Melon-coly

Two pumpkins hanging inside the box and outside

In the back bed, outside the fence, I planted three seeds - watermelon (sugar baby), pumpkin (small sugar) and a melon (I think Jenny Lind, I'm not sure). I wrote it down on a piece of paper, what I planted and where, but of course I got into the house and could not find the paper. Two of the three began to grow. The third did not. I took a guess and replanted the pumpkin seeds.


Fortunately for me, as they have grown, they all look different so I can now tell them apart. And it was the pumpkin that did not grow originally, but now I have pumpkin all over the place.

The biggest pumpkin on the path between the boxes

The leaves of the three plants look markedly different.

The large one is the pumpkin, the smaller one, which looks similar is the melon and the one that looks totally different is the watermelon.

 The pumpkin plant looks a lot like the zucchini or summer squash plants with the same big yellow flowers and is as prickly as they are, but vines more.

The pumpkin vine, growing out of the box, across the path, through the asparagus and into the Potager's Strawberry bed!

Twining through the pumpkin is a melon. While prickly like the pumpkin, it's flowers are smaller, and it's fruit is still very tiny. I'm guessing that the pumpkin grew so much faster that it shaded the melon and that's why the fruit is just starting now that it has climbed it's way out of the pumpkin's shadow. I have searched through the prickly tangle of leaves and haven't found any baby melons except the ones still attached to flowers and they are tiny still. I am doubtful we will have melon this year.

To the right of this flower there is a tiny melon, to the right of that is a larger pumpkin just starting out.

The swollen part under the flower will be a melon.

There are a few watermelons at this stage

The watermelon has very different leaves and, due to it's unfortunate run in with the ground hog, it is also just starting to bear fruit.

This is a small watermelon when mature, so I think it will not take as long as a large watermelon. It's possible the watermelon may ripen before it begins to get cold.

It's amazing how fast summer is going, isn't it?

This is the biggest watermelon, at about 2 inches

I wasn't thinking ahead when I planted these melons out of the Potager so they are protected by a mish-mash of whatever I can find to keep critters out. It's probably been working because the total effect is offensive to even wild animals! Note to self, be better prepared with extra fencing next year!

You may notice that there is a tee-pee in there. I originally planned to add wooden supports to the tee-pee for the melons to climb up. I never did that. So now it's another part of the mish-mash.  As ugly as it is, since that first ground hog attack, the melons have been unscathed, so it is working. It's proof that you don't need a well-laid out Potager to grow vegetables in. Just some good soil and water and a mish-mash of assorted fencing!