"Frogleg" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 7 Sep 2003 03:16:15 -0700, "Leslie"
wrote:

This being my second vegetable garden to include more than tomatoes, I
anticipated a plentiful crop and imagined drying and canning tons of
foods
planted, tended, and harvested by me alone. It must have been a dream. I
had
a section of what I thought at first were pumpkin plants. I dutifully
transplanted them to spread them out. Initially I put them in among the
corn
because my mom said pumpkins will grow up the stalks and do well that
way.
Then I remembered that the pumpkin seeds I had bought were the extremely
large jack-o-lantern kind. Re-transplanted them so they wouldn't pull the
corn over. Didn't matter in the end since my ever-helpful 3-year-old twin
boys yanked up all but 4 corn stalks along with the carrots. When the
"pumpkin"plants got a few inches tall I thought they were cucumbers,
thinking that my boys had spread some of the seeds in a spot I didn't
notice. Hmm, they grew and got fruit on them that almost looked like
watermelon. Watermelon?? I didn't buy watermelon seeds! Must have been
the
compost. Then a texture developed that was unmistakebly canteloupe.
Ah-ha!
Definitely the compost. I had a lovely compost bin full of several years
worth of food and yard scraps. We must have eaten a ton (give or take a
few
pounds) of canteloupe during that time, so that's where those seeds came
from. So my pumpkin-cucumber-watermelon-canteloupes are doing great. Nice
looking fruit. I love canteloupe. Then along come my boys. They brutally
tore off 10 or so of the melons and tossed them in the compost bin. As I
inspected them there, I also discovered they had picked probably 30
very-green tomatoes. Next year I'm building a fence around my garden.

Build a fence around the twins!


Good idea! Last year wasn't as bad, though they did pick tomatoes. I
thought, surely they'll not do this kind of damage when they're older. I was
wrong.

Gads, the damage done by squirrels,
deer, rabbits, and birds pales in comparison. Any chance of getting
them interested in the magic of growing plants (and the joys of
*completely ripe* fruits and veg)?

They love helping me plant things. Sometimes I regret showing them how
though, since they dug up a bunch of marigolds that were in my garden and
transplanted them to another area.


My 'compost surprise' this year is several healthy-looking potato
plants. I doubt there'll be much production, as it's quite late in the
season. Cantaloupe *does* seem to love a compost pile.

My mom always had volunteer plants growing in her garden. I guess it's just
kind of a nice surprise if you get something that actually produces.

Leslie