Something strange happened in my yard this last month. The something strange looks like this: a weird green rock rose up out of the earth. A sort of stripe-y rock.
Looking closer, it seems that the green rock might actually be a watermelon.
How could that have happened? Every year, I bury a bunch of watermelon seeds in the ground where they can return to the dust from which they came, and where they provide useful nutrients for the various nearby weeds that I end up growing. But this year, instead of decomposing gracefully beneath the ground, the seeds shot up curly leaves that took over their patch of the yard, and then a watermelon-like object appeared.
Looking closer, it seems that the green rock might actually be a watermelon.
How could that have happened? Every year, I bury a bunch of watermelon seeds in the ground where they can return to the dust from which they came, and where they provide useful nutrients for the various nearby weeds that I end up growing. But this year, instead of decomposing gracefully beneath the ground, the seeds shot up curly leaves that took over their patch of the yard, and then a watermelon-like object appeared.
But was it actually a watermelon? And if so, was it ready to eat? I had no idea, but I decided to find out, and I enlisted the help of my running buddies. After our weekly Saturday 10K run -- this week a stunningly hot week at 90 degrees -- we gathered to cut this rock open and see what it looked like on the inside.
Lo-and-behold, it was delicious! And there was enough to go around for runners and grandchildren and passers by, too. Yes, the weather has gotten hot again . . . but after the run, we rocked it with watermelon!
Congratulations!!! It looks delicious! Now, if you can just figure out the secret so you can reproduce these results next year. I have tried over and over and over to grow watermelons, but to no avail.
ReplyDeleteThis year I actually bought a "baby watermelon" plant at a nursery - it's supposed to make those "personal sized" watermelons. I was sooo excited when I saw a few melons set on the vine, but a few days ago I decided to roll them over to look at the undersides to try to gauge if they were getting ripe or not, and discovered that earwigs had eaten the undersides away. Grrrrr!
There is one more though, that's growing on a section of vine that grew up one of the tomato cages, so the little melon is hanging above the ground where the bugs can't get it. Unfortunately, it's only about the size of a small grapefruit, and unless we have really good luck with the weather, I doubt it will have time to mature before it freezes. Sigh. Perhaps watermelon just isn't my thing.
Well, I'd say third try's the charm, but I think this is like 6th or 7th try for me. There have been a lot of years of sacrifice to the watermelon gods for this recent success!
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