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

Last of the Season

We picked the last ripened watermelon a few weeks ago.  I am amazed at how those plants grow!

This melon was hidden under some leaves and had sunk into the ground.  Heather loved seeing the hole it left!  I think it was the biggest watermelon yet.

You cannot clearly see, but this hole was about 2-3 inches deep.  That was one big watermelon!

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

Watermelons, Year 2

Last fall Heather planted about 30 watermelon seeds in a hole in our front flower bed.  They must have all grown because the plant(s) took over the entire area.  Just as the watermelons were ripening our area was hit by a hail storm that destroyed all of Heather's melons.  We didn't get to eat any of them.

Surprisingly, they came up again this spring and have grown quickly to take over the entire area again. 

March 30

Heather was VERY excited to have her plant come up spontaneously.

April 2 - and it had grown considerably!

May 23 - and it has grown to fill the entire area.

Watermelon #1

Watermelon #2

Watermelon #3

Watermelon #4 - and there were several even smaller than this

The first watermelon of the season was picked and taken to her dad's.  It wasn't quite ready (not very sweet) so we waited a few weeks to pick the next one.

June 28 - I love that grin on her face!

Heather was so excited to cut into her watermelon.

It was SO tasty!

We have picked many watermelons this summer.  We usually give away part of the melons to someone else to share Heather's bounty.  We even took one to our family reunion last week.  One of Heather's cousins collected some seeds and plans to plant them, as well. 

Nearly everyone who comes to the house comments on the watermelon plants.  "I didn't know you could grow watermelon here!" is the most common comment.  We didn't know, either, but now we do!

Second Wave

Lightning may not strike in the same spot twice, but hail certainly does!  Just a few hours after I posted my last photos we got another storm.  This time I wasn't home.  Emily and I were getting a flat tire repaired.  Apparently we ran over a nail amid all the storm debris.

Heather and Megan were on their way home from the school bus.  Since my vehicle was out of commission they had to walk.  They had just arrived home and were on the front portch when the second storm hit.  By the time they got the front door open they were both wet and had been pelted with hailstones.  Crazy weather!

I wish now that I had picked ALL the watermelons earlier today.  I just wanted Heather to have a chance to pick one of her home-grown watermelons.  That isn't meant to be, I guess.

Here's what's left of Heather's watermelon plants.  This is where the three I posted earlier were.

This is the little watermelon that was still intact earlier.  Pieces of hail blasted chunks out of the side of it.

We also found this little guy that was demolished.  I didn't even know he was there, even after the earlier storm.  He was hidden among the plants.

The big watermelon that survived the earlier storm was destroyed in the second storm, as well.  It was filled with mud and other undesirable objects so we had to throw it away.

 It had 4 points of impact with the hailstones.  This spot is bigger than my thumb print.

I got home about 30 minutes after the storm and took photos.  Keep in mind that these hailstones had already started melting before the photos were taken.



Blurry, but by far the biggest one I saw.



My back fence was shredded.  It is just a chain link fence with metal slats, so the hail did a real number on the metal slats. 

After dark, I went out to the alley to throw away some trash and realized the whole fence in leaning into the alley.  The slats look way worse from that side, but it was too dark to take pictures.

Friends and neighbors report broken windows in cars and houses, roofs that were ripped off in places, and many families are without power.  As Emily and I drove home earlier we saw trees that had been uprooted or had branches ripped off.  Some landed in the street or on cars.  Power poles fell into traffic.  Water flooded yards and homes. 

We were truly blessed if the worst we got was a mangled fence!

Hailstorm

My dad came and mowed my lawn this morning.  He neatly trimmed the watermelon plants and sprayed them for bugs.  Everything looked so nice!

Literally five minutes after he pulled out of my driveway, all hail broke loose.  Ten minutes later the storm had passed and the watermelons were in ruins.  Heather is going to be heartbroken when she gets home from school. 

Sometimes we forget how powerful Mother Nature is.  Here are some photos to remind you.

The wind was blowing so hard I couldn't even open the front door.  This is the back flowerbed (taken from the safety of the covered patio!).  That is hail splashing in the water.

The flowerbed had about 2" water in it.

This shot is along my back fence.

The hail was bouncing around the yard but I couldn't get a good action shot of it.  Everything was too blurry.

In the northeast corner of my yard. 

Over the back fence I could see hail on the neighbor's roof.  It is normally all one shade of gray.  The lighter (whiter) areas are all the hail.

Once the storm abated, I could step out front to inspect the damage.  This is the front porch that runs the length of the front of the house.  

View from the west side of the house toward the carport.

Along the west side of the house.

West side of the house, different view.  The hail was 3"-4" deep!

Hail on my roof

This is a round chunk of ice from the pile along the west side of my house.  Remember how big they are when I show you the watermelons!

This piece of hail was out on the sidewalk.  It was flat on one side and rounded on the other.  It must have hit hard enough to change its shape.  

As you can see, the hail shredded the watermelon plants. 

Luckily, the largest watermelon miraculously survived!  Heather will be thrilled.

The other watermelons weren't so lucky. 

The plants are shredded.  I don't know that they will recover.

All three of these watermelons split open because of the hail.

The sad thing is that my parents and I had just looked at them as he left.  NONE of them had the slightest split in them.

Split watermelon #1

If you look closely (by the arrows) you can see where the hail struck the watermelons.  The hail must have been coming down mighty hard to split open the fruit!

Split watermelon #2

Split watermelon #3

The good thing is that the three split watermelons appear to be pretty ripe inside.  I picked them all and brought them into the house to prevent bugs or anything else from getting into the fruit. When the girls get home tonight we'll cut the watermelons up and taste them.  Hmmmm. What can I make for dinner that goes with watermelon?

By the way, during the storm I could hear Awesome screaming but I couldn't find him.  I walked through the house several times but the noise from the storm was too loud.  I'm sure he was terrified.

We have a ceiling vent/fan in the hall bathroom, where we keep the litter box.  During my cat search, I realized hail was coming in through the air vent!  It was bouncing all over the bathroom.  Crazy stuff!  I hope Awesome wasn't in there when the hail started coming in.