Awesome!! Maybe I'll go plant some of that this weekend.

I have planted quite a few of those things and the only one I really worry about are the winter squash. I planted several types and I don't know the DTM on all of them because I got some of them in a trade. I think I planted on July 21, and they are just now starting to vine. I put 7 tomato plants in the garden on July 15 and the first one is starting to form blooms already, but the plant is only about 14 or 15 inches tall. I have two kinds of pole green beans growing and the first has reached the top of a four foot tall cattle panel. I thought of putting some string above so they don't get so unruley.

I only had part of a pack of broccoli and I am so glad! I think every seed germinated. My grandsons and I put the seedlings into pots and there is no way I can fit that many into my garden. If they all thrive my neighbor will be getting part of them. I need to pot up the Brussel Sprouts and cabbage tomorrow. I wish I had enough floating row cover to keep it all covered in the garden, but I am sure I don't.

Dawn, we have had 3 canteloupe from the vine I got from you at the swap and they are very good. I noted that they are also OP. Since that was the only melon I was growing, the seeds should be pure. I am going to plant that one next year and would also like to grow a green flesh one. I am looking at Rocky Ford Green Flesh from Willhite. Does that sound like a good choice to you, or is there a better one?

Carol,

I think Rocky Ford Green Flesh is a really good one, and I might still have some seed for it in my seed box. Let me look for it today or tomorrow after the heat has driven me inside from the garden (and since it is already 79 degrees and the sun isn't even up yet, I bet the heat drives me in pretty quickly). I'll be happy to send you some seed of that one if I still have any, and I might have some other melon seeds. I have to look....my memory isn't what it used to be and I haven't bought any melon seed in a couple of years, so I don't remember what all I have.

Broccoli seed is remarkably good at germinating, isn't it? I grew twice as many plants as I really intended to this spring just because all the seed germinated and I didn't want to waste the plants.....and I have a lot of broccoli in the freezer as a reward for having 'too many' plants.

I have been putting in stuff for fall, but it is slow going with all this heat and wind. The heat alone would be bad enough, but the wind we've had just compounds the damage.

Some of my youngest tomato plants at the eastern edge of the garden have taken a real beating from the wind the last two days and may not survive. The older plants have taken such a beating that I may yank out a lot of them. Some of them were marginal to carry over to fall and the wind may have made up my mind about going ahead and removing them. I am about to reach the "sick of tomatoes" phase anyway (not sick of eating them, but tired of picking, washing, sorting and processing, LOL) so it won't bother me tremendously to pull out a few old, tired plants....and I have plenty of others anyway.

So far in the ground, I have fall cantaloupe/muskmelons, sweet corn, 3 kinds of green beans, winter squash, small pumpkins (small sugar pie and also Jack-B-Little for fall decorations) black-eyed peas, a lot of cucumbers for pickle-making, tomatoes, and then the okra, pepper and tomato plants I'm carrying over from spring. Still to go into the ground are all the cool-season crops, and most of them are seeded and growing in cups, except for carrots which I need to direct seed soon.

I don't know if the winter squash or pumpkins will have time to mature before a frost but will just hope for the best. Most years they do, and fall gardening is sort of risky anyway, in terms of an early frost coming and ruining things. I need to collect more floating row covers and frost blankets because I don't have that many.

In recent years, we've tended to have our first early freezing night in mid-October, although it isn't always necessarily a real hard killing freeze....that tends to come about a month later. Our average first freeze is Nov., but the weather does as it will no matter what the averages say!

The summer-planted tomato plants do tend to stay small through about the end of August even though they look healthy and are blooming/setting fruit. My tallest fall tomato plants so far are (not surprisingly) the cherry types and they are about 20-24" tall. The others range from about 10-20" tall and they look fine, but short. The fall plants normally grow like crazy in September just as soon as the worst of the August heat breaks.

I am excited about the fall garden, but would be more excited if it would rain or if we'd get some heat relief. We've had less than an inch of rain this month and with temps in the upper 90s and heat index numbers in the low 100s, I've just "had it" with summer and am so ready for fall.

To make matters worse, the snakes are up and moving around during the day, which is abnormal in this heat, so I assume they are getting short of food. My white cat with black spots, appropriately named Spots, was bitten by a copperhead yesterday afternoon. She ought to be dead by now as this is her fourth copperhead bite, and the vet said the second one usually kills a cat that has survived one bite already. Her paw is swollen up huge and she is very cranky, but she survived the night and still has an appetite, so I think she'll survive this snakebite as well. She is our second cat named "Spots" and she replaced a "Spots" who died after HER second snakebite. I hate snakes. Now that we've had a copperhead out in broad daylight, I'll be jumpy (I prefer to think of it as being 'extra-cautious') for the next few days. Until yesterday, we hadn't had a snake seen in the yard in several weeks so I was considering it a pretty good summer.

If I can make my way through a mound of peppers and tomatoes sitting in the kitchen today...I am thinking of canning the green jalapenos, and roasting the red ones to make chipotles, and dehydrating the small tomatoes and saucing the big ones, then I may find myself 'caught up' with putting food up for winter and have a few days off. All I can say is that it is about time.

Dawn

Dawn, Thanks for the response and I won't need the seeds since I placed my seed order last night for RF with Willhite. The only melon I ordered was the green fleshed Rocky Ford but I ordered a ton of other things. If you don't have any seeds, let me know and I will share or trade for a different one. I ordered much more than I will ever plant of several things, but sometimes I do trades. I also ordered cowhorn okra and plan to send some to Jay since I think he wanted to give it a try also.

I had already bought a few tomato seeds and now I have placed this big order for other veggies so I don't need much else. I will probably have to get pea seed because I didn't see the one I wanted at the 2 places I have ordered from. Of course I always have to try different tomato and pepper plants, but the ones Jay is sending me should satisfy that desire (Well, maybe! I did order one tiny pack of Mountain Pride). I am sure there will be other things I just can't do without, but I stocked up pretty heavy in the Willhite order. Actually my seed box was pretty full before I ordered so this will make it worse.

I ordered Packman broccoli because I wasn't able to find it this year at any of the local places. The one I have planted is De Cicco. I think I must have bought it because it had a pretty picture on the pack because I sure don't know anything about it. LOL

I was glad to see that Willhite had Spaghetti squash, because I couldn't find a pack of it locally either.

Anyway, my order was huge and you would have thought I was planting acres instead of just a home garden. I suppose that you know that you are an enabler tho? LOL Actually I was glad you told me about this one because they had really good prices.

Carol,

I haven't found my Rocky Ford yet either, but I bet it is here in my seed storage tote, which is sitting on the coffee table right in front of me. In the winter, I pull out all the seeds and make sure I know what I have and organize them.....but by this time of year, it is sort of out or order and messy again. (sigh) I'd blame the disorder on garden gremlins, but I'm pretty sure I am at fault.

I love Willhite Seed Co. and I don't know why I fail to mention them more often. They don't have a razzle-dazzle lineup, but just old reliable varieties (and I do mean that as a compliment) that perform very well in this climate. I do love their prices too, and especially their very reasonable shipping.

It is very hard for me to look at their watermelon pages because their photos and descriptions make me want to grow them all! And, not long ago I mentioned on a melon thread that my dad loved what he called Yellow Belly Black Diamond watermelon, and his description struck me as 'odd' since most watermelons have a yellow belly spot. So, of course, I was looking at Willhite's website and they actually carry one called Black Diamond Yellow Belly! So, I guess my dad actually was referring to a specific strain of Black Diamond after all, and I will have to try growing that one next year....I'm eyeing a grassy spot south of the pecan tree that would be a perfect place to grow a large watermelon because our narrow band of sandy soil is right there in that area.

We can spend our winter swapping and trading seeds.

If you're interested in the new Pink Brandymaster hybrid tomato, DON'T order seeds because I'll have plenty when my seed order from HPS comes in. I ordered it from HPS and their smallest quantity available was 250 seeds, which I figured was enough for me....and a few other folks too!

Dawn

Thanks Dawn. I would love to try the tomato. Like your Dad, my favorite watermelon is a Black Diamond. I didn't remember the yellow belly part tho. I really don't have room for watermelon but since I was ordering from the "watermelon people", I ordered one small pack of Black Diamond. Maybe I can find room for a few. Most things I ordered a larger size in because the prices were so good and so I would have enough to swap if anyone wanted to.

I posted earlier that I would volunteer to do a swap (within the forum) if anyone was interested, but didn't seem to have much interest. I thought a seed swap in the winter (by mail) and a plant swap in the spring (in person) might be a good thing. Maybe people are just too burned out right now to be interested. I will wait a few weeks and start a separate thread and see what happens.

I am interested in a fall swap. I have been thinking about it since our last spring swap. I bet everyone has been really busy lately. I'm sure you will get a response if you start a new thread!
Kristy

A seed swap by mail sounds terrific.

The forum usually does slow down in August. I am sure some of it is summer burnout and some of it is getting kids back in school, getting teachers, support personnel and administrators back into the school routine too (I know we have several teachers here), etc.

Activity will pick up again in September or October.

Dawn