How Our Garden Grows

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Aug. 22 — A 15-pound watermelon! We harvested 145 pounds today, thanks to seven watermelons. We had 66 pounds on Monday. That brings da garden at St. Therese to 1,415 lbs delivered to our local food shelf.. 

Today, we had eight people in the garden ..2moms and 5kids…besides me. They wanted to know how to tell if a watermelon is ready to pick. We have 40 watermelons planted and we don’t want to take any of them too early. There are two sure signs even small kids can look for.  First, a watermelon is ready when the tendril near the stem turns brown and dry. Second, it’s ready if the bottom touching the ground turns yellow. Those kids checked all 40 watermelons before deciding that the seven we pulled were ready to go.

The deer are staying away, so we had some beans. The tomato crop is picking up. Probably should have planted more cucumbers. We’re harvesting cukes now, but there aren’t as many as last year. The garden looks great, though. It’s nice and full… robust id say… Everything is at least two feet taller than it was just a month ago.

Sophie, who was on the KARE 11-TV "Grow with KARE" feature…was here on Monday with her pruners. she wanted to harvest broccoli…and did a fine job of it.!  She said 5 of her neighbors saw her on TV and called to tell her what a good job she did. She said fame hasn’t changed her…though…and then went off to find hidden zucchinis.

another good day…in da garden.