My friend, Ms. J., doesn't have a good garden patch established on her property. A fenced-in area exists at one end of her house, but the ground has a pronounced slope, and would need major tilling and amending in order to make it usable. She's a widow, so doesn't have the ability to take care of all of that. Instead, she has been experimenting with container gardening on her patio and surrounding yard. She soon learned how intrusive the deer and the ground squirrels are; her initial attempts at temporary fencing were inadequate. This year, with help from a nephew, she rigged up a better fence involving PVC pipe sunk into cement blocks and a sturdy deer fencing material. The deer and the ground squirrels did not get in, and she now has a jungle in her small gardening area.
This mystery vegetable hid for weeks inside the sea of green leaves. (Incidentally, she has liberally sprinkled diatomaceous earth on those green leaves, which is why they look speckled.) It was the size of a volleyball when she finally noticed it. She asked me to come over and look at it. She had lost the little tag that was with the plant when she bought it, and had no idea what it might be, except for maybe a squash. I used Google Lens, which only told me the obvious, but it did plant the idea in my head that it could be a melon. We researched large yellow melons and are quite sure that's what it is. It's too smooth to be a squash. Last evening she told me it has gotten even bigger since I saw it on the 14th.
I located the tendrils near the stem, which the internet says need to turn brown before it's ripe. They were quite green ten days ago, but she says they are turning yellow now. She is worried that the melon will fall off onto her tomatoes, but I figure since it started out hanging up there on a tomato cage, it should be just fine.
If anybody recognizes the variety of melon, please let me know!
Meanwhile, my gladiolus have been blooming beautifully. Several red and white ones bloomed at once, so I was able to make an arrangement with just that color.
I found this interesting fungus growing near the tomatoes and nasturtiums. I looked it up on Google Lens, too, and found out its name...and promptly forgot it.
The two bush butternut squash plants have been blossoming like crazy, with no squashes appearing. I finally figured out the blossoms were all male blossoms. Now, at long last, I have one tiny 2" squash on the plant. It's much too late in the season for it to grow to maturity, however.
Due to the heavy smoke in the air earlier in the month, I didn't harvest squash for three days. When I finally ventured out to do so, this is what I found.
I've been having fun making arrangements with the smaller flowers in my garden. I don't consider myself to be good at it, yet I think I am improving with practice.
The raspberries are all done for the year. A few blueberries remain to be picked. The summer squash varieties continue to keep us (and several other people) well-supplied. I continue to harvest the smaller side shoot broccoli heads as they mature. I've harvested one Tunisian Baklouti pepper. The tomatoes have taken a break from ripening, but plenty more green ones are on the plants. My one Russian kale plant quit developing brown leaves on the bottom, once I figured out it needed more water. Then the aphids moved in. By the time I noticed, they were thick on the stem and leaves. I've treated the aphids, and I've used some of the leaves after carefully washing them, but the aphids (dead or alive) are so thick on the bottom side of the leaves, I don't intend to try to use any more. I'll just leave the plant there and hope any remaining live aphids will just live there rather than spread to the broccoli.
All photos taken on my Android phone.
