While doing my evening rounds, I was able to take progress photos of the melons, winter squash, pumpkins and drum gourds, using my hand as a size reference, before losing the light.
I am just amazed by how many melons we’ve got! Instagram slideshows have a maximum of 10 images. For the East bed alone, I ended up with 21 images. This, even with images having multiple melons in it. There was at least one in the bed that I found as I was taking the photos!
Here are the photos, split up into three slideshows.
Then there were the ones in the West bed. I was able to catch multiple melons in a single shot several times, so this one got split into only two slideshows.
The second slide show include the Cream of Saskatchewan watermelons. We’ve actually lost one of those, but there is a new one that looks like it will make it. Plus, there are more female flowers showing up!
There are even new female flowers showing up in the winter squash beds that I’ve been hand pollinating. It’s almost impossible for them to fully mature with the growing season we have left, but I just can’t help wanting to give them a chance!
First is the East bed winter squash.
Then the West bed.
We do still have drum gourd doing their best.
There’s just the one that’s been getting bigger, but it seems to be starting to turn yellow, so I don’t know if it’s going to make it. As you can see, though, there are more female flowers blooming!
All the pumpkins, meanwhile, have turned orange.
There’s just one that still has a tiny big of green on it.
I’m also really impressed with the Crespo squash. Not only have the vines themselves had a growth spurt, with huge leaves, and the vines spreading all over – including climbing a nearby cherry tree! – but there are more squash developing!
One is definitely a loss, but we’ve got two new ones along with the very first one that is getting all nubbly. There are more female flowers that have been hand pollinated – including one on the vine climbing the cherry tree – but it’s too early to know if the pollination took. Plus, there are more female flower buds that will probably bloom in a few days.
All this, and the only thing that’s been harvested is one winter squash that broke its own stem. Nothing is ready for harvesting, though some of the winter squash are close. With the melons, some of them are supposed to be early melons and we should have been able to already harvest some of those, but with so many things almost a month behind, that hasn’t happened yet. All the melons and squash are supposed to be short season varieties, but that wet, wet spring we had really set things back.
We have only 18 days before our average first frost date.
Looking at the long range forecast, the predictions have flip flopped again, and it’s now looking like we’ll, at the very least, have a first frost in the second week of September, with highs around 15C/59F and lows as far down as 2C/36F, which can have frost – but then we are supposed to climb back up to highs of 29C/84F and lows of 13C/55F.
I’ll bet if I look again in the morning, the long range forecast will completely change again.
Meanwhile, we are under a heat warning right now. Over the weekend, we’re expecting highs of 30C/86F, with the humidex at 38C/100F. The predicted rain and thunderstorms are no longer in the forecast, though other parts of Canada are getting thunderstorm warnings right now. It’s just not supposed to reach us, anymore.
Looks like I’m going to be watering the garden in the morning, again!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 