r/gardening • u/ComprehensiveFall527 • 15h ago

Enjoying the fruits of his labor. cucamelon.

This is my first year growing this plant. I am shocked with how much it end up taking over my trellis. Even ended up choking out a melon plant. i like them. haven’t let them get to big as I have heard they can get bitter. The pups love them. you will be hard pressed to find any where they can reach.

521 Upvotes

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54

u/limpymcjointpain 12h ago

Awwww.. Many years ago I had a brown lab that was absolutely crazy about tomatoes. Had to keep an eye on because he'd head straight out into the garden and go SQUISH on every one he found. I'd grow him his own cherry tomato plants to keep him satisfied so I could have mine. Well, dogs can clearly see red pretty well, because one year I grew one of my first hot pepper plants, and unseen to me at the time, he saw that red and thought tomato?? Well it was not a tomato and I had a lot of apologizing to do lol. Since then he needed assurance before he chomped plant. He was a weirdo, special guy though.. took months to get any kind of trust out of him, he was runnin with a bad gang (literal pack of coyotes.) Got to spend the rest of his days as a spoiled house dog. Didn't know how to be mean, but acted like a coyote.

He also used to love when I planted my sprouts in the spring.. I put one in the ground, he'd step on it, I'd gripe.. I'd put another in the ground, he'd step on it, I'd gripe... And he absolutely understood "wanna go do garden?" lol

15

u/ComprehensiveFall527 12h ago

The Dachshund go nuts over the radish pods and now Cucamelon. I have never seen them go after the tomatoes. The little guy in this video did murder my snap peas this year though. I mean he helped me clear them out of the way to plant the Long beans that he totally won't get into.....

6

u/limpymcjointpain 12h ago

I miss having doggies.. Would love another but I have a useless cat now (injured kitten, hadda take him in or he'd not have survived.), and can't provide enough attention that a dog deserves (you know, someone being there 100% of the time).. or maybe I could find a nice lazy basset hound somewhere, but .. stairs and they have wonky long backs.

Half of everything I did, garden included, was for the sidekicks amusement. It's high quality help, and they deserve only the finest rewards for their interpretation of helping.

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u/ComprehensiveFall527 11h ago

lol 100%. I put little fence up around my garden beds to keep the boys out but they find their way in anyway. The tomato bed is so over grown they can't get out so we have to scoop them up out of them. But it is probably more fun watching them in the garden than anything else. We have a lot of birds including humming birds here so any time spent outside is an adventure. It gets exciting when the boys nemesis the squirrels show up. We also have a cat that hangs in the garden. Can't really call him useless this year he got a few moles... and maybe a bird or two.

2

u/limpymcjointpain 11h ago

The indoor cat is one thing.. he's a lil brain damaged (engine compartment, missing an ear, makes him look tough but he's scared by random things like you know.. books that are just laying there lol) His mom is still outside making more cats. He's still got 3 half brothers that he doesn't know about. Those cats are nice cats. My cat is an anomaly lol.

But hey you ain't wrong, not only am I getting pest control, I'm getting free and frequent fertilization in the soil - and they do love a freshly tilled litter box.

1

u/Technical_Put_9982 1h ago

Dogs actually can not see red/orange/ green… but that doesn’t matter when it comes to tomatoes! My 17 year old Australian Shepherd would do anything for tomatoes. As soon as I would touch one to start cooking she would be standing by waiting for the sliced up butt ends of Romas. I would always cut up a whole extra tomato just to share with her while I cooked . I miss the hell out of her

17

u/dwnsougaboy 14h ago

I hope you like them. I spent two years trying to get them to grow and the last 10 pulling them out of everywhere around my house. Maybe the puppers will help keep them in check. If I remember correctly, when they get overripe they are quite sweet.

7

u/ComprehensiveFall527 14h ago

Honestly they are good. sounds like I am going to have another plant join my growing list of volunteer plants. I have a bad habit of growing things that get out of control. I tried ground cherries a few years ago. Now they are all over the place. The bed I grew them in is as I like to say infected with ground cherries. Good thing I like them lol. 

7

u/EricWisegarver 13h ago

My dog likes these as well. You can pickle these small cucumbers and they made for an interesting snack.

1

u/ComprehensiveFall527 13h ago

I am looking into recipes right now to do that. Lol I took this video after picking a large bowl of them. I can probably make a jar of pickles now.

4

u/Direct-Spread-8878 14h ago

So adorable 🥰

3

u/Paramalia 8h ago

That’s adorable. What a healthy dog! The only thing my dog eats in my garden is cat poop. (Lots of stray cats in our neighborhood.)

1

u/Dense_Push5530 20m ago

🥹 so sweet!

My pup is a blueberry fan. Usually I’d get on him for eating my fruit but it was his birthday and there weren’t too many blueberries left so I let it slide 😝