Hidden Gold

I planted two varieties of French muskmelons in MM next to a fence and trellis, but they've bloomed and bloomed all summer without setting fruit. (My grandma would tell me I planted them in the wrong sign.)

I haven't given up hope, though, and I faithfully squash all the spotted and striped cucumber beetles I see each day, and keep the squash bugs at bay as much as possible, and I even started hand-pollinating the flowers. Still, no muskmelons on my trellis. I've checked them every day for a week but no sign of a melon, and I haven't even seen any female flowers for days.

So today I was checking all the cucurbits for bugs, and hanging on the outside of the trellis in plain sight was a muskmelon about the size of a softball. I have looked that plant over top to bottom each day for weeks, and I've never seen that melon before. I thought I was going batty (apologies, Belfrybat) until I figured out what must have happened.

I'm just wondering which one of you kind souls took pity on me and sneaked into my garden last night and glued that melon onto my vine?

Thank you so much. How are you at attaching eggplants?

(Seriously, could the rain have made a muskmelon grow THAT fast???)

Maybe the melon genie will visit again tonight.

AWESOME! My squash did the same thing. Male flowers, male flowers, I checked three times a day, then one morning I checked - there were 4 fruit right there, popped all over night, and one of them quite large.

Good for you! And the reason for my on-line name is my mother always accused me of having bats in my belfry.

I had the same thing happen to me with my cucumbers. They have climbed out of their cage and wandered every which way. I have been keeping an eye on one that I thought was ready to pick yesterday (then forgot about it.) Went to pick it tonight, and sure enough there were four more, plus a few other things ready!

Beautiful harvest, Mega. Are those peppers next to your clippers?

I agree, cucumbers are sneaky. I hope your cukes turning yellow before picking doesn't slow down production.

I look wistfully at your pretty chard. I finally gave up all hope of having any this summer. It's a rabbit magnet. We came home one night this week and saw three rabbits playing in the yard, carefree as you please while our two free-roaming "watch" dogs slept soundly about twenty yards away.

Thank you!

Yes, those are chocolate hot peppers next to the clippers. They weren't super hot, but were tasty. That is as big as they get.

The yellow cukes are the immature ones, actually; it's the brown ones that are mature. These are Poona Kheeras. They start out white/pale yellow and then turn vaguely greenish and then the green fades into tan/brown. The brown ones have a slightly thicker skin but I do not find it a problem, though a friend of mine does not care for it. The brown starts at the stem end... except today I found one where it started at the blossom end! (I honestly thought I had cuke BER on my hands until I examined it closely, but it was fine.) That one cuke in the middle of the bowl photo shows how the tan color starts, pretty well.

And thanks on the chard, too. It is still hanging in there. I keep on thinking I should pull it to make room for other things, but I love chard!

And... just have to say, those were my first homegrown beans in over 30 years, and Oh My Gravy they were SOOOOO good!!!!