One of the most impressive cucumber varieties that I grew in my parthenocarpic cucumber greenhouse trial was the Monika. Back when I tried them, the vines were productive and completely gyno… Read More

I’m not much of a fan of Early Girl Tomatoes, but the owner of the fertile garden loves them, so I grew some bush Early Girls. I chose to grow Bush Early Girl because I have no inclina… Read More

Here are some other spiders and insects that I saw throughout the season. I hope that you enjoy. Katydid Nymph  Wild Bees in Suisun Valley, CaliforniaPlume MothAchemon Sphinx moth… Read More

No season is ever complete without me taking time to enjoy the mantids. Here are a few pictures of some mantids that I saw throughout the season Read More

While many other astrological and lunar calendars were marked by the presence of one animal or another, 2023 was, for me, "The year of the Cucumber Beetle".      Nev… Read More

In a desperate attempt to control the onslaught of cucumber beetles infesting my two Suisun Valley plots, I purchased some yellow sticky traps and pheromone lures for cucumber beetles. Let&r… Read More

Unfortunately, my San Donato encountered both pests and disease the rest of the season. I was constantly fighting against cucumber beetles and bacteria wilt. Only later did I learn that th… Read More

A very kind friend who lives in Suisun Valley offered me a place to grow one of my carosello cucumber varieties in 2023. I had not had space to grow a variety that a friend told me was very… Read More

Given the appearance of the Barattiere, it is more easy to imagine that it is a regular melon than it being a carosello-type fruit. It doesn’t look like many of the other carosello var… Read More

I received seeds of a parthenocarpic cucumber variety from the Seed Saver’s Exchange collection by the name of Conqueror. It was supposed to be an English variety that was parthenocarp… Read More

A friend of mine, Mike Wilkinson, referred me to a grower named Nick at a local Organic Olive Orchard in Suisun Valley in the Fairfield area. He made room for me to grow some cucumbers in th… Read More

What shall I say about the Minuncedda di Sternatia? First, I must mention something about the name. The majority of the names of various melons picked immature as cucumbers in Italy are give… Read More

At one of the sites where I garden, they have a keyhole garden where I used to grow. Now it is primarily populated by wild flowers. Enjoy the pictures.       &n… Read More

When I was growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I would see tree frogs all the time. Now, it is a very rare opportunity when I see one. I wanted to share my rare sighting of a Pacific T… Read More

So I don’t have a whole lot to say about the Russian Ogurdynya snapmelon (C. melo var momordica) that I grew in the late Summer of 2023. It was just like the other ones that I had grow… Read More

For some reason, I tend to grow a lot of cucumber varieties with long names. The Vorgebirgstrauben, or ‘Vorge’ for short is no exception. I really enjoyed this unique German pick… Read More

For me, the Tokiwa was a very good long Japanese-style cucumber. Apparently very disease resistant, most east Asian cucumber varieties are also very tolerant of the heat. One Japanese variet… Read More

As it goes with standard cucumbers, the Tanja was definitely this season’s favorites.         Despite being a bit curved for a standard cucumber… Read More

Included with other standard cucumbers that I grew in my garden this year was the Straight Eight.    Ferry Morse lists Straight Eight as an All-American Selection Winner from… Read More

While I have grown a lot of American style slicer cucumbers in the past, I really enjoyed growing the Poinsett 76 this year. Given the fact that there was a lot of competition for light, the… Read More

One of the problems that I have been noticing when growing cucumber varieties is that many of them have been changed over times – most likely through consolidation of what were heirloo… Read More

I really enjoyed growing the Çengelköy cucumber this last season. It was mild, slightly sweet, thin-skinned and quite good. Somewhat like the Beit Alpha, the Çengelkö… Read More

When one thinks of the word ‘bushy’ they may think of a plant that is shorter or more compact. At least that is what I think of if someone says the word ‘bushy’ to me… Read More

In late July I started a planting of Tondo Manduria from some seed my friend Angelo provided me with in 2013. It is amazing how well his seed has germinated all these years later. In any cas… Read More

One of my very favorite regular cucumber varieties that I grew this last year was the Bush Crop. An extremely compact variety, I would even call this variety a ‘dwarf’ cucumber… Read More

I decided to try out the Bono because it was a hard-to-find cucumber variety. The fruit grew very well, without any issues. The primary concern that the vines encountered while growing was i… Read More

While the origin of the plant species Cucumis melo is most often associated with Africa, there are also Cucumis melo varieties that are Asian in origin. Less domesticated than the African me… Read More

After growing out an unknown carosello cucumber variety, I decided to try out a Mezzo Lungo Polignano carosello variety in the 1-yard grape bin. This variety was one that I had tried out pre… Read More

One of the things I like doing when gardening is giving cucumber varieties a second chance. Back in 2018 I grew an unknown carosello cucumber variety. It was oval and ranged from being very… Read More

I have given my younger daughter plenty of choices concerning what to grow in the girl’s garden plot. We usually grow tomatoes and potatoes as well as some sweet potatoes. She likes sw… Read More

2023 provided me with much joy and excitement, but also much work and disappointment. With gardening, as with life, it seems that joy in one area is somehow interconnected with sorrow in ano… Read More

After many years of looking, I was finally able to purchase some Sonata biofungicide for my garden in 2023. This specific fungicide is meant to specifically go after fungus-related diseases… Read More

Just to provide some context on the “Speckled Friendship” Carosello, this carosello variety originated from a packet of mixed-up, possibly polymorphic Carosello Spuredda Leccese… Read More

So here are a few pictures of insects that I found throughout the season. The first picture is of a mantid ootheca I found while walking at a nearby creek on New Year’s Day. The next i… Read More

A friend in Indonesia told me about a striped cucumber that appeared to be some kind of pickling melon. I asked him to try growing it to see if it was bitter at all. After trying it out and… Read More

In 2021 I discovered a speckled carosello cucumber from a packet of seeds I grew in the greenhouse. I saved seeds from that one fruit and in late July of 2022, I transplanted some seedlings… Read More

For many years, I had been trying to source seeds of the Beit Sahour Faqous or Fakkous. While I have not been able to source that specific variety, I was able to source the general Palestini… Read More

For quite a while I had heard that there was a cucumber-melon that was being grown in Russia. As far as I could tell, it was something that was specific to the region and could be found no w… Read More

Since reading the The Resilient Gardener, I have been looking forward to growing more of Carol Deppe’s vegetable varieties. One of the more recent varieties, called Goldini zucchini, w… Read More

In February of 2022, I ordered the Ogurdynya Tohum Russian Cucumbermelon from Oreshka seed. I had seen the Ogurdynya online many times before, but I never had the opportunity to order it bef… Read More

From the moment that I learned about the Paesana di Soleto, I was highly interested in growing it. The odd shaped fruit with incredibly tender texture interested me. This variety, introduced… Read More

There are a number of reasons why fava beans are of my very favorite crops to grow. First is that the seeds are very easy to handle. With seeds so large, they are very easy to sow and work w… Read More

While not as safe from critters as planting in the greenhouse, planting in a wine barrel worked out pretty well for me this winter.      I learned three things… Read More

After many years of fighting squirrels and slugs in the winter, I decided to try something a little different in the winter of 2022-2023. Specifically, I decided to try growing away from the… Read More

In 2022, as I was driving back from a local produce stand called Larry’s, I saw the large cubic yard grape harvest macro bins for sale. That gave me some ideas. After calling the phone… Read More

While I did purchase soil from a local landscape supply company early in the season it turned out that whatever was in the soil was not necessarily appropriate for growing vegetables in. So… Read More

The Green Finger is one of the best tasting Cucumis sativus varieties that I have had. Though it looks somewhat like a Beit Alpha type, its moderately thin skin is not as wrinkly as a Beit A… Read More

I tried growing out the Miniature white in 2022 just to try it out. They were pretty tasty little white cucumbers. Ideal for snacking. Due to growing them so late into the season, there wasn… Read More

While I was not able to harvest any native creeping cucumbers from a relative’s home in Louisiana in 2021, I was able to acquire some seeds of the creeping cucumber (Melothria pendula)… Read More

As farmers and gardeners, we occasionally try to push the limits of what is possible. This is what occurred with me in the summer of 2022. I had already grown out one crop of carosello and w… Read More