The Compost KING Cantaloupe

This will be the breeding mate of the Compost Queen Cantaloupe next year.  I took this picture quite late last night and the camera would only focus on one thing so I had to patch in the close up focus of the five and a half pounds.  I don't blame it.  It was hard for me to focus on anything besides this huge cantaloupe. 

 I would give this one an A- for taste and an A+ for texture.  It only gets an A- only because the third melon I cut open (this is the fourth) was an A++ and as good a cantaloupe as you could ever wish for.  The third melon was sort of a unique shape being very round and sort of squashed at the poles.  I gave away a second melon that was shaped the same and my friend reported back it was the best melon she'd ever tasted and she was saving the seeds to try next year.  And she isn't even a vegetable gardener.  That's how excited a New Yorker gets when they taste a real cantaloupe and not one of those imposters they sell us at the grocery store.  

I had been waiting on this big boy for weeks, testing the stem every day.  I finally took the plunge last night and it did not disappoint.  It is very sweet and yielded over four cups.  I'm going to have some for breakfast right now.

As a reminder, these were all volunteers from my compost and they received ZERO care this summer.  I have picked seven cantaloupes so far and have five more to pick.  I will be planting these seeds next year hoping to continue a landrace strain of cantaloupe that will thrive in my garden.

 

Processing Compost thru the New Sifter

 It was time to dump a compost tube.  This tube was started last October, and I stopped adding to it the end of May.  It has been working for three months.  I need an empty tube to start so I can stop adding to the other tube and let it sit for a month or so before I dump it freeing it up for leaves.  It is a constant two-step dance.  We use the tractor to move and lift the tubes because they are surprisingly heavy.

There was a sweet potato growing on top from the unused slips that I threw in there but no tubers had developed.  I pulled the vine and threw it back in the tube.  

Because it had been working for three whole months the worms had successfully broken down everything right to the top.  This pile did not need any more turning.  The next tube I dump will still be a little fresh and will need to be turned over the winter to use in the spring.

I began by scraping a layer off of the top onto the pavers.  This pile is absolutely chock full of red wigglers and they need time to burrow down and save themselves.

I am so glad that we added the smaller screen insert.  The sifter holds two good sized shovels full.  I start by shaking the whole screen back and forth along the rim of the barrow.  Then I pick up the insert and give that a good shake in mid-air.

Now for the biggest convenience.  I carry the whole screen over to the compost tube and dump it.  The large shaker is too heavy to be doing that each time.  You would have to remove the uncomposted debris by hand.  

The large screen is still the best for sifting a container full of used potting mix because you can upend the entire container and use the screen as a table top to sort out the roots.  The larger frame will accommodate quite a large pot.

I worked on this for awhile and got through maybe a fifth of the pile before I decided to give the worms a break for the day.  They will get themselves down to the bottom and may even move out by the time I get back to this.  I dumped the compost in the resting bed that I am preparing for next year's tomatoes.

Morning Light

This time of year the River Bed garden is such a peaceful place

Especially in the morning light

This Blog is Called Too Many Tomatoes Right?

 So here is another post about all those tomatoes.  I picked again and will be bagging up and distributing more tomatoes.  I picked everything I thought needed to be picked out of the main Indeterminate bed.  It is starting to get a little saggy as it gets over gown and succumbs to gravity, but the Florida Weave method worked great and the plants are very healthy and productive.  I will use this support method again but may add some posts down the sides and modify it a bit so I don't end up with a narrow wall of stems and all fruit trapped inside.  I think three rows of string would give me more options and I have plenty of T-Posts available to experiment.

Lots left to ripen

And some almost ready to pick

I only saved the good examples of every variety and the bruised, cracked and cat faced fruit went to compost.  It is about a 60/40 cut of good to ugly.  Because all of the branches are drawn up tight, you do get a certain amount of fruit that either get missed or are so embedded that they are difficult to remove and end up being bruised or cracked from that process and must be used at once or composted.

Once again I have a good representation of each variety, but the Paul Robesons are beginning to shine.

A basket of Paul Robesons

Above are the "black" tomatoes.  Top to bottom, left to right.  A Paul Robeson, two Carbons.  The green one looked further along than it was when I targeted it for removal but it will ripen fine.  This does a better job of showing how you can tell them apart.  The Robeson is a deep terracotta while the Carbon almost looks like you can see through the color to the green underneath and it keeps this dusky coloring even after ripening on the counter for days.  And finally two of the ripened Black Beauties with full color.  You know... they're not real pretty.  And because they require sun exposure to turn black, they tend to sunburn by the time they fully ripen.  They are a very tasty tomato but I really prefer the hidden ones that are all red to the black and brown colored ones.

Barlow, Lenny and Gracie which is producing like crazy, Pike County ad Berkeley Tie-Dye Green

I really like the green strain of the Berkeley Tie-Dye better than the Pink strain.  The Pink plant was prone to Blossom End Rot and didn't produce a lot.  It is unfair to judge each variety by one example each but since they are so close in characteristic, it is an easy choice.  Green I will grow again and Pink I will not.

The Clarimore zucchini has continued to pump out more squash each day and shows no sign of slowing down.  I am almost at the point of tearing it out.  But, what can it hurt?  I'll let it keep going. 

The volunteer cantaloupes have been a great success.  We have picked and eaten three.  The first was very good.  The second was a little under ripe.  The third was outstandingly delicious and uniquely shaped with flattened ends giving it a more squat, round appearance.  I saved the seeds.  I have given away two others (one of which was shaped the same) and haven't gotten a report back yet.  There are still some good ones left to pick.

My broccoli plants are rallying and putting out sizeable side shoots, some of which look like conjoined whole plants.  So I am back in the broccoli biz again.

Some More Dahlias

 All of the Dahlia varieties have now begun to bloom

Spartacus

Lady Darlene and Center Court

Peaches N Dreams

Binky

And some other pretty things

Heuchera Planter

Celosia

Black Eyed Susan

Compost Sifter

 This is another project that I've been wanting to do for a long time.  When I finished with the potting bench, I still had three good matching boards from the old steps left over.  They were perfect for building a compost sifter for my wheelbarrow.  I have had a sifter for many years now.  The next door neighbor built it and surprised me with it back when the garden was brand new which was very much appreciated.  And I can say that it has sifted a lot of compost, but it does have some shortcomings.  For starters, it is flat so material tends to roll off of it.  Also, it is nearly the same size as the wheelbarrow which gives it very little travel space for shaking the compost.  And it doesn't stay on the edge by itself.  So to do any serious sifting you sort of need two people to be able to pick it up from each side and shake it.  Alternatively, you can scrape the compost over it with a shovel and I've done a whole lot of that.

Compost sifters come in many shapes and sizes.  If you are composting on the scale of a worm bin or rotating drum, you could easily get by with a small hand sieve.  If you are turning manure piles with a tractor, you either don't need a sifter, or you would want a large screen that you could dump a whole bucket load through.  My compost operation falls somewhere in the middle.  I produce about a cubic yard of material each year and I sift it into a wheelbarrow to deliver to my raised beds.

I had been keeping an eye out for the right sort of setup, and this sifter that is available through a couple of different catalogs caught my eye.  It looks very functional and is also quite attractive.  I resisted the urge to order it because of the price even though the shipping was very reasonable.  Now if you do not have a woodshop, and have to go and source materials and perhaps buy a tool to complete the project, then this price point isn't outrageous.  But if you are the sort of person who has tools and scrap lumber literally laying around, then ordering one makes no sense at all.

This was a two person project just because of all the cutting involved.  We used a chop saw, a table saw and a band saw, but if you have a circular saw and a handheld jigsaw you could accomplish the same thing without too much trouble.  It is built out of 2x6" pressure treated, but 1" poplar would be much easier to work with especially when cutting the handles.  You would need three four foot boards which would cost you under $50 but you would also have to pick out some material for nailers to secure the screen if you were not going to rip down the main boards.  

I used 1" hardware cloth because that was what the old sifter was made of.  A small roll of hardware cloth would be about $10 and so would a box of deck screws. As you can see, by the time you buy your materials, and spend two or three hours of shop time you are starting to break even on the cost of the premade sifter.  But all this cost us was a handful of screws and some labor because everything else was scrap.

The next day it occurred to me that I still had some wood leftover, and I had 1/2" hardware cloth so I should make an insert that would sift finer material.  After we built it my husband went digging around and found two old door handles which makes it into a nice tray.  This would also be useful if you are air drying a small amount of potatoes or something.  You could put them on the screen and easily move them around.  I do that sometimes with my round sieves.

The finer screen sits right down in the larger frame.

I can also use this on the smaller wheelbarrow if necessary.  It fits in fine but you would have to lift it if you want to shake it because it fits snug.

Here are a few other sifters I've found online that are similar.  Etsy sellers have a lot of great variations

Esty LARGE Cedar Garden Sifter for Compost

Walmart Rock Sifter Garden Sieve

Amazon Large Soil Sifter

Too Many Tomatoes

 For the first time in several years I have finally reached the too many tomatoes situation.  I had been doing so well planting three or four plants.  But I was feeling stingy.  I was not very willing to share.  So this year I planted sixteen plants and now I have the opposite problem.  We are just at the end of a weekend of cool, rainy weather.  We got an inch of rain in two days which was fine, but our highs have been in the low sixties and overnight has been low fifties.  On Friday I picked every tomato that was showing some color so the rain would not split them and I felt buried in tomatoes.  They took up a square yard on the dining room table.  The nice part about picking everything at once is that I have a good representation of all of the indeterminate varieties I am growing this year.

Top to bottom left to right:

Elsie’s Amish, Barlow, Paul Robeson, Carbon, Berkley Tie-Dye Green, Black Beauty, Lenny and Gracie’s Kentucky Heirloom, Pike County Yellow.

That Amish tomato weighed 1 pound 6 ounces!  The Carbon and Black Beauty plants have both been producing much larger fruit, just not that day.  The Paul Robeson and Carbon may appear identical in this picture, but when you pick them they are easy to distinguish.  The Robeson is very glossy and oblate while the Carbon is a dusky, almost matte finish and more rounded.

Have you ever gotten to the point with a plant where you said "I've had just about as much as I can take out of you?"  I mean, other than a zucchini plant.  That's where I am with the Early Girl.  It was sprawling all over and infected with blight.  The blight had spread to the Peppermint Stripes Dwarf next to it but I must say the Dwarf was showing an admirable degree of resistance to the blight.

I was tired of the Peppermint Stripes too.  It is thin skinned and prone to cracking.  And its hard to tell when they are ripe.  So I took that one out too.

That's better!  Why do twelve tomato plants suddenly seem so much more manageable?

The plant that has really impressed me this year is my friend Elsie's family heirloom.  I grew one out two years ago and it was a monster of a plant but not a heavy producer.  

Tomato Monster 2022

That year the fruit was late to set, slow to ripen and not very big.  But its a good tomato, very much like a Brandywine, and, being Pennsylvania Amish, probably from the same stock generations ago.  It just hasn't been commercially diluted like the Brandywine because it has been in sole possession of the Yoder family for a hundred (?) years.

So I tried the plant again.  I start a tray of four dozen plants for Elsie each spring and I always have extras.  So I stuck this one in another spot all by itself and ... Wow.  It currently has about ten fruit on it and they are all huge.  With most tomatoes you get a cluster with one large and a bunch of smaller fruit but this plant is only setting one or two fruit on each bloom cluster and they are all going to be close to a pound.

Now I rarely get excited about a plain ole red tomato but I'm pretty excited about this one.

You see that slice of bread under there?  That's one of those big Pepperidge Farm loaves.

Meet My New 40 Year Old Potting Bench

 This is a project I have been intending to get to for over fifteen years.  I have been working off of a cheap, mail order bench that is way too small and flimsy for my purposes.  The one advantage to it is that its light weight so I can throw it on a wheelbarrow by myself and move it to where ever I want it.  And its cute.  The soil reservoir seems like a good idea, but is impractical if the bench is out in the rain.  I wanted something simple but with a lot more work area.

My Mail Order Potting Bench

This project made it to the front burner a week ago when we tidied up the railroad tie pile back behind the temporary building.  There were some ruined ties and a lot of short scraps to dispose of. On top of the pile were the wooden sides to an old utility trailer whose frame rusted out a couple of years ago.  The axle went to a garage sale, the frame went to the scrap yard and the sides, which were still sound after forty plus years, got set on the Stuff Pile.

The wood was still a little too good to just throw on the burn pile so I said I would turn them into a potting bench.  Beneath the pile of RR ties were three 4x4 posts that were twisted or blemished enough to be rejected from the garden fence project fifteen years ago.  It took a few hours, but we got all of the screws out of the trailer sides and scrubbed the mud off of the posts.

We also had some boards stored that had come from our twenty year old side steps when we rebuilt them in 2020.  Those had been nailed together and I don't know if you've ever tried to remove a twenty year old framing nail, but its more difficult than removing forty year old deck screws.  Everything is so rusted that you can't get a hold of it and sometimes the nail (or the wood) just disintegrates.  You can't just leave it in there because odds are you will eventually hit it with a saw.

These posts don't even look straight sitting on the loader

There are many plans on the internet that will help you assemble a potting bench, but they all start with the assumption that you will go to the store and pick out exactly the wood you want.  I was starting with a pile of 2x6" and a few 2x4" of random lengths.  Some in better shape than others.  I had to figure out what went where, how long to cut it to get the best use out of each board and what my spacing would have to be.  I told my husband I would do it myself because there would be choices to make and in the end if I built it alone those choices would end up looking more like my idea of a potting bench instead of his idea of a potting bench.

I started by choosing the best boards for the work surface then built the frame to fit that.  The shelf design didn't gel until afternoon #3.  My husband helped me jigsaw the back board of the work surface to fit around the uprights and insisted on the center support which will keep the shelf from sagging.  The work surface is 5'8" by 30" and the shelf will be handy if I need to set something up out of the way.

We spent some time sanding off 40 years worth of dirt and ...atmosphere.  An alternative would have been to use deck wash, but the sanding took care of any splinters or rough edges and left a nice patina.  Is the distressed furniture look still in style?  I gave it a coat of Thompson's Water Seal because it will be outside in the elements year 'round.  It is very stout and HEAVY.  It took a tractor and three men to get it from the garage to this patio.  It could double as a stool for circus elephants.  

I think I'll call it The Beast.