Cover Crops in the Grape Harvest Bins

Every year I change what I am growing in my winter gardens. The majority of the time it is a cover crop. This last winter, I chose to grow out Mustard Greens. Mustard Greens are usually very good at cleaning the soil, though they don’t provide a lot of organic matter. At both of the gardens where I planted them, they grew a bit wispy. However, at the old chicken plot, they were a little more vigorous. Once I had taken the time to cut the plants down, I covered them with a high quality soil mix.

 

 

 

 

 

For the second garden, which had received a lot of city compost with excessive pathogenic bacteria, the results were nowhere near as good. The plants dithered and only grew a little. We tried planting buckwheat, but to no avail. So in the end, I planted some fava beans in some high quality compost. Those seemed to do very well and helped better prepare my garden for the summer crop

 

 

 

2023 Cucumber Seed Harvest

Here are a few pictures from throughout the season of my cucumber harvest in 2023. I hope you enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tar Kakdi in the Greenhouse

Around the same time that I started growing my last outdoor Tar Kakdi, I started growing a few Tar Kakdi in the greenhouse. The primary reason why I chose to do this was to save seed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, in growing this variety in the greenhouse I came to really love how thin and beautiful the Tar Kakdi is. Growing a vegetable variety like this reminds me so much of why I garden. I get so much of the love of the culture for its gardens and fields when growing each indigenous cucumber or melon variety. I believe that with this particular population, the grower selected the variety for both the beauty of the flowers and also the wonderful texture of the fruit. In all the other populations I encountered, I was never experienced the same texture or stretched appearance to the fruit. This particular Tar Kakdi seemed much less like an Armenian cucumber and much more of its own cultivar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grape Harvest Bin Tar Kakdi

After the issues I had with side dressing my wonderful crop with diseased compost, I decided to try growing some more in a grape harvest bin located at a friend’s house. The plants grew quickly and well. Unfortunately, starting plants out in Mid-August isn’t typically the best idea when trying to grow any kind of muskmelon in Fairfield, California. Particularly because of issues related to Powdery Mildew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a whole bunch of fun watching these grow. They start out so thin – nearly as thin as a pencil. But as they grow out, they lengthen dramatically. Some days, I almost felt like I could see them grow longer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My family and I definitely enjoyed the opportunity to take photos with the Tar Kakdi. Additionally, one of the Tar Kakdi seemed to enjoy the car ride back to my house. The short amount of time along with my previous failure made for a bittersweet end to the season. With all this being said, I would definitely grow the Tar Kakdi again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tar Kakdi vs Bacteria Wilt

 

The Tar Kakdi is a light green snake melon (Cucumis melo) that is very similar to an Armenian cucumber. The variety is picked very immature when the fruit is still young and only an inch or two in diameter. At this stage the fruit is not just tender, yet crisp – but much better than a regular Armenian cucumber. With all this being said, growing the Tar Kakdi presented a challenge for me in 2023.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plants started off very well and the fruits grew at a good pace. The length of the fruit was amazing and the "cool" factor was very high. Why not make things better? To ensure that my plants did well I added compost. That is where my primary mistake took place. The compost was not the expensive compost that one would pay a premium for, but city compost – with plenty of bad bacteria and disease.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was not long after putting a layer of compost on the plants that the disease began. It started with just a little bit of wilt, but quickly made its way around the garden until all of the plants were hit by it. Sometimes we have good ideas and sometimes we don’t. Sometimes you get what you pay for. And sometimes you get less than you pay for – even if it is free.