Why I Oughta...

I planted a tiny little cantaloupe vine in the small raised bed that is against our house in late May and mostly forgot about it.  But this morning, as I walked by our basement window, I noticed for the first time that the fruits were starting to form.  There's one tiny one in the middle of the photo and a slightly larger one on the left side.  Melons ( apparently ) love heat, so we've had a good summer to grow them, but I'm wondering how long it will take until these will mature.  Ready by Labor Day?  I sure hope so.

This zucchini somehow got lost in the garden and I let it get away from us a bit.  I used this morning's Sun-Times as a comparison point so that you could understand just exactly how huge this thing is.

The Babe behind the wheel at The Farm at the Museum of Science and Industry.

I'll have to go around to all the various social network places and swap out my old avatar image with this one, right?  Found it on Illinois Loyalty .

The Babe and her cousin got busy making their own pizza pies at the Addison Home Run Inn restaurant.  Once a week, they run a special that allows kids to put on chef hats and build their own pizza pies.  The dough comes out already rolled in the pan and they give you a tin cup of cheese, sauce and your toppings.  We had sausage and pepperoni in these two pies.  Couldn't have been more fun.

It was just a few days ago that I posted a photo of our Golden Hops vine shooting upwards on the trellis.  Taking a look at the photo above, you can see that the vine has almost doubled in height.  Just counting the number of whole 'diamonds' just to left of the center point on the trellis, we can see that the vine has shot up the height of five full 'diamonds'.  It was at 3 full 'diamonds' on Monday.  It is listed as a fast-grower, but the conditions must be right this week. The only disappointing part of this whole experience is that the gratification is going to be delayed.  FOR A YEAR.  That's right....everything I've read says that we shouldn't expect to see any hops until the 2nd year after the vine has been established.  Coupled with the very late planting date I put this in the ground, and we have to cross our fingers that by late next summer, we'll be swimming in golden green hops.

The mulch has been placed.  About 2 months late by our neighor's standards, but....at least it is in place.  That's what I'm telling myself.