The Constant Gardner Blog Index
August 05, 2008
A success

Maeve has eaten her first watermelon from our garden.

Way back last summer, Maeve, our 8-year-old granddaughter, asked me to try to grow watermelon.

Since she was staying overnight while her parents attended a Police concert outside of New York City, we decided to harvest our first watermelon.

I think it was Peace watermelon, with a dark green skin and yellow flesh. We lost our Petite Yellow, the other yellow-fleshed one. This was the first melon I had noticed on the vines, about quarter-size three weeks ago, and it had stopped growing. Others that appeared on the adjacent vines later (probably Sugar Baby, with a lighter-colored skin and stripes), had surpassed it in size. So, I assumed the earlier one was ripe.

Meave said she really liked it. Nancy and I thought it could have stayed on the vine a bit longer to get riper.

But we have lots of other melons on their way. Watermelons may have been an experiment that succeeded.

Now I am waiting on the tomatoes. The lack of sun and cool temperatures means none have ripened. I am getting impatient.

Meanwhile, I think the peas are done. I picked enough to feed three people last Saturday, and there are a few pods coming, but it won't be enough for a meal. But five weeks of peas is pretty good.

Posted at 04:59 PM

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Tom Atwell has written the Maine Gardener column in the Maine Sunday Telegram since the spring of 2004. He has worked at the Press Herald/Sunday Telegram since 1974, about the same time he started gardening with any seriousness.

He gardens with his wife, Nancy. She not only is the better gardener of the pair, but also knows the botanical names of plants. They have two grown children and three grandchildren.

Tom was born in Skowhegan, grew up in Farmington and graduated from the University of Maine with a BA in journalism. His goal each year is to have continuous compost from his three compost bins, continuous bloom in his low-maintenance garden and more fruits and vegetables on his family table than the garden pests eat in the field.



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