Planting Time is Nigh

I hope to plant my watermelon starts in one of my backyard raised beds tomorrow. I had intended to plant on June 22, but the the weather went from high sun and 80 F on June 21 to rain and cool weather for the next couple of days. Nighttime temperatures dropped below 50 F. The last thing a watermelon wants is to start life in soggy, cold ground. It dried out this afternoon.

Saskatchewan watermelon seedlings. The long spindly stems are the
result of starting seeds without a grow light. Despite leaving them
in front of a south-facing window with plenty of afternoon light,
they ended up looking like this. The photo was taken May 20,
the day I transplanted them to pots. They were seeded April 26.

Mixed melon starts on June 22, the day I was going to start planting.
The Saskatchewan watermelons can be seen in the middle back of
the photo. The more impressive-looking starts at right are
Prescott Fond Blanc and Korean Star melons.

Melons are the primary reason I do vegetable gardening. I grow a lot of other stuff, but I could care less about most of it. I eat a lot of cucumbers, pickled peas and beans. Most of the other produce I grow, I give away or donate to the food bank.

I am growing mixed melons again at my plot in a local community garden. Those will be planted later this week. I am growing watermelons in my backyard because there is too much theft at the community garden. Read my "Meloncholy Tale" by clicking on its tab above for the logic behind this reasoning.

Most thieves know what a watermelon looks like. Not so much with some of the melon varieties I grow. To a would-be thief, Lambkin could be a squash or unripe melon. I am growing Prescott Fond Blanc melons for the first time this year. This French heirloom is the ultimate stealth melon because it has an ugly warty exterior that looks like a diseased pumpkin trying to ripen. The flesh is salmon-colored. The taste is a pending experience.