Wednesday, March 25, 2009

A FRUIT OR A VEGETABLE?



I was eager to use the first load of compost late in 2008 and decided to spread some onto the rose garden to build it up a bit. The ground had sunken a little so this raised the level slightly. Fertilizer specially for roses topped with chopped Lucerne followed – all supposed to do the roses the world of good and give them a great boost for the autumn season. Well it has and the blooms are just beautiful at present but along with the oomph given to the roses, some other plants have grown along the fence – obviously the compost had not heated up enough and killed the seeds in the process. I let them grow a little to see what they were and have left the tomato which is now about 2 feet high with some nice blossom. I’ve never grown tomatoes this late before so will see if we get any fruit from it. I suspect the weather may turn too cold before any mature.




The other plant that has grown is a vine – at first I thought it might be pumpkin but the flowers were too small. I’ve let it go purposely although it’s now winding it’s way around the rose bed and up the fence so that I could see what it would produce. This morning I found three ‘fruits’ (or maybe that’s vegetables) hanging. The interesting thing is that I suspect they may be rockmelon (cantaloupe) but only one of them is round – the shape I would expect. The other two are very oval and quite long. I’m putting in the photos I took as I’m rather intrigued as to what they will ultimately turn out to be – that is if the weather doesn’t take a turn for the worst – then I suspect there won’t be enough heat to mature whatever they are. (Bear in mind that although they look large in the photo, they are in reality only about 2 inches long).