple banana planting in them. Pretty cool!

In front of the "fancy" shops (can you tell I don't shop there?) the color palete calms down some - mostly whites and greens in very large round containers:

These seemed like they were in part shade - which explains the hostas and ferns

Maybe fancy stores need more "sophisticated" plantings, rather than "loud"? They also have some impressive topiaries, this time in large square containers:

I'm not sure that tree likes being that shape, but it was real...

Walking down the street, there are interesting plantings everywhere - mosiac pots, hanging baskets and some plants in the ground...

I wonder how they water them all?

At the end of the street, there is a Tequila bar, which had some of my favorite containers, and use of non-plant art:

The white toppers on the pillar match the agave - appropriate for a Tequila bar!

And I have never seen this before - giant A. americana, underplanted with... impatients?

Or whatever they are - they looked like those generic bedding annuals you can buy flat of at the big box stores. I wonder what made them chose those, instead of rocks, or a plant that has similiar water needs?

Walking back up the street, there are more colorful containers (in front of the more affordable stores. Hmm...)

Cheaper stores = more colorful containers outside. I like the Aeonium arboreum in the bottom right picture - they look like alien eyes...

I wonder if there is some sort of research that supports the store type to container color ratio?

I did find another Agave on a side street, that I was tempted to steal some pups from.

All the tips were clipped off!

On that same side street, there was a public square, with a music stage and a (fake) grassy field. It had two pretty cool things - serveral planting beds with an explosion of color:

and this cool water feature that looked like the palm trees around it:

Or maybe it looks like a blue agave..

Another neat thing they did was use and protect the native oaks that were still in the area:

The wood planks on the right are not on the ground - I'm assuming to protect the roots?

Too bad no new ones will ever be able to grow there though... But it is good that they didn't cut them down when they built the place. And they're trying to protect the roots from being walked on.

I also found this container, that was supposed to look like an A. bracteosa growing out of the rock... with herbs?

This was another odd plant combo - and I don't know how they water them either.

And this cool water feature:

There was a red one on the other side of the pond. Cute!

Santana Row certainly has a lot of different-than-normal plants and plant combinations.  I liked the single plant in a large container look, and the impact really, really large containers can have. I'm still not sure whether impatients and Agaves really go together though!

Weekly Front Garden - 07/14/2012

This week in the front garden:

After a week of hot weather, the garden still looks sort-of lush. The roses are starting to rebloom, which is nice! Digging up and dividing a bunch of the grasses has been added to the fall to-do list, and the Jackimanii is making another stem! I'm probably way too excited about that...

Other than that, not much has changed. Just today (about 3 days after this picture was taken) another lily started blooming! It adds some color and a lot of scent to the area right by the front door. Maybe I should take this time to think about what I would replace the lawn grass with... Or what kind of other plants I want to add here. I love planning the plantings and finding new plants to use.

Foliage Follow Up in July

After Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, its always good to look at all the foliage in the garden too, especially when the crazy weather has been causing issues in the garden.

One of my goals for this first year was to find a way to make the garden look "lush", even in the desert and summer heat. My solution seems to be working - plant vining vegetables and fruits! The water melon ('Sugar baby') seems to be doing really well:

The Optunia is having some problems - the wind blew it over! The watermelon hasn't tried to climb it yet...

The Feathery Cassia (Senna artemidiolides) is trying to out-grow the watermelon, I think:

It's put on a lot of new growth lately - and I've been keeping the watermelon off it.

It's open leaf structure and feathery look means it will shrug off the desert heat once it's established.

The yellow watermelon, next to the Chaste Tree (Vitex agnus-castus) and Yucca rostrata is also contributing to a look of lushness:

Two different views - and I found my first yellow watermelon while taking these pictures.

The Vitex is actually blooming, but the blossoms are so washed out, you can't see them.
Even if this pea plant never produces peas, it's adding an excellent lush, vertical accent to the garden:

Pea plant, with A. parryi, Salvia gregii and more watermelon in the background.

The Optunia macrocentra is also looking lush, in its own spiny way:

It's making more blooms and more pads. Not more giant spines yet though...

and this picture of the spine imprints on my Agave bovicornuta (? - I think) is too pretty not to share:

my not so good picture doesn't really do it justice...

Several of the grasses are growing in too - I love purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum')

This one was dancing in the wind as I was trying to take its picture

But I can't figure out if it's hardy here or not... too much conflicting information. But I'll find out this year! The Mexican feather grass (Stipa tenuissima) in the back garden is also growing in. I love the contrast of yellow and green:

This one was planted this year - it's amazing to see how much its grown!

Both the back and the front gardens' dry stream beds have pink muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaris). I like how different it looks in different spots:

From left: first year in the back garden, in the front garden, full sun with last year's blooms left on and last, in the front garden, in part sun...

But sadly, the heat got to one of my hostas:

Blurry picture, but you get the idea. It only got worse today...

It will come back next year. The funny thing is that this one gets more shade than the other one, and that one is fine-ish.

The warm weather has been good for some of the houseplants, which get to come outside (when it's not crazy windy). I think this is Monstera deliciosa, which has to be one of the funnier latin plant names:

I now call this plant the delicious monster!

It just recently got moved to that giant pot (post coming soon), and really seems to like it. I love it's giant leaves, which are starting to develop the characteristics "splits". Sadly the giant leaves tend to break in our crazy winds, so I have to lug that pot in and out every day...

The ZZ plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia) is also making new foliage, which are super shiny:

5 new stems help to balance out the plant again.

It also seems to like its new home from Earlier this year.

Finally, there's the foliage on this plant; Chlorophytum amaniense, or Mandarine Plant:

It's orange! And rarely needs watering or much of anything, really...

I love the orange color on the leaf stalks... Even in house plants, foliage is really the backbone of the (indoor) garden!

To see more beautiful foliage, go to Pam at Digging and see all the links to other bloggers' gardens.