Your 2024 Garden

[Iluveggers]

Is it a drainage problem, or just that the area is lower? Can you cut some ditches to let the water drain out?

It’s a little lower along the fenceline. I’ll have to move dirt around to see if I can even it out. Maybe throw some sticks and leaves on it also to break down in the future!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Do climbing peas count as beans for the three sisters?

 

[fuzzi]

I made garden diagrams today, using photos I took whenever I planted seed or transplanted seedlings. It's still a rough draft, but it's good to get the information on paper.

In 2022 I only had the one raised bed, and then added beds #2 and #3 in March 2023. I'm currently working on the preparation of beds #4 and #5, see photo below

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Google "Montana vegetable seed starting dates".
I see a chart.

Also search "Your County, Montana vegetable seed starting dates".
Hope this helps!

Didn't want to clog stormcrow's thread any more.

I looked up the farmer almanac thing for my city. Looks like average frost day is May 11th. The only melons they have listed are watermelon. I have those, as well as Bitter, jelly and (I think?) Musk melons, or whatever honey dew, golden and cantaloupe melons are. Would I still just go with the watermelon information for all of them?

 

[fuzzi]

Didn't want to clog stormcrow's thread any more.

I looked up the farmer almanac thing for my city. Looks like average frost day is May 11th. The only melons they have listed are watermelon. I have those, as well as Bitter, jelly and (I think?) Musk melons, or whatever honey dew, golden and cantaloupe melons are. Would I still just go with the watermelon information for all of them?

Check with @gtaus , the pallet project guy. He's in MN and grows bitter melons.

 

[gtaus]

I looked up the farmer almanac thing for my city. Looks like average frost day is May 11th. The only melons they have listed are watermelon. I have those, as well as Bitter, jelly and (I think?) Musk melons, or whatever honey dew, golden and cantaloupe melons are. Would I still just go with the watermelon information for all of them?

What I learned about my bitter melons is that you should transplant them 2 weeks after your average last frost date. We grew our bitter melons up and over a trellis system. There are varieties of bitter melon and some might be transplanted sooner. We had a tropical variety.

Check with @gtaus , the pallet project guy. He's in MN and grows bitter melons.

Thanks for the shout out.

Last year was the first time I tried to grow bitter melons, but we were much more successful than I thought they would be. I live in Zone 3b, and bitter melons are considered a tropical plant. But we had good starts in the house and transplanted them 2 weeks after our last frost date. Our summers are short, but still we got lots of good bitter melons. Maybe just not as long as they would grow in the tropics. At any rate, we considered it a big success.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

What I learned about my bitter melons is that you should transplant them 2 weeks after your average last frost date. We grew our bitter melons up and over a trellis system. There are varieties of bitter melon and some might be transplanted sooner. We had a tropical variety.

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Thanks for the shout out.

Last year was the first time I tried to grow bitter melons, but we were much more successful than I thought they would be. I live in Zone 3b, and bitter melons are considered a tropical plant. But we had good starts in the house and transplanted them 2 weeks after our last frost date. Our summers are short, but still we got lots of good bitter melons. Maybe just not as long as they would grow in the tropics. At any rate, we considered it a big success.

Okay. Our town hovers between zone 4 and 5 depending on which map you look at. I have three types, I'll grab the names when I get home. One is the Okinawa, I know that much.

My Jellies are the other one I'm just not sure about. It says 120 days, and they tolerate up to 90f (considering they're from Africa, I had expected them to tolerate more heat), so I'm hesitant to continue growing them after mid July because we'll be above 90F probably most days

 

[NanaK]

I see @gtaus has advised you on the bitter melons. I have no experience with those.

Musk melons, or whatever honey dew, golden and cantaloupe melons are. Would I still just go with the watermelon information for all of them?

I plant cantaloupe, cucumbers and pumpkins the same day I plant watermelons. I would say the same for most melons. Melons need the heat to sweeten up. Make sure they get plenty of water.

In your zone anything needing 120 days, I would definitely start inside.
In the future you may want to look for vegs/melons with shorter days to harvest. I do for somethings because we have problems with increased insect/disease pressure due to our heat and humidity. Sometimes this can really help give you a better and longer harvest.

Colorful flowers can really help bring in the pollinators too.

Good luck! Happy to help anyway I can.
Most important! Don't give up!
You will learn a lot by just doing.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

In your zone anything needing 120 days, I would definitely start inside.
In the future you may want to look for vegs/melons with shorter days to harvest. I do for somethings because we have problems with increased insect/disease pressure due to our heat and humidity. Sometimes this can really help give you a better and longer harvest.

Colorful flowers can really help bring in the pollinators too.

Good luck! Happy to help anyway I can.
Most important! Don't give up!
You will learn a lot by just doing.

Those typically aren't things I want to grow. Probably not what a lot of you guys appreciate seeing, but it's true. I'm planting for fun first and foremost. Obviously I'd like it to work and be super. successful, but that's not my first concern. If I go with shorter days, my options shrink a lot to the basics that I wouldn't eat anyways for the most part from what I've seen avaliable

 

[Sally PB]

Melons need the heat to sweeten up. Make sure they get plenty of water.

Here's one thing I learned about growing/ripening melons here in zone 5. About the first weekend of August, I cull any melon that isn't at least as big as my fist. If it isn't that big, there isn't enough time in the season for it to ripen.

This also makes the plant send all the nutirents to make the melon sweet to the melons that will actually ripen, instead of all the melons, some of which won't make it.