Honeydew Melon for the First Time

This was the first year that I tried honeydew melons and it was a pretty good year for them.  Even though only one out of four plants survived I still think that it was a good year with the first honeydew melon that I picked today.  I have been growing melons for a long time and mainly cantaloupe and watermelons.  Since these are all melons they will pretty much need the same care as one another.  Adding another melon was just a simple step and nothing too major.

 It is a good size, but I am more concerned about the taste of the melon.  As long as it is sweet and juicy like a melon should taste, then I will be happy with this years melon harvest.

Four more peppers added to the list today.  There were only four to pick this afternoon and I didn't want to pick any that were not ready for consumption.  I like to leave them out until they have grown to their maximum size and then harvest them.  Today I found a couple that were beginning to go from green to red.  This is when I know I left them on the plant too long.

The First Melon Ripe to Pick

I just got my very first melon of the season today.  I actually didn't think that I would get one of them this week, but this happens to be about the average time when they are ripe and ready for eating.  It just happened to be a cantaloupe which I have plenty of.  I was hoping to pick my honeydew first, but when the melon is ready then I will pick it.

Some more cherry tomatoes and some pole beans were picked this afternoon.  I still have some cherry tomatoes on the plants, but I think the season for them is beginning to wind down and there is not that many left to pick.  I hope the plants would grow more, but I can't complain because the season has been quite good this year.

Along with cherry tomatoes I did happen to see some ready and ripe Roma and steakhouse tomatoes.  These tomatoes weighed a pound each and that is perfect for using them for sauce or just for slicing them up for a sandwich.

Roma Tomatoes Ripened Over the Past Few Days

Today I had checked out my Roma tomato plants and noticed that there were many that were ready for harvesting.  I had looked at them recently and many of them were not quite ripe enough.  With all the sun we have been having it looks like my Roma tomatoes had turned red quite faster than I thought they would.  This is good for me and I harvested 23 of them today which means I need to start making sauce out of them.

Most of them were a good size and lived up to its reputation of an average weight of a little under a pound per tomato.  Some of them actually weighed one pound and that is the beauty of these super sauce tomatoes.  I still have many more on the plants and they should be ripening very soon for more harvests to come.






Now my cherry tomatoes are just as bountiful and large for the type that they are.  Cherry tomatoes are usually the smallest of the three types of tomatoes, but can be real large.  I have been picking plenty of these tomatoes and today I scored the largest harvest so far with 154 cherry tomatoes!

I thought I had collected the most the other day when I got a little bit more than 100.  Today I was surprised to pick as much as I did and there are still many more out there to pick.

You can see from the picture on the left that there are still many cherry tomatoes that are almost ripe or still green.  This will lead to many more harvests and plenty of cherry tomatoes for salads and other delicious meals.








The last thing I wanted to discuss are my onions which I had left outside to dry them out before bringing them in and using them.  Now that the hot weather has dried them completely it is time to start using them.  I believe that they can last for the rest of the year, but will not extend into next year like the previous harvest did.  I think I will have to use more totes in order to get more onions to last the entire Winter season.  I got a little bit less, but they were still a good size.

Getting the First Two Eggplants Picked Today

One of the first vegetables to be picked today were my eggplants.  They seemed okay to be picked and I could have left them on the plant, but since they were no longer growing I didn't want them to begin to decay and start getting soft and mushy.  That is why I decided to pick them today and both of them had been on the plant for over a month.

Along with eggplants I did pick some cherry and Roma tomatoes.  I only got three Romas today, but the good news is that there are plenty of them on the plants.  I see very large ones that I can't wait to pick once they turn ripe and red.  Once I pick enough I can then work on making tomato sauce which is something I like to do with these tomatoes.  I got another 73 cherry tomatoes today too.

One last vegetable I want to discuss are my peppers that I picked today.  They were quite big and definitely a good size that I can use in any meal that I would like.  The larger the pepper the better which also goes for most vegetables and fruits in the garden.

Peppers, Corn, Tomatoes, and Cucumbers

This week was very busy with lots of harvesting of many of my vegetables.  Some of the vegetables that I was able to pick included the first of the peppers, corn, cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, zucchini, and even more cucumbers.  I have many more vegetables on the way including my eggplants which look almost ready to pick.

My peppers were picked about a couple of days ago and it was the very first harvest of these sweet delicious vegetables.  I wasn't sure if I was going to pick any more, but there are still many more on the plants which means I will be harvesting many more in the near future.

Today I picked the first corn of the season which I wasn't sure was going to be ready today.  I had been looking at them throughout the week and thought that sometime this week I would begin picking them.  Today was that day that they finally were ripe enough to pick.  I don't want to pick them too early and I don't want to pick them too late.  I like to pick them when they are just right.

I also have been picking Roma tomatoes this week as well.  My cherry tomatoes are doing very well and I was able to get 52 today and some more a couple days ago.  Once the cherry tomatoes are done or most of them have been picked that is usually when I start getting large Roma tomato harvests.

A few days ago I picked some more cucumbers which I didn't want to leave outside for too much longer.  Most of my plants look exhausted, but some of them are still growing vines and producing flowers along with vegetables.  I am not sure how much longer they will be producing, but hopefully it will be for as long as possible as long as the weather holds up.

Getting My Onions out of The Soil

One quick post today about removing my onions from the totes.  It only took about one hour to remove all of them from the totes they grew in.  Take a look at the size of some of the onions that I picked up this season.

Seeing More Vegetables Growing on My Plants

Just thought I would write a quick post about some of my plants that are beginning to produce some flowers and vegetables.  First of all my corn stalks don't produce flowers, but they are starting to grow ears of corn which will be picked hopefully sometime this month.  I am also seeing eggplants and peppers that are beginning to fill up the plants with vegetables.  These I hope to also pick this month.

I also had some more cherry tomatoes and cucumbers that were ripe enough to be picked.  Don't worry I have plenty more cherry tomatoes and cucumbers that I should have some more harvests before the end of the season.