Cool that Reed is supportive of you and your family! I love growing my own food, this summer was so scorching hot though - hoping next year is at least a little cooler. My raised beds can rest for the growing season, and I'll be back at it next year. Thanks for sharing your tips and methods for good harvest, Cortney!
I’m so grateful for Reed’s support, and I’m so glad to be able to share and learn with others! ❤️ We have fun. I can relate about the scorching heat - it’s a big challenge! Hang in there, and hoping for a cooler season for you next year. 🤞
Thank you so much for visiting our new channel. Yes, we’re grateful for Reed’s support! He has been encouraging us for a while now, and we finally started a channel. I’m happy to hear you’re enjoying the content so far. ❤️
Your brother sent me. Those look yummy. My chickens love melons of all kinds. I've never seen one of melon chairs before 😁 Cute. Thanks for all your information.
Thank you for visiting through Reed. ❤️ Isn’t it cute how the chickens love them? Ours do too, and when it’s chilled it’s great way for them to have some relief from the summertime heat.
Thanks for the excellent video! It was very timely for me as I am growing sugar cube cantaloupe for the first time and was wondering how I will know when they will be ripe enough to pick! Hope mine end up like yours as they look delicious!
Reed sent me here as well. After having watched the video I’ve subscribed. I’ve thought about doing this for some veggies and such and am gonna check out the rest of your videos on your channel.
Thank you for visiting and subscribing, and good luck with your veggie growing adventures! We’re looking forward to learning new things and sharing with everyone here.
That's amazing, thanks for sharing! I'm trying Moon and Stars watermelons for the first time and I'm excited. They look so pretty in the pictures, I hope I can harvest some! Haven't decided whether I'll grow cantaloupe this year or not, but need to make up my mind soon. :)
Fantastic! I cant seem to grow the larger melons here in MN. We cant plant anything till june 1 and we have about 120 total days for grow season. That also includes many days below 70. I do grow a small variety however called Minnesota midgets and they do very well in our short season, go figure LOL. Beautiful melons there! Thanks for another great video! Have a great day!
Even if they’re smaller melons, I’m sure they’re delicious! You definitely have a short season (I can relate after living in MI for lots of years) and I’m glad there’s a variety that grows well for you! I love its name. 😊
Only grown melons in recent yrs but quit buying them many yrs ago, complete crap from the store. Had volunteer from mostly shaded compost pile this yr and to my surprise it's producing modestly well w only a couple hrs direct sun. Good info for us novices.
Agree that the garden ones taste much better than store-bought! That’s great that you had volunteers growing. Always seems like they’re the strongest plants! 😁
I'd love to see a basic video on setting up your raised beds from forming the bed, height, dimensions, groundwork prep (if any), and dirt/composting specifications.... Really enjoying your videos!
Thank you for the recommendation. We have construction videos planned for the fall/winter after the busy harvest time. We’ll keep the raised beds in mind!
I have been making compost and threw some cantaloupe skins and guts in the compost and actually found a seed germinated while turning the compost so I took it out and planted it and we'll see what happens love the video by the way
Your awesome brother just gave you a shout out 🙂 . I live growing food. We have a small garden this year, growing bigger for next year. I was just working in the forest 🌳🌲🌳🌲🪵🪵🪵 making more room for garden beds.
Awesome melons I remember watching my grandma planting a big garden with all different plants she seemed to really enjoy growing fruits and vegetables but my favorite thing was eating the fruits of the harvest which was always really great I miss those days and I miss my grandma god bless I love your videos
Thank you, and that’s wonderful that you have those memories. I remember my grandpa’s garden, and wish he were here to give me advice. His garden was awesome.
Melons absolutely do ripen on the counter. I put them by bananas not sure how much that helps but they do for sure ripen some after picking. You can stick them in the fridge to slow the ripening as well.
We’re in SC zone 7b so a little north of you depending on where you are. As far as onions go, short day are the ones you want to grow since you’re in the south.
We use untreated rough sawn pine from a local sawmill. Since it’s untreated wood, we char the surface with a torch to help preserve against weathering, rot, and insect damage - it’s actually an old Japanese technique!
Haven’t thought about shou sugi ban! Would love to see more videos of building beds and soil you use. I’m assuming you are in the South but not quite as far south as Mississippi. Your weather couldn’t be a whole lot different.
We definitely will do more bed construction and soil videos this winter. The beds and soil would do well in any growing zone. We’re zone 7b here, northern South Carolina.
I am growing food in my backyard. So far we grew tomatoes, egg plants and peaches this summer. The peaches are grown in the peach tree and they taste delicious. I am hoping to grow different kinds of fruits in my garden. I have a lemon plant and the lemons are yet to grow. When do lemons in the plant usually grow?
That’s amazing that you’re growing peaches. Homegrown peaches sound SO delicious! We don’t have any experience with citrus fruits. I wish I knew about growing lemons - the only thing we’ve had is a Meyer lemon one indoors and didn’t have much luck with it.
Hi, I don't have enough of my own homemade compost for all of my raised beds so I purchase mushroom compost by the truckload from a local business that sources it from an organic mushroom farm. I spread a good few inches of it on top of every raised bed before I plant everything, and even side dress throughout the season.
Thank you, I'm so glad you found it helpful and I'm glad you're here. @ReedTimmerWx is my brother - he's the best meteorologist and storm chaser around! :) Goes hand-in-hand with gardening.
I don’t have experience with precise pruning of the plants. Here’s what I do and have all the cantaloupe we need - when the vines overflow into the surrounding grass, I just mow and trim the lawn around the bed like normal. If there are vines with melons I just move them back up into the bed and put a cradle underneath. More simply put, I just chop them off with the lawnmower and call it good. lol!
But what about the grass growing up through the bottom of the raised bed? I tried using raised beds but the Bermuda grass just crawled right up in there and in the end I just had to give up 🥺
We have Bermuda here as well. We have some growing up around the edges and into the beds, and we do our best to pull it out. Impossible to totally stop it. We removed the grass when we installed the beds and put weed paper and gravel in the bottoms. Maybe this stalled it in the beginning and kept it from totally taking over quickly? We know the paper has decomposed by now. We just do our best to stay on top of it and pull the stray ones out as soon as we can get to them.
You definitely have a long enough growing season in Texas. They could probably be planted as early as March/April since it would be warm enough. Do you deal with a lot of humidity where you live? In that case, there are disease resistant varieties like the ones we show in the video. If it’s hot and dry, growing them in a raised bed helps since you have more control over the soil.
I don't know if you have ever tried to grow burgandy okra. Even if u forgot to pic and it gets big, it never gets tough. I would send you seed if you want.
I’ve never tried to grow it! It’s not a favorite of mine, as it tears up my stomach for some reason. Thanks so much for offering to send seed, though - I really appreciate it!
They will continue to ripen I’ve bought store bought that where green leave ‘em in the counter a week they turn yellow and you’ll really start to smell them
Nice!! The smell of them is amazing. I was disappointed when this didn't happen with one of my watermelons last year. I broke it off early when trying to put a hammock under it. This year I'm not using hammocks, just the cradles on the ground.
The first thing that comes to mind is possible lack of pollination if there aren’t any forming, if you previously saw flowers. Perhaps extreme temperature swings. Those are the top two in my past experiences.
Reed was bragging on your melons. Had to check it out. The voles didn't get my melons the raccoons did. Had a watermelon that was a day or so away from being ready. Went down to pick it and it was on the vine looking like a water balloon that the water was let out of. The raccoons had somehow at the insides and left the skin. Crazy varmints lol
Ugh!!! That’s such a bummer! We can relate. The wire mesh rodent bags work. It’s satisfying covering each melon when you can imagine them biting into metal. 😂
@@CortneyGrowsFood I don't see them biting but they are smart. Wouldn't put it past them to remove the bags 🤣 Thank you for a tip on the bags. I will give them a try!
That makes sense. And growing them is kind of like making a cheesecake - achieving an aesthetically perfect one without cracking is a challenge, but still tastes delicious and quickly goes into our bellies anyway. LOL
I've heard that the belly button can tell you whether it was picked at the right time - if it has an "innie" it ripened on the vine and was picked when it was ready. If it has a dried out "outie" sticking out, part of the vine was still attached when it was picked because it was picked early. That's all I know about the belly buttons! :)
At harvest time. If you have a few that dont Ripen toss those ones in a salad. They taste like sweet cucumbers. Just peal them and toss them in a salad, seeds and all......
Sounds amazing, thank you! Definitely always have a few little stragglers in the bunch. Just had some Sugar Baby watermelons like that and the chickens love them!
Thanks for your input! I’m glad you found it useful regardless. This was the 6th UA-cam video I ever made, using my old iPhone’s microphone and free editing software. The first 10 or so videos on UA-cam channels normally suck. LOL I’ve learned a lot since then but still learning of course. Maybe someday I’ll delete the “bad” videos but for now they’re still useful info for people, so they’re still there even though I cringe.
Thanks for the tip, but let’s please be nice! This is a calm, gardening space. This was the 6th video I ever made, using my old phone’s microphone. There’s a learning curve when it comes to video filming and editing, just like with gardening. You can learn something new every day. 🌱
It's a pointy-nosed rodent that will come up from underneath the garden beds and take bits out of the melons. We now have a garden kitty who will take care of some of them.
Reed sent me
Me too 👍
Me too
Me too😄
Please give your brother some fresh, organic food. He eats complete crap. 😁
Same here. Hi everyone 👋🏽
Cool that Reed is supportive of you and your family! I love growing my own food, this summer was so scorching hot though - hoping next year is at least a little cooler. My raised beds can rest for the growing season, and I'll be back at it next year. Thanks for sharing your tips and methods for good harvest, Cortney!
I’m so grateful for Reed’s support, and I’m so glad to be able to share and learn with others! ❤️ We have fun. I can relate about the scorching heat - it’s a big challenge! Hang in there, and hoping for a cooler season for you next year. 🤞
Came by because of your brother 💜I have watched him for years. Wow a new channel ….thanks Reed
Never stop planting!
Reed sent me 🥰
Having a famous brother really helps! I love channels like this so it works out perfect that he mentioned your channel 💕
Thank you so much for visiting our new channel. Yes, we’re grateful for Reed’s support! He has been encouraging us for a while now, and we finally started a channel. I’m happy to hear you’re enjoying the content so far. ❤️
Excellent work. Love a sweet cantaloupe. Thanks for sharing. ❤️
Thank you for watching! ❤️
Subscribed from Live Oak Florida 👍! Reed referred you 😃✌️!
Thank you for subscribing from Florida!
@@CortneyGrowsFood You're welcome 😁✌️
Great information .
Thank you!
Your brother sent me. Those look yummy. My chickens love melons of all kinds. I've never seen one of melon chairs before 😁 Cute. Thanks for all your information.
Thank you for visiting through Reed. ❤️ Isn’t it cute how the chickens love them? Ours do too, and when it’s chilled it’s great way for them to have some relief from the summertime heat.
Never knew there was a cradle type thingy to keep melons off the ground..wonderful...I subscribed, found ya through a weather guy ..☕😉👍🏼
Same here .
Thank you for subscribing through Reed! The cradles help so much.
Thanks for the excellent video! It was very timely for me as I am growing sugar cube cantaloupe for the first time and was wondering how I will know when they will be ripe enough to pick! Hope mine end up like yours as they look delicious!
Thank you for watching, and good luck with your harvest! Sugar cube cantaloupe just sounds fabulously delicious. 😊
Thank you so very much and God bless you and your family.
Thanks so much for watching.
At first, I thought you had a Crenshaw melon. Very nice looking garden.
Thank you for watching! ❤️
Storm chaser guy sent me
Oh, I like the melon cradle, I’ve never seen one before.
Love the cradle tip and every time you said ‘sweet melons’. Made me hungry!
They’re so good!!!!!!!
Reed sent me. I’m excited to follow you and your gardening. 💜
Thank you for visiting and following! ❤️
Reed sent me here as well. After having watched the video I’ve subscribed. I’ve thought about doing this for some veggies and such and am gonna check out the rest of your videos on your channel.
Thank you for visiting and subscribing, and good luck with your veggie growing adventures! We’re looking forward to learning new things and sharing with everyone here.
Just came across your channel, very informative video Cortney. Thanks for sharing
Thanks so much for watching my channel and for taking the time to leave a kind comment!
I came from Reed's channel, great video. I did subscribe.
I came here because of your brother
Selling melons for years I saved many varieties. Fonzie,canary,piel del sapo are my favorite along with Galla fo sure. Beautiful garden.
That's amazing, thanks for sharing! I'm trying Moon and Stars watermelons for the first time and I'm excited. They look so pretty in the pictures, I hope I can harvest some! Haven't decided whether I'll grow cantaloupe this year or not, but need to make up my mind soon. :)
Fantastic! I cant seem to grow the larger melons here in MN. We cant plant anything till june 1 and we have about 120 total days for grow season. That also includes many days below 70. I do grow a small variety however called Minnesota midgets and they do very well in our short season, go figure LOL. Beautiful melons there! Thanks for another great video! Have a great day!
Even if they’re smaller melons, I’m sure they’re delicious! You definitely have a short season (I can relate after living in MI for lots of years) and I’m glad there’s a variety that grows well for you! I love its name. 😊
Reed the extreme sent me keep dominating the organic garden remember never stop gardening
Definitely! Never stop gardening! Thank you for coming by.
@@CortneyGrowsFood your very welcome ☺️
Dominating!
Dominating dominating dominating dominating! 😀
I'm another person sent here by your brother. Really enjoyed the video. Very informative.
Thank you for watching, I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it!
Best tasting melons I’ve ever grown in my 60 years of growing
They’re so delicious! Totally worth it.
Your brother sent me. Love your channel and its content. Hello from Hereford UK!
Hello, thanks for visiting from the UK!
Awesome garden! You can definitely tell you and Reed are related!
Thank you! 😊
Only grown melons in recent yrs but quit buying them many yrs ago, complete crap from the store. Had volunteer from mostly shaded compost pile this yr and to my surprise it's producing modestly well w only a couple hrs direct sun.
Good info for us novices.
Agree that the garden ones taste much better than store-bought! That’s great that you had volunteers growing. Always seems like they’re the strongest plants! 😁
I'd love to see a basic video on setting up your raised beds from forming the bed, height, dimensions, groundwork prep (if any), and dirt/composting specifications.... Really enjoying your videos!
Thank you for the recommendation. We have construction videos planned for the fall/winter after the busy harvest time. We’ll keep the raised beds in mind!
THANKS FOR THE INFORMATION..
Always welcome! Thanks for watching.
Great
Thank you! 💚
I have been making compost and threw some cantaloupe skins and guts in the compost and actually found a seed germinated while turning the compost so I took it out and planted it and we'll see what happens love the video by the way
That’s awesome, good find! Volunteers always seem to be the strongest. Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed the video!
Reed sent me 💞🙏
Thank you!
Your awesome brother just gave you a shout out 🙂 . I live growing food. We have a small garden this year, growing bigger for next year. I was just working in the forest 🌳🌲🌳🌲🪵🪵🪵 making more room for garden beds.
Yay!!!!!! That’s awesome!! Best wishes for good harvests in your expanded garden. Thank you for coming by via Reed. ❤️
Thanks Reed
Reed sent me too. New sub enjoyed the garden. ❤
Thank you! ❤️
Awesome melons I remember watching my grandma planting a big garden with all different plants she seemed to really enjoy growing fruits and vegetables but my favorite thing was eating the fruits of the harvest which was always really great I miss those days and I miss my grandma god bless I love your videos
Thank you, and that’s wonderful that you have those memories. I remember my grandpa’s garden, and wish he were here to give me advice. His garden was awesome.
Here as Reed recommended you and subscribed could use advice
Melons absolutely do ripen on the counter. I put them by bananas not sure how much that helps but they do for sure ripen some after picking. You can stick them in the fridge to slow the ripening as well.
Maybe being near the bananas really does help them along! I am missing summer big time.
Reed sent me ur way and I subbed
So where in Texas you at, I live in texas feel.ypur info would be helpful in what to grow like the onions.
We’re in SC zone 7b so a little north of you depending on where you are. As far as onions go, short day are the ones you want to grow since you’re in the south.
What do you use to make your raised beds? I’m contemplating starting some raised beds but am concerned about what type of wood to use.
We use untreated rough sawn pine from a local sawmill. Since it’s untreated wood, we char the surface with a torch to help preserve against weathering, rot, and insect damage - it’s actually an old Japanese technique!
Haven’t thought about shou sugi ban! Would love to see more videos of building beds and soil you use. I’m assuming you are in the South but not quite as far south as Mississippi. Your weather couldn’t be a whole lot different.
We definitely will do more bed construction and soil videos this winter. The beds and soil would do well in any growing zone. We’re zone 7b here, northern South Carolina.
I am growing food in my backyard. So far we grew tomatoes, egg plants and peaches this summer. The peaches are grown in the peach tree and they taste delicious. I am hoping to grow different kinds of fruits in my garden. I have a lemon plant and the lemons are yet to grow. When do lemons in the plant usually grow?
That’s amazing that you’re growing peaches. Homegrown peaches sound SO delicious! We don’t have any experience with citrus fruits. I wish I knew about growing lemons - the only thing we’ve had is a Meyer lemon one indoors and didn’t have much luck with it.
Hello may i know what kind of compost you used. Thank you in advance appreciated
Hi, I don't have enough of my own homemade compost for all of my raised beds so I purchase mushroom compost by the truckload from a local business that sources it from an organic mushroom farm. I spread a good few inches of it on top of every raised bed before I plant everything, and even side dress throughout the season.
Reed sent me also. He also told me to follow, so I am.
idk who Reed is but you're great this video was very helpful!
Thank you, I'm so glad you found it helpful and I'm glad you're here. @ReedTimmerWx is my brother - he's the best meteorologist and storm chaser around! :) Goes hand-in-hand with gardening.
You should try a charmel melon or French cantaloupe. I grow them here in north central Texas and they are amazing
Thank you for sharing! I will check them out for sure!
The Timmers FTW
How to trim and where to trim the vine ?please answer me if you can show how to trim ?
I don’t have experience with precise pruning of the plants. Here’s what I do and have all the cantaloupe we need - when the vines overflow into the surrounding grass, I just mow and trim the lawn around the bed like normal. If there are vines with melons I just move them back up into the bed and put a cradle underneath. More simply put, I just chop them off with the lawnmower and call it good. lol!
But what about the grass growing up through the bottom of the raised bed? I tried using raised beds but the Bermuda grass just crawled right up in there and in the end I just had to give up 🥺
We have Bermuda here as well. We have some growing up around the edges and into the beds, and we do our best to pull it out. Impossible to totally stop it. We removed the grass when we installed the beds and put weed paper and gravel in the bottoms. Maybe this stalled it in the beginning and kept it from totally taking over quickly? We know the paper has decomposed by now. We just do our best to stay on top of it and pull the stray ones out as soon as we can get to them.
I can only hope my cantaloupes do good this season.
Best wishes for a great harvest for you! 🤞🌱
Reed sent me 😃
Your brother send me 😁nice.
Question: can I grow melons in Texas?
You definitely have a long enough growing season in Texas. They could probably be planted as early as March/April since it would be warm enough. Do you deal with a lot of humidity where you live? In that case, there are disease resistant varieties like the ones we show in the video. If it’s hot and dry, growing them in a raised bed helps since you have more control over the soil.
@@CortneyGrowsFood thank you. Yes we deal with tons of humidity. I’ll start my own garden.
I don't know if you have ever tried to grow burgandy okra. Even if u forgot to pic and it gets big, it never gets tough. I would send you seed if you want.
I’ve never tried to grow it! It’s not a favorite of mine, as it tears up my stomach for some reason. Thanks so much for offering to send seed, though - I really appreciate it!
They will continue to ripen I’ve bought store bought that where green leave ‘em in the counter a week they turn yellow and you’ll really start to smell them
Nice!! The smell of them is amazing. I was disappointed when this didn't happen with one of my watermelons last year. I broke it off early when trying to put a hammock under it. This year I'm not using hammocks, just the cradles on the ground.
Galia are the best melon of all time.
And they're pretty. They're all pretty!
Just wondering why the raised garden beds instead just planting in ground. You guys have a lot of space.
The native soil is solid red clay and is difficult and time consuming to amend by hand. It’s a mess when it’s wet and like concrete when it’s dry.
How come I don't have any cantaloupe yet?
The first thing that comes to mind is possible lack of pollination if there aren’t any forming, if you previously saw flowers. Perhaps extreme temperature swings. Those are the top two in my past experiences.
@@CortneyGrowsFood thankyou so much
@@CortneyGrowsFood tyvm
Reed was bragging on your melons. Had to check it out. The voles didn't get my melons the raccoons did. Had a watermelon that was a day or so away from being ready. Went down to pick it and it was on the vine looking like a water balloon that the water was let out of. The raccoons had somehow at the insides and left the skin. Crazy varmints lol
Ugh!!! That’s such a bummer! We can relate. The wire mesh rodent bags work. It’s satisfying covering each melon when you can imagine them biting into metal. 😂
@@CortneyGrowsFood I don't see them biting but they are smart. Wouldn't put it past them to remove the bags 🤣 Thank you for a tip on the bags. I will give them a try!
Another reason it cracks is because melon plants take in a lot of water and nitrogen. Nitrogen makes them crack, I've noticed.
That makes sense. And growing them is kind of like making a cheesecake - achieving an aesthetically perfect one without cracking is a challenge, but still tastes delicious and quickly goes into our bellies anyway. LOL
Tomatoes do ripen when you pick them green. I know thank you 😮
I was told melons were ready to harvest when the belly button is sticking out. Can you confirm?
I've heard that the belly button can tell you whether it was picked at the right time - if it has an "innie" it ripened on the vine and was picked when it was ready. If it has a dried out "outie" sticking out, part of the vine was still attached when it was picked because it was picked early. That's all I know about the belly buttons! :)
At harvest time. If you have a few that dont Ripen toss those ones in a salad. They taste like sweet cucumbers. Just peal them and toss them in a salad, seeds and all......
Sounds amazing, thank you! Definitely always have a few little stragglers in the bunch. Just had some Sugar Baby watermelons like that and the chickens love them!
The video was good but the music was too much.
Thanks for your input! I’m glad you found it useful regardless. This was the 6th UA-cam video I ever made, using my old iPhone’s microphone and free editing software. The first 10 or so videos on UA-cam channels normally suck. LOL I’ve learned a lot since then but still learning of course. Maybe someday I’ll delete the “bad” videos but for now they’re still useful info for people, so they’re still there even though I cringe.
I grow melons because the ones in the store aren’t worth eating .
Agree! Like everything we grow in our gardens, they actually have flavor and nutrients.
O no the voles are a pain to the garden.
Turn off the damn music! No body can hear you talk
Thanks for the tip, but let’s please be nice! This is a calm, gardening space. This was the 6th video I ever made, using my old phone’s microphone. There’s a learning curve when it comes to video filming and editing, just like with gardening. You can learn something new every day. 🌱
Bro she looks like reed but a girl.
I’ve never heard that before.
What’s a vol?
It's a pointy-nosed rodent that will come up from underneath the garden beds and take bits out of the melons. We now have a garden kitty who will take care of some of them.