Green thumbed folks, gardeners and grow your own

I just harvested my first ever cucamelon.    Adorable! And much nicer tasting than I expected from the description. We shared it! 

So tell me about cucamelon?  I've never heard of that one! 

Isn't it nice to be able to harvest and then eat what you harvest the same day?   

  At least you are safe from vampires! 

I spent the night at my SIL's house in Paris and was eaten alive by mosquitos!  I was all worried about the riots but it ended up that bugs were the biggest problem.

I have no idea why, but I never thought of France (and Paris particularly) being a mosquito haven! I know they are everywhere now - I was bitten several years ago while in Arizona, so even the desert doesn't stop the little bas.... uh... bugs!

Thank goodness for cortisone ointment and also antihistamines. A couple of the bites are now about the size of a two pound coin across and pretty puffed up. But they do LOOK better and in a few days it'll start going away. I had a can of bug repellent in the car, too. (What. An. Idiot!)

So tell me about cucamelon?  I've never heard of that one! 

Isn't it nice to be able to harvest and then eat what you harvest the same day?   

There's nothing better! 

Cucamelon. Size of a grape, looks like a watermelon. So cute! Smells like a cucumber. They say it's bitter; I was expecting the bitterness to be overwhelming but to me it just tasted of cucumber with a hint of lime. Really refreshing, looking forward to my next one!   

Cucamelons (Melothria scabra) are a unique and fascinating fruit also known as 'Mexican sour gherkins' or 'mouse melons'. Despite their name, they're not a cross between cucumbers and watermelons, but rather a distinct species that belongs in the cucumber family. They are native to Mexico and Central America, where they’ve been cultivated for centuries.

Cucamelons are small, grape-sized fruits that resemble tiny watermelons and have a tart, citrusy flavour. They’re incredibly refreshing and can be eaten raw or used in a variety of culinary applications, such as pickling, salads, and garnishes.

https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/cucamelon/

They sound fantastic!  I'll have to try them. Sounds like a good addition to a "snack" plate.  It's probably too late to get them going outdoors, so I'll try the Aerogrow when I can find the seeds.



[Total non sequitur:  I brought home a wooden mantle clock when we moved back. I bought it in a charity shop on Byres Road. It hasn't worked since I bought it and I was always going to get it fixed "someday."  It's about a foot from where I'm sitting, and it just started ticking a few minutes ago, and the hand is moving as it should. Now THAT's weird!!!!!!     ]

I unfortunately didn't  really like the cucuamelons that I grew a couple of years ago.  But that's why growing your own is great, you can try new things!

I unfortunately didn't  really like the cucuamelons that I grew a couple of years ago.  But that's why growing your own is great, you can try new things!

I felt the same about Asparagus Peas which I tried a year or two ago. I wouldn't grow them again, just not worth the effort. I find as a rule that the gimmicky things are not that great, but I am just loving the cucamelons, at least in part because of how adorable they look! 

I'm trying dragon's egg cucumbers as well this year but too early to tell if I'm going to get any.

English cucumber Louisa has been a great success though, not a hint of bitterness. I've picked 3 so far and plenty more on the way.

Yep, trying new things.   

I scaled way back this year because the Daughter is not around to eat any veg, but I did put in Hubbard Squash for the first time.  They are supposed to be very hardy, last a REALLY long time after harvest, and taste very much like a silky-sort-of pumpkin.  If I get more than one or two I will see if the food bank wants them.

The Romas are just starting to make their first tomatoes, so if the mice/rats/voles/racoons/opposums/rabbits/etc. don't get them I should have some nice additions to my supper in a couple of weeks. I also put in a lot of scarlet runner beans. They are from seed from last year's crop. I still have a ton of seed left from last year, so I guess I'll go put in another couple of rows.  At some point I will have enough to start harvesting the pods while they are young and having them for dinner as well.

Since the kiddo is not around, I've been putting in a lot of annual flowers, as I find them on sale. Got some nice cone flowers, phlox, and delphiniums on a very good sale yesterday and put them in around our smaller space in the raised beds. (We have a larger space where the vines and the sunflowers live).  The bee balm (Monarda) has gone nuts, and the bees love it. As also they love the comfrey, which I have to keep cutting way back.  So not a lot of food growing in there now - I just pulled most of the remaining broccoli plants and am solarizing the soil. We seem to have acquired "Jumping Worms" and they need to be made to leave, pronto!.

The Gladiola bulbs we saved from the "last chance" sale last winter have come up and are starting to bloom. They look almost black when first opening, and then are the most amazing crimson!

Wow! That is gorgeous! 

I love your seed storage drawers too! I've just got mine in plastic storage boxes, not attractive at all! 

Thanks! I found them absolutely striking, and wasn't expecting that at all.  I was so shocked that they were coming out black, but then just flamed into that color!  There's at least a dozen of them out there, thankfully not all blooming at once. I do hope these bulbs make it over the winter (I'm going to lift and store them) as last year's red and yellow , and blue, ones did not seem to come up at all this year.

The seed drawers are actually two separate units we found in a crafts store (AKA Michaels or JoAnns, not sure which). The Daughter put a nice lacquer finish on (several coats with sanding in between) and then made the labels for me. I used to just keep everything in a big plastic tub, but this is much more useful. And I can actually find what I'm looking for without a major effort this way. I'm impressed at how well it actually came out. I think each of the two sets of drawers was maybe $10 and are of the absolutely cheapest wood going, but the Daughter made them look quite nice.

Oh, lordy, it is absolutely POURING rain again. I had to squish my way into the garden this morning to get some weeding done as it was (it's up a slope that has the path worn by many years of feet and rain into a "V" shape) and the new plants in. The weather radio said that 2.5 inches fell in the last couple of hours. On the good side, I didn't really water-in the new plants this morning as I had a hunch Mother Nature was going to do it for me. On the bad side, I had just put out two 10'x6' sheets of clear plastic on a couple of the beds to try to solarize them. The water will either be standing in puddles on the plastic or run off all at once into the aisle, making it swampy. Which will mean mosquitos.

God, I hate mosquitos!   

This is been a very challenging gardening year, weather-wise.

Ok. So it's been raining again today (Saturday). A lot. This morning at 9:00am the "real feel" temp was already over 100F, and the humidity you could cut with a knife. Fast forward, some truly gnarly storms all afternoon - severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings every so often on the weather alert radio.

It's finally stopped raining and appears to be done for the day.  I just opened the back door (at about 8:00pm) and it's 64F out there, saith my trusty garden thermometer! The clouds are moving away east and it'd downright chilly!  Well, it's a lovely development, I have to say.        No idea what it's going to do to the plants in the garden (the tomatoes, and the Hubbard Squash that were blooming like mad), but it's soooooooooooooooooo nice out that even though the sun is going down I'm going to get dressed and go out for a long walk. I can actually breathe the air without it feeling like I've got a weight on my chest, too!  Woo hoo! [Doing the Victory Dance here!]

Any chance anyone knows what to do to get the swelling down for a mosquito bite near one's eye? She got me on Monday morning. Yesterday it was swelled up to the point that I could not see my eyelashes (or see out of that eye, for that matter). I took an antihistamine and put a cold pack on it periodically throughout the day. Today the swelling has gone down enough that I can actually see out of that eye and verify that I still have eyelashes, but now the area below my eye is all puffed up as well. I do look like I've been punched. I am about to take another antihistamine and get the cold pack out again. As I understand it, I'm in for up to 5 or 6 more days of this, to some degree.

If you have actually experienced something similar, was there something you did to lessen the obnoxiousness of the situation that actually worked?

Can't get into my regular GP for this until next week. Could go to an urgent-care center (Quack-in-a-box) but I'm not sure it's actually necessary. Yet. I was wearing one of the stronger mosquito repellents at the time, but could not put it on my face. Amazingly, she managed to get under my glasses to bite me without my realizing it. That is one stealth mosquito!

Any chance anyone knows what to do to get the swelling down for a mosquito bite near one's eye? She got me on Monday morning. Yesterday it was swelled up to the point that I could not see my eyelashes (or see out of that eye, for that matter). I took an antihistamine and put a cold pack on it periodically throughout the day. Today the swelling has gone down enough that I can actually see out of that eye and verify that I still have eyelashes, but now the area below my eye is all puffed up as well. I do look like I've been punched. I am about to take another antihistamine and get the cold pack out again. As I understand it, I'm in for up to 5 or 6 more days of this, to some degree.

If you have actually experienced something similar, was there something you did to lessen the obnoxiousness of the situation that actually worked?

Can't get into my regular GP for this until next week. Could go to an urgent-care center (Quack-in-a-box) but I'm not sure it's actually necessary. Yet. I was wearing one of the stronger mosquito repellents at the time, but could not put it on my face. Amazingly, she managed to get under my glasses to bite me without my realizing it. That is one stealth mosquito!

I would go to urgent care if antihistamines aren't reducing it significantly, an infection by your eye can go nasty quickly. Some mosquitos in NY carry nasty things as well.

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It swelled considerably more, both above and below the eye. It really looked like I'd taken a fist to my eye, without the bruising.  Quack-in-the-box yesterday said to ice it, continue with antihistamines, come back if it got worse. Nothing else to be done, that obviously I am allergic.  Much of the swelling, except one significant saddlebag under my eye, has now subsided, thankfully, and I can see relatively well out of that eye again.

I FINALLY found a bush hat big enough to fit. I also ordered a mosquito-netting hood to go over it. It arrived yesterday. I sprayed both heavily with a 40% deet repellant and tried it out yesterday evening. Blessedly, not one bite - they physically couldn't get to me. It looks like the only way to manage - be covered head-to-toe. My only other alternative was going to be a bee-keepers headdress. And those are pricey.

We had a horrific storm in the middle of the night last night that took down some of my sunflowers, but I didn't have the supplies with me to get them braced back up again when I checked the damages this morning.  We are under severe thunderstorm watches and warnings today, and the weather alarm is going off every 20 minutes or so. I'll get back out there tomorrow, hopefully, and will take the necessary supplies with me to do damage control. It must have been very windy to topple them completely like that. At least with the hat/netting/chemicals/hazmat-suit I can get the work done!

[The missing ones are/were  where the green stakes are in the photo. Thankfully everything is so wet that I should be able to prop them up again without too much damage to them.]

Had quite a surprise at the garden today. Pink Gladiolas.  I didn't plant any pink Gladiolas!  But I have some.