Italian loafers....

I made and oops and had to edit!

Buon Natale!

I will order those melons today.

I think if have my garden set up in my mind. I will make 4, 16 inch x 8 foot raised beds. I will have a 16 inch walkway between two beds to give me room to navigate between the them.

I will need 168, 8 x 8 16 inch cinder blocks to make the beds 24 inches high and on top of that I will add 24 2 inch caps (to sit on)
making the total height 26 inches. On the blocks making up the sides I will plant herbs and flowers in the holes.




.

If you are planning to plant tomato plants on both sides of those 16 inch beds I can tell you that you will never be able to walk thru those 16 inch pathways once your tomatoes grow some. They will block your pathways. Maybe you intend to prune your plants down to a central leader. That way they will not be as bushy. But even so 16 inches is not much space between beds. I urge you to rethink this.

And measure for your wheelbarrow, too.

You will love them Franklin.

I know you will already,... and I believe they are going to love your Summer and produce well for you!

Rita - I plan on planting according to size. the first row will have my husk tomatoes which are very low growing and also some bush beans. The second row will have larger plants like my hot peppers. The last row will be the tomatoes.

Frank ~ can I have the pieces of Italian 'loaf'ers that are missing? Hot & slathered with butter please?

I agree with you, after growing them for the first time last season, Sun Gold cherry tomatoes are one I will never be with out. I did try a fall crop and they were tasteless but the summer crop was GREAT & WONDERFUL! And as those vines grow, you should have no problem with trellising them.

I would only advise to be aware of the taller plants providing too much shade for the shorter growers. I prefer small fruited plants as I grow in raised beds here also.

David ~ I am charmed by the smaller produce. Your Gold Bars got me to perusing the seed catalogues. Everyone is sold out of the Gold Bar seeds but no one is able to describe the taste of these, only how wonderful they are. Melon? Cucumber? Can you elaborate?

Rita ~ yes, for the size and the sweetness I am also looking at your Sugar Cube melons. Are they the taste of a cantaloupe?

Hello Pod,
I did a blog on these one time that may answer your question, and here is a company selling the same Melon under the name 'Korean Star'; http://www.evergreenseeds.com/...

Here's what I wrote about them. Ik hope its helpful...
http://www.greenspacegardens.n...

Good Luck and Happy Gardening!

David ~ thanks for those links. I had been on the evergreen seed site but didn't realize the name was different. I am thinking your assessment was more cucumber than melon? What type of pickle did you make?
I will suspect I'll look more at a cantaloupe type of fresh eating melon like Ritas' Sugar Cube for what I'm wanting but will do more reading. Thanks much!

Hi Pod.
I like your kitty.
Come show him/her (them?) off:
http://cubits.org/crittergarde...

Thanks for the invite but can't make it in the near future. My time is being doled out sparingly these days. Plants and springtime is a much needed mental distraction right now rather like comic relief.

The inherited pet collection numbers seven felines from 18+ to 1 1/2 years old and two canines of unknown parentage. All have a home in this abandoned pet retirement sanctuary. Problem is, I can't give anything up easily... plants, pets, people... you understand. Thanks much.

I DO understand.
Sounds like a nice (if sometimes hectic) place to be, all surrounded with the critters.

pod said:
Rita ~ yes, for the size and the sweetness I am also looking at your Sugar Cube melons. Are they the taste of a cantaloupe?

They are very disease free easily grown cantaloupe type melons. Very sweet and tasty. That is why they were named Sugar Cube. Very sweet and yummy.

Frank, the best way to learn to garden is simply to do it. I don't know if you are a beginning gardener or just a beginning veggie gardener. But it is easy to forget when you are putting in those tiny plants that they will get nice and big and take up lots of room.

And you can dizzy yourself reading too much "how to" information!
Much of it is over complicated.

Just start with good uncontaminated soil and go. Look up problems IF you encounter them rather than reading too much about POTENTIAL problems. Most plants are not as fussy as all that leads you to believe. START and learn on the way.

Should have seen me in my rookie year out there with a ruler trying to plant seeds 1/8" deep and not push more dirt than that over the top of the seed....

I'm over a decade in now (10 in my current garden) and the ONLY problem I have encountered is with powdery mildew. And because I hang out here a lot, I recognized it when I saw it.

Nothing beats growing your own veggies. Fresh from the garden taste can not be beat.

I KNOW!
It's light years better at the farm stand than in the stores and it's even BETTER when you walk out your door, pick it, and pop it in your mouth! No time for nutrient "leakage", either!

Pod - My four rows will be back to back like this
row 1 --
row 2 ---
row 3 ---
row 4 ---

I will grow the shortest plants in row one and he tallests in fow 4


Dave - Thanksfor that site. i went on it and since i had to hve minimum orde of 10 dollars i opted to get 2 packs of the Korean melonons and 1 pack each of Orental Melon, Hybrid Golden Sweet and 1 pack of Orental Melon Hybrid Arko

Don't know what the othes are but i will give them a ry

thanks