On Fri, 09 Jun 2006 22:23:37 +0000, Harry Chickpea wrote:

General Schvantzkoph wrote:

I have a fair amount of room left over in my garden so I'm looking for
something else to grow. I have several dozen tomato plants, green
peppers, herbs, and strawberries. I was thinking that melons of some sort
might be nice but I don't know if there is enough time left in the growing
season or if it is even possible to grow them in New England
(Massachusetts, near Lowell and Nashua). Anyone have any recommendations?

Used to grow cantaloupe and watermelon in Vermont without a problem.
If you don't try to start from seed, you can probably get a crop.
Just plant em on top of a half bag of cow manure (old cow flops are
better) and don't forget to add some fertilizer. These can be heavy
feeders, and they WILL take over a large area, so planting near corn
worked for me. I found cantaloupe to be slightly easier and faster to
grow. YMMV.

Several DOZEN tomato plants??? First time gardening or do you like to
can?

I make five or six gallons of spaghetti sauce every year and freeze it.
I'm trying to raise enough tomatoes for both me and the raccoons. I'm
putting a fence around the garden but I doubt it will keep them out so I
figure if I raise a few hundred tomatoes the raccoons won't be able to eat
them all.