Our first pocket melon and longhorn okra

or: Queen Anne’s Melon, Plumgranny, Pomegranate Melon, Dudaim melon, the list goes on!  I don’t have a photo of the ripe pocket melon to show you, but it’s a lovely deep brown and gold stripedy thing.  Even better, it does have the promised “good smell.”  The fragrance is faint, but it’s there.  To me, it smells a bit like an apple.  James says it smells like a scratch-n-sniff sticker and wondered if we could eat it after all.  I believe they’re said to be quite bland.  Anybody?

In other news, I received some more lovely seeds from Mr. Hollis and Mrs. Alice today.  If you haven’t yet visited Mr. Hollis’ blog, do pop over and say hello.  I’ve been telling folks about Mr. Hollis for about three years now and if you’ve yet to go see what all the fuss is about–I can’t be blamed.

I took a photo today of myself with my cowhorn/longhorn okra, the seeds of which I received from Mr. Hollis.  The plants are quite robust and the leaves measure about a foot across on the largest plants.  If we could just get them all to give us okra at the same time, I’m sure I could find something good to do with it!

New! Seed Page

Since I can’t seem to sleep and I’ve already washed the dishes and mopped the floor, I thought I would go ahead with my seed page project.  The seed page is located at the top of the page, right above the Little Green Bees banner.  I will add or take away to this page from time to time.  If you’re interested in any seeds, please do ask.  I have large quantities of some items and minute amounts of others.  Are you interested in having me test out a plant and letting you know what I think of it?  Get in touch!  It will be fun.

Fall Gardening on the Gulf Coast

If you’re living in the sweltering Deep South and you’re like me, you’re just counting down the days to when you can get your fall garden in. Here in NW Florida, I find it a little more difficult to find really good planting guides. Most of our guides are aimed toward central to southern Florida while we really find ourselves in the same planting zone as South Louisiana and Southeast Texas. As some folks like to say, our area of Florida is more aptly described as “Lower Alabama,” which is just fine with me.

When I read on a friend’s facebook that her son was already preparing his truck garden for planting I was intrigued–and a little chagrined! I run a gardening blog and consider myself pretty up on planting seasons–why did I not know I should be planting right now? Sheer laziness I suppose, and other things on my mind. However, now that I have been reminded and prompted to get back into gear, I am ready for some fall planting.

What to plant? Cheryl told me they were using LSU’s planting guide. Great! I promptly downloaded that and printed it out. I’m also going to provide it here as a PDF for your personal use. So, if you’re in the area and you’re looking to plant a fall crop, take a look at this 8 page pamphlet.

And get to work!

Link to LSU planting guide

Sorry I was not able to upload the PDF–not sure what the problem is!  You’ll have to go to the link and download it yourself.  Enjoy.