Need help with garden!!!

[rugmaker]

Normally, I can't get much to grow, but this year...wow! Stuff is everywhere, even where I didn't plant. DH threw melon seeds and rinds out all year and now I don't know what is growing.

My question: There is a very healthy vine growing all over the backyard with huge orange flowers that open then close. Is this watermelon, cantelope, pumpkin, gourd, etc. My DH is getting excited that he is gonna have some good fruit and I can't figure out what it is.

Also, when are green beans ripe? I have lots of green beens on my plants, when can I pick them?

The compost pile has stuff growing in it too! We have had so much rain and the plants in the shade are just so healthy, but I have no clue what they are. How can I find out?

Thanks!

 

[Tweakette]

Can you post pics of the plants? It's easier to make a guess from pics.

Regarding the squash/melon/cucumber plant - what do the leaves look like? In my experience zucchini are deeply cut and darker green, cucumber are smaller and less cut, more like a 5-sided pentagon shape, watermelon is cut like zuchinni but more rounded and a bit grayish-green in color, and pumpkin leaves are not deeply cut but are ENORMOUS.
Check the seed catalogs if you have any - you can compare the pics of the plants there to the Mystery Plant in your yard.

Was the seed that the plant came from from a store-bought melon/squash/pumpkin or a homegrown one? If homegrown the seeds may give you very odd offspring as those plants easily crosspolinate. I had a Mystery Squash once that looked like a yellow football with a handle on it. Turns out it was a cross between a yellow crookneck and a spaghetti squash. We ate it - the insides was just like spag squash.

Greenbeens are done when the pods are full and smooth, but not lumpy. I tend to like my beans "overgrown" compared to some people - I like them just as they start to get some small bumps where the seeds ar located. But most people pick them a bit less developed than that.

What do the plants in the compost pile look like? I've dug tomatillo seedlings out of ours and planted them in the garden before. Also gave some to some friends.
I sometimes will let volunteer tomato plants go to fruit just to see what they turn out like, if I have the room.

Tweak

 

[rugmaker]

Tweakette

I don't have any clue where the seeds came from. I've purchased from the store and farmer's market. The leaves are huge and it's really going like crazy. It's not cucumber, as I have some of that planted and it's not the same. I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow. I read about the male/female flowers and I looked. Some are just flowers and some have the small bulb or fruit underneath the flower. How can I tell if they are getting pollinated? I haven't seen any bees. The flower doesn't stay open very long, so I better get out there an polinate. LOL

I picked about a bowlful of green beans tonight. Some were straight and some were large with the large bumps (from the seeds). How do I cook these? The lumpy ones remind me of the kind that I had to shell when I was a kid (black-eyed peas). I don't have the packet left, but they looked like regular blue lake green beans. As you can tell I am not an experienced gardener and I'm pretty shocked that most of these plants have actually survived the winds, rain and hail that we have had.

Thank you for the information!
Rugmaker

 

[closet squirrel]

rugmaker:

steam the green beans and them toss them with a little olive oil and garlic salt. I could eat just that for dinner. Fresh are so much better than anything you buy

 

[rugmaker]

Thanks CS, I think I will just do that!

 

[Dorema]

We like our green beans cooked a bit longer. I know that they are healthier when they are steamed and just a bit crisp but---- old habits die hard. I want my green beans boiled until tender!
Dorema

 

[Flagwaver]

Rugmaker - "As you can tell I am not an experienced gardener and I'm pretty shocked that most of these plants have actually survived the winds, rain and hail that we have had."

May God so bless us all!

That's terrific, Rugmaker!