That's awesome! What size container did you plant your watermelons and cantaloupe in? This is my first time container gardening (or gardening at all for that matter!) and I'm kind of making it up as I go. My watermelons seem to be growing and flowering but no fruit (the bees don't care about them). My cantaloupe has TONS of flowers (and the bees love it) but only one fruit so far. I also have pumpkins...one just got a bunch of flowers yesterday so we'll see if anything happens there. All the pumpkin flowers are really close to the stem (not out on the vine) and that's where the cantaloupe is too (even though there are lots of flowers out on the vines there). The thing is, in this GA heat, I'm already watering 2-3 times a day and there's not even any thirsty fruit yet. I'm just trying to figure out how to salvage what I can this year and what to do better next year.

I am a balcony gardener mostly. Unfortunately , there are too many rats, alley rabbits, and wild dogs in my industrial zone neighborhood to successfully grow veggies in the mud pit driveway/ garden. Here are my plans for this year... as copied and pasted from my journal and some of it has gone outside already. Once again...this is a cut and copy of my happenings and plans...pardon the type os and run ons, it was like a scribble only in typing. ------------------------------------------ Downstairs in the muddy dirt driveway next to my car: 1) old grandma craigslist transplanted wisteria: survived!!!! YAY! 2) Tons of muscari and mint planted on top of the dug up rats nest. Growing! Allysum growing despite the starlings. Hostas growing 32 pips Lilly if the valley not growing!!!!ERRRRR!!!!!! Tranplanted lavender Growing! Grapes trimmed and growing. Lilacs , small but alive Borage growing. Pink hollyhock growing transplanted rose of sharon no sign of life. Mint growing on the stairs level 2 olive oil can full of garlic growing and happy paintbucket full of wisteria trimmings left outside and alive(?) bucket of mint no sign of life. landing bucket of mint.. no sign of life. 2 5 gal buckets of carrots of all colors growing. on the stairs level 3 tons of mint in pots no sign of life. balcony. pail of chives overwintered outdoors loving it! pail of giant lovage root overwintered out doors coming up Mint in cauldron, living despite the starlings. overwintered rosemary DEAD! 2nd batch Yellow violas doing o.k. first batch the starlings ate. mini roses, were fine now ERRR(??) peas peas and more peas outside and loving it. nasturtium, no sign of life. Indoors Growing. 1 ft lacinato kale 2 pots of arugula overwintering french tarragon Crazy ass ginger root. 2 genovese basil 3 types of oregano 2 types of mint. I type of lavender 1 type of thyme. 1 pot of parsley 1 overzealous rootbound african blue basil Ready to transplant ASAP( c'mon weather!!) giant sweet genovese in file box just like last year.. same time same method same place. (Snuff out the starling first this year!) outdoor lacinato -bucket 3 4 inch pots of parsley- Balcony in crates 12 black nasties- all over 3 day and night- nasties all over an bunch of emperess of india- nasties all over Black prince tomatoes balcony in 5 gal. giver rest away cherry tomatoes -5 gal give rest away striped roma-milk crate give rest away italian paste -crate give rest away 5 mini strawberries. top crate okra, 5 gal bucket. # blueberry plants ready to put in container in front of car.Make mix purple pole beans for the deck supports 5 gal bucket. blue lake beans for landing/ deck rail.. 5 gal bucket yellow bush beans for landing 5 gal bucket black and purple carrots for landing 5 gal buckets 12 wormwood/ for near Any rat entry and exits in mud pit back yard. 1 wormwwod for use up here. 7 black holly hock/ back yard 20 sunflowers of dif varieties and heights. along the dysfunctional driveway gate various fox gloves. who knows where i will put those. 20 lambs ears... near the trellis. under the wild ass grape vine that will fruit this year. Johnny jump ups ready to go Allysum. ready to go(???) Billions of summer savory.. ready as soon as they are. Trade trade Trade!! Cuttings; mint - fine. Af. Blue basil- 30 cuttings doing overly splendid. oregano rooting. lavender(???) thyme -rooting swwet potato from counter rooting Affix old ladder to bldg. for hanging planters for herbs. find a place for chamomile. Find Black Purple Silver or White plants and have a ton of stuff to trade. clover for under shady grapes, maybe GODZILLA clover! plant munstead. Get rosa rugosa for hips try the vert garden thing with the stakes. and steel (???) find a crappy old clawfoot to grow out of in the back mud pit.(???) Tame them grapes to feed me. Kill those damn rats and flush out those starlings first thing... and , paint the grill And get a heliotrope, saffron and opium poppies because i like them. :) Find a place to hand black fuscia figure out cool bucket/ chain design to hang in negative space of skyline. Kill the tree of heaven next door when no ones looking. Kill the stump of a crap tree in yard and dig it out this year. Patch big rat holes in wooden fence. ------------------------------------------- I got a ton of stuff to do.

Astilbe should grow, although I have had no luck with them - but I do think that is personal. It seems like there is always one or two plants that grow for anyone but me. Columbine should be fine, and definitely elephant ears will look great. I had no trouble with Japanese Painted Fern, or Wood Fern. Take a look at Heuchera as well, I find them to be very hardy, come back every year. I have a strip alongside my house that is empty now, that I would like to do similar to yours in that I will plant Asian Jasmine, the white and green kind, and then add Heuchera, hosta, and ferns with stepping stones meandering down the middle, with elephant ears lining the back where the path meets a fence. The other plants die back in winter, but the Asian Jasmine looks pretty, and then the others come back in spring. But do know that hosta requires regular application of bug and snail bait to keep whole.... terry

Great use of the space you have there! Talk about maximizing square footage! Really interested to see how that cucumber experiment turns out. What size mesh is that? My first reaction was that it might be too small but then realized you will likely be planting along the outside? The tentrils (?) should be able to grab a hold of that and hopefully you don't get any cukes growing inside.