Sooooooo, here are the lists of what I have, pick your top 4 of each.

Melons:
Minnesota Midget
Sleeping Beauty
Swan Lake
Sprite
Sweet Passion
Rocky Ford Green Flesh
Orange Fleshed Honey Dew
Early Silver Line
Honey Rock
Golden Midget (watermelon)
Kazachka
Jenny Lind
Sierra Gold
Hearts of Gold
Hale's Best
Delicious 51
Charentais

So you see why I'm having trouble narrowing down?

Cucumbers:
Burpless
Bush Champion
North Carolina Heirloom Pickling
National Pickling
Straight Eight
Poinsett 76
County Fair
Diva
Homemade Pickles
Lemon
Marketmare 76
Sumter
Dragon's Egg
Poona Kheera
White Wonder

I definitely want to try a white one, and maybe the Lemon this year, but not sure on the rest.

The other thing I could use some advice on, is how to mark the vines, so that when they start mingling, I will still know which fruit came from which plant. Any suggestions?

Bonnie

Tigger
Casaba
Zolotistaya

That said, I grew charantais during the nasty hot summers of 02 and 03 and they were fabulous. But I tried again 3 other years, and they never ripened, and there were bears around, so I ended up composting them.

Minnesota midget worked the one year I tried it.

Signed, the melon-challenged.

What's your elevation? Mine is ~ 5,650.

Now is there anyone that has grown some of these, and can tell me which ones are worth the precious garden space? I know a lot of you grow cucumbers, and I can't be the only melon grower around here!

Bonnie

I'm going to grow Green Dragon Burpless (again) and National Pickling cucumbers this year.

Sorry, I'm not much help with your dilemma...

All the cucurbits I had last year did extremely well until the hail hit -- and even then they continued to fruit, albeit in bizzare shapes. The Armenians were great salad additions, if I didn't let them grow too big. Light and super crunchy!

Hearts of Gold were once a commercially grown cantaloupe in these parts. This amazes me since the Umatilla Oregon area is close has so many melons but, apparently, there was enuf of a local demand that these short-season heirloom melons could be grown profitably. They are a bit quick to reach the over-ripe stage but had a good flavor, as I remember them. I was just a Hearts of Gold consumer 40 years ago – not a grower.

Rocky Fords are from your own state of Colorado but I believe they were developed on the eastside.

As you may remember, I've grown (and praised) Honey Girl Hybrid Charentais melons but it is so much earlier than the other Charentais varieties that I'm afraid to try those. My abysmal transplanting season last year was Providence finally catching up to me on that one, and others.

That season, makes me reluctant to suggest even cuke varieties but I really think you should be okay with those. All my cukes survived last May/June but none performed well over the course of the season. Nevertheless, I did have some Lemon Cukes. I've grown Straight 8's without a hitch and White Wonders just fine over several years. White Wonders were replaced in 'o8 by White Star, which didn't produce wonderfully but I'm giving it another chance in 'o9.

. . . hope this helps a little.

digitS'

In spite of a lack of recommendations, I've come up with a tentative list.

Cukes:
County Fair
Lemon and/or Poona Kheera or White Wonder
Homemade Pickles
Diva

Melons:
Hearts of Gold
Sleeping Beauty
Swan Lake
Tigger

I've still got another month before I can plant them, so those lists aren't final until the seeds are in the dirt.

Bonnie

Jen

Skybird

P.S. Don't anybody believe Bonnie that she doesn't have any room. She has a great big yard! Oh, how I wish mine was anywhere near as big as hers. You need to post a pic of your house from out in the middle of the road sometime, Bonnie, so everybody else can see what I've seen! And then there's that BIG empty lot next to you, which, with the economy the way it is, isn't gonna be built on for at least a couple years. Back in IL, my brother has 25 acres, and several of the "typical lot size" neighbors that border his property have turned over plots of his land and are growing veggies there---and he LIVES there! They can't go too far because the center of the land is farmed every year, but around the edges it's just left to go to weeds. So if they can do that, you can certainly stick some pumpkins and cukes and other "viney" type things in right along the side of your fence. You've got lots of room, girl! :-)

Off we'd go with coolers full of cukes to the farmers' market. We had one customer who would come just about every marketday to buy lemon cukes - only lemon cukes and a dozen at a time. We liked this guy and he liked our lemon cukes.

Taste is subjective. I'm trying those Poona Kheera cukes this year. I hate the looks of them but I'll get past that distaste for the brown skin if what's inside is worth eating. It will be a new experience.

My suggestion is to not deny yourself any experience with veggies. I really wanted to try Diva (a hoity-toity Beit Alpha type) last year. Well, try it I did. I had one cuke out of the hill of 3 puny plants. No cukes did well in "Melon Killer 'o8" but that was a disappointment.

Lemon cukes can quickly get past prime condition. My policy is that if it looks like a lemon - throw it away. Just before . . . just that first hint of yellow, that's the moment to harvest.

I once had a garden in a vacant lot across the alley from my home at the time. The owner lived in another town but I tracked him down thru the courthouse and telephone book. It was awfully easy to go out my backgate, run a hose across the alley, and care for that garden. There were some piles of dirt where a dozer had (almost) leveled the lot and an apricot tree. I turned most of the lot into a nice garden, made apricot jam and sent the owner 2 pints every year we were there.

d'S'

Well, the descriptions of the lemon cuke I have read sure sound better than the experiences you guys describe, so maybe it's between Poona Kheera, and White Wonder. Or if they don't start digging a foundation on the empty lot next door in the next 30 days, I could try the lemon over there. I'm definitely going to plant some sunflowers along the outside of the backyard fence too. Maybe even a pumpkin or two ...

Bonnie