Minnesota Midget Melon

I harvested our first melon of the year yesterday - a little late! 

I don't grow melons very often but I chucked these seeds in last minute, then didn't plant them on quick enough and in the end they got chucked in a planting bucket and left in the corner of the greenhouse.

For their neglect they've rewarded me with a few miniature melons. I could smell this one was ripe as soon as I went in the greenhouse. 

They're only tiny, about the size of a cricket balls but the perfume coming from it is really strong.

the variety is bred to be small and early to ripen in a short season. I think this was probably a day or two over ripe but still really tasty, the girls ate it straight away, with big dribbles down chins! 

I'll certainly be growing this type again and maybe even try them outside next year or under a row cover. I've saved the seeds so I'll probably be giving some away to friends and in the seed swap as well.

Do you grow melons? What variety do you grow?

Unusual Fruits Ripening

The last few weeks has seen some of my more unusual fruit ripen on our little homestead.

The first was the musk melon, although to be fair to it I think the vine died off before it had chance to ripen fully. As such it was a little tasteless, completely edible though and probably alright in a fruit salad. I will try to grow these again though, as I planted them pretty late so they didn't really have a fair shot at producing fruit with such a short season. 

Musk Melon

 The second was our little Cocktail Kiwi plant. This tastes amazing, just like normal kiwi fruits only with no fuzz so you just pop the grape sized fruit straight into your mouth. I recommend planting this to anyone reading this blog. The books say when it's mature it can produce a thousand fruits so great for preserving.

Cocktail kiwi

 Another new fruit (to me anyway) is the Chilean Guava. This is another great tasting berry. The only down side is the skin is a little tough, luckily the fruit is so nice tasting, like a spiced blueberry, that you don't notice the skin too much. I'm glad I've got six of these plants, they have put on no end of growth this year, so hopefully I'll have plenty of berries in the future.

Chilean Guava

Has anyone else grown or eaten any interesting fruit this year?

Inside My Greenhouses

I've never done so well for things grown under glass as I have this year. 

Chilli peppers lining the long shelf in the greenhouse

 Everything is growing like mad and I think it's down to a combination of things (obviously the second greenhouse helps as well) -
A glorious summer - the sunshine has been great for everything in the garden and it's helped all the pollinating insects as well.

The potting mix seems to be working really well, I did plant a few tomatoes in just compost and they seem to dry out much faster than the others. A mix of soil, compost, blood fish and bone, wood ash and chicken mature pellets seems to be the way forward. In fact it's cheaper than just compost!

The size of my pots - the buckets seem to be a great way of growing things, they hold so much more water, I only water once a day and they never really dry out, hopefully they should last a good few years and stack together for easy storage over winter.

My tomato food - I've been alternating between nettle tea and comfrey tea. Feeding them much more often than I would of if I was buying it, everything seems to be growing like crazy. I plan to plant a large area of comfrey soon - I've got about 20 plants ready to be planted out. Free, organic plant food is the way forward, everyone should try it!

A wall of tomatoes - 18 plants in all

Different shapes and sizes - all taste amazing!

Cucumbers, melons, and cucucmelons in the smaller greenhouse

Sweet peppers in the small greenhouse

My first ever melon - should I support it? 

I'd like to change my smaller 8ft x 6ft greenhouse for a bigger one as well next year but I've probably got jobs that are more important to take care of!

How is everyone else's greenhouses doing?