National Watermelon Day

Today is National Watermelon Day! 

In honor of this special day, I am posting my most recent photos of Heather's watermelon garden.  Since she is with her dad this week, the photos are not the most recent but her watermelon patch is doing well this year.

6-23-12

 Heather was SO excited to have her first watermelon of the season.



Unfortunately, it was not ripe and was rock hard inside. 

She was VERY disappointed.

7-24-12

Two little ones

And a couple medium-sized ones...

This was the biggest one but after we took the pictures we realized it had rotted on the bottom so we didn't get to eat it. 

The watermelon plants have taken over the front flower bed and moved into the lawn.

Heather's canteloupe are doing well, too.

Several baby ones...

These are now the size of the big one above. 

The canteloupe plants are also dominating the flower bed. 

The Never-Ending Watermelon Story

Several years ago, Heather planted 30 watermelon seeds in one hole in the flower bed outside our front door.  Since then, we have had watermelon plants come up each spring and take over our flower beds.  This year is no exception.

This is the watermelon plants on April 10.

Last year she planted cantaloupe, as well.  They have also come up spontaneously again this year. 

April 10

Cantaloupe, April 10

Heather is excited about the growth.  May 4

She loves to compare the size of the leaves to her hands.  It won't be long and her hand will be dwarfed by the leaves.

The cantaloupe are not growing where we planted them last year.  They seem to prefer the spot by the flowers.

We cleared grass to create the flower beds, but the grass doesn't like to stay out.  Heather found this baby cantaloupe hiding in the grass.  May 4

It Will Begin to Grow...

Front flower bed after 10 weeks (8-2-11)

Those two big cantaloupe have grown dramatically in two weeks!  We also have a number of smaller fruit.

These were the itty bitty fruit two weeks ago

As were these...

This one is new in the past two weeks

And so are these.  Do you see the little ones above right and above left?

Grandma K has always said that Heather should marry a farmer.  Ha Ha   Perhaps Grandma is right.  Heather has definitely got a green thumb!

If It Be A Good Seed...

We took the seeds from a cantaloupe Granpda got at the grocery store.  The fruit was very sweet but we were not sure the seeds would actually grow. 

Heather was optimistic and patiently watered her cantaloupe seeds every day for a month before we began to see little green leaves.  Almost before we knew it, the plants doubled in size every day. 



The front flower bed after 8 weeks (7-20-11)

Two big cantaloupe fruit

About a dozen itty bitty fruit sprouts

Looks like the seeds were good!

Plant The Seed

Heather had such success with her watermelon plants in the last year that she decided she wanted to grow other fruits.  In May, she talked Grandpa into helping her plant cantaloupe seeds. 

The flower bed in front of our house before they started 

Preparing the ground

The seeds

Planting the seed

Covering the seeds with dirt

Heather planted flowers behind the cantaloupe

She diligently watered them but they didn't survive the summer heat 

We were excited to see if her cantaloupe seeds would grow.

The Demise of the Watermelons

This past week we saw the end of the second crop of Heather's watermelons.  It was a bittersweet moment.  Luckily, we now have cantaloupe to watch!!

The last watermelon 7-20-11