Watermelons Are Growing Big in June

Today I took some photos of the watermelons growing in the backyard garden. I have four, and they are various sizes. These are the seedlings which were thinned once I chose the best to leave.

Watermelon seedlings – were thinned down to 4 plants

baby watermelon growing on the vine — Baby watermelon

The watermelons grew from seeds I planted April 8th. I wrote the date on the seed packet. When ordering seeds from The Urban Harvest, a Florida based grower, some seeds, like these watermelons, came from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

watermelon in Florida garden — The first melon to grow

The seed packet was set next to each watermelon, for the photos, to help show the size. There is lots of good info on the packet too. And, I still have seeds, which I may pop into the ground around the yard. I don’t really have space for long trailing vines. And do start them directly in the ground (as the packet says). I had a couple of seeds in pots and they didn’t do well at all.

A couple of melons are pretty small still, but the other two are bigger, and I saw a baby on the vine today. I’m trying to train the vines to follow the garden edges. One vine was destroyed by the roofers who were all over the place when replacing our roof recently. Grrr…

These are Strawberry Watermelons and the seeds came from The Urban Harvest / Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

The Southern Exposure Seed Exchange has a great website for anyone growing food in the southern part of the US. I really need to spend some time reading their pages. They have suggestions for growing successful crops in our humid and hot region.

The Urban Harvest will get your seed orders out quickly, and I’ve had great results with their seed packets as well (Moringa and Seminole Pumpkin). They also have wonderful videos and information for those of us beginning the Florida gardening journey. They are based in the Tampa area so the info is specifically for us Floridians.

When is it time to pick my watermelon?

According to the back of the seed packet, the time to pick the watermelon is around day 85. I am at day 66 since planting, so maybe around the end of this month or the beginning of July. The Watermelon Growing Guide, at the Southern Exposure website, has great info.

If I’m lucky they will survive and grow, but I have my doubts. I’ve never grown watermelon before because the vine usually dies very quickly from that white moldy stuff vining vegetables get. The seed packet does say, “Very good disease resistance”. So far I am very impressed with the plants.

Many vegetables and flowers I’ve planted are doing really well, but the weather is turning very hot now. This will be the test to see which things can stand the heat.

There were loads of little yellow flowers along the vines, but now I am not seeing as many.

My Little Garden

I began the garden this year, and it is an ongoing process. I am one person, in her sixties, so the going is slow. My son tilled the space and I have done everything else.

I love gardening, but never even thought to grow vegetables in this climate. Now, I am enjoying gardening again. Each day there is something new to see. I can put up with the mosquitoes, humidity and blazing sun for a short time, but it’s enough to get something accomplished each day.