It's still not cold

Boule d'or melon seedlings
(Cucurmis melo)

Mondays have become my garden work day because my class schedule allows me to be out there working by 3 PM, but as soon as I stepped outside, the oven-like blast of heat let me know today was not my day.  To me, as a child of the North, October means apple cider, sweaters, leaves changing colors and falling, and the weather GETTING COLDER.  A high of 102 is not colder.  Wrong direction.  

I may not like the heat, but the plants all seem happy.  One of my garden books says "Melons love heat," and that maxim has certainly proven true here.  Four of the seven I planted in the hill have come up, and now they are getting their first true leaves.  The plants are about an inch tall, with about a two inch wingspan between their seed leaves.  This is my first time growing melons, so I don't yet have a strong sense of what they need from me.  I often worry they'll dry out, especially after I missed watering them on Sunday, but they seem fine.  

Blue jade corn seedling
(Zea mays)

The corn I planted a week ago has begun to germinate, which I was not expecting--the seed packet said this varietal germinates in 10-21 days.  For me, part of gardening is detective work--many of the plants I grow I have only seen in adult form.  The first time I grew spinach, I pulled up about half of the seedlings, thinking they were weeds.  Oops.  So this time I was patient, and a quick Google search confirmed that the mysterious grassy-looking plants were in fact my baby corn plants.

The spinach and butterhead lettuce I planted two weeks ago still haven't germinated, so I guess the soil temperature is still too high for them.  I'll try again once the weather and soil both cool down a little, in three weeks or a month.  I'm still holding out hope for the tomatoes and habañeros, which haven't come up yet, but they've still got time.    

I thought I spotted pumpkin seedlings today, but nope, those were just more volunteer sunflowers.  All over A4, the sunflowers are doing incredibly well: the ones I planted two weeks ago all have at least two pairs of true leaves, which are small but furry.  More volunteers are appearing every day, and they all seem healthy and vigorous, so I relocate them instead of culling them.  

Sunflowers, 2 weeks after planting

I hate waiting for the seeds to come up, or accidentally trampling what I didn't realize was a seedling, but watching the baby plants grow so fast at the beginning of the season is one of my favorite things about gardening.  Coming back to see the changes happening daily, like with the sunflowers right now.  Back home, much of this happens indoors, in seed flats under banks of grow lights.  The tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, and zucchini all begin their lives in repurposed egg cartons filled with potting mix. I don't have any grow lights here, and my roommates and I can only eat so many eggs, so I'm direct seeding this first round of plants, hoping that the warm soil temperature will be enough to get them started. Hopefully, after collecting a few egg cartons (or just biting the bullet and buying some seed flats) I can start the next round of tender plants on my sunny southeast-facing porch.  Maybe I should put my musical training to good use and sing to them, to see if they perform any differently, or germinate any earlier.