melons

Gardening – Southwest Florida Style

I’m trying my garden again this year. In mid-March (while those of you in the North were still digging out of that white stuff), I cleared a space behind our shed.

Hubby built a frame for me and I filled it with garden soil and manure.

The kids and I love melons – honeydew, cantaloupes, watermelons -so we planted them all. The cantaloupes aren’t here (they can mix with honeydews and the results aren’t very tasty). Here we have honeydews, watermelons, gourds, and carrots (which aren’t doing so well).

The watermelons are taking over! I have to keep steering them towards the poor gourds.
We were so excited to find a little, bitty watermelon…

… and a little honeydew too!

I’m hoping my carrots recover. If not, I’ll replant them. I’m also hoping to get some peas and beans in along the shed wall. I’ll put something up for them to climb. I’d also love to try growing asparagus, garlic, onions, cucumbers, peppers, plus some herbs.

What about you? Do you have a garden?

To Grow A Honeydew – Melons??

I went out to check on my honeydew plants yesterday and was excited to find what I think are three itty-bitty melons! Some critter has been happily munching on the leaves though so hopefully it leaves the little melons alone!

To Grow a Honeydew – Flowers

Are you tired of all my melon posts yet? Whew! I was worried you might be.

I was so excited when I went to check on my honeydew plants the other day! They have flowers!! The plants themselves seem very small though and I’m wondering if they’ll actually get melons. For now I’m hopeful.

To Grow a Honeydew – Transplant

Are you tired of hearing (seeing) about our honeydew growing attempt? I hope not! I’m really hoping that we get some edible honeydews! Our sprouts were getting a little too big for their little pots, so we moved them to bigger ones. I’m hoping that they can stay in these pots permanently. We aren’t planning to plant them in the ground because the soil here in southwest Florida is very sandy. If they seem to be struggling as they get bigger, I may try planting one or two of them in the ground and seeing what happens. For now, we wait. Honeydews need 3 months of warm (hot) weather.