December Garden Update - All Caught Up

Some things still growing, some things not

Up until this point, the posts have been more of a catch up since we started the garden in September and it is now December. So here we are, all caught up! This picture was taken at the very end of December. And you can see that some changes have happened. There are some bare spots and some new pots. The pots contain some side projects that I've been working on, more on that later.

watermelon missing, cucumber on the way out

One of the first things to go was the watermelon. It actually started to grow really well, considering it looked so weak to begin with. It had flowers and tiny little fruits that set. The fruits got to the size of marbles and they would fall off. That should have been my first clue that something was wrong, but having no experience with ever growing watermelon, I just figured that all of the fruit would not make it and just enjoyed watching the vine grow.  I then started seeing some of the leaves curling inwards and turning black, only a couple though so I wasn't very concerned. Again, another clue that something was wrong but I didn't get the hint.  Then almost overnight all of the leaves were turning black and the very tips of the vines were wilting. Uh Oh. Now I realized something was wrong and started to Google it up. So, what was it? Downy Mildew. Characterized by a "cupped hand" appearance which was exactly what the leaves looked like when I first noticed them starting to go black. The plant could not be saved since I waited WAY too long and had to pull the whole thing out. Ouch.

A wayward pea in with the strawberries

The replacements

Once the watermelon vines were pulled out, I planted a row of peas from seed along that same trellis. The peas seem to like the cooler weather. We could not get them to grow very well in the very first garden during the summer months. The few plants that actually did grow more than a foot were shaded by other plants, so we figured it was the heat that kept the rest so small. 

Another big change in the garden is with the cucumbers. After the first big harvest, the vine got some powdery mildew which again, I was not very good at identifying until too late. It got so bad, I had to just start cutting the leaves off willy nilly. There are still some cukes on there and maybe the plant will stay with us long enough for those to mature.  We got a good initial crop out of it so it won't be such a hard loss if it has to go. I don't recall ever seeing these mildew issues in my Dads zone 6a garden, he might get some vine borers every now and then, but not mildew.  This transplanted northern girl had no idea there were even this many types of garden mildew. Lesson learned.