I would like to introduce you to Hank the Honeydew
And Walter the Watermelon.
Hank and Walter came home from the Co-op with us yesterday. Now some may call us crazy for planting just one plant of each. But the truth is we have a history with watermelons that made us a little timid in trying to plant melons again.
Let me take you back in time. The year was in the early 1990's. Allen and I had just moved into our new home and had over 2 acres of land. The house set in the middle of one acre and there was a little incline behind it that went up to the trees behind the house. On that incline was a prime piece of flat land for a garden. It had just a touch of a slant, but was perfect for some tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers and peppers.
We had not had an official garden in many years. I do not have a green thumb at all and hubby had always dabbled in the basics of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. As we were picking out our plants, he saw some plants for those little round cannonball watermelons. He wondered if he would be able to grow any so he bought six little plants hoping to get at least a few cannonball melons that summer.
Imagine our surprise when those six little plants started growing and just about took over the entire garden. And they weren't those cute little round melons we expected. They were the biggest oblong watermelons I had ever seen. And the vines were loaded. They just kept growing and growing and producing more and more, bigger and bigger watermelons.
It became a family joke that we didn't have to go to the garden to pick watermelons. If you waited long enough, a vine would just grow down the hill to the house and place one on the back deck. We picked them. We ate them. We gave them to friends and neighbors. We may even have given a few to strangers....just to get rid of them. We were being overrun with watermelon.
As summer came to a close, the construction company I worked for threw a huge picnic for all our employees and subcontractors. At that time, hubby had one of those big truck tool boxes in the back of the truck.
He filled it with watermelon and iced them down. After the cookout, he opened the tail gate and sliced and served watermelon all evening. People were taking them home by the arm load. I can honestly say that after that summer, we had no desire to ever see a watermelon again.
Until yesterday......
When he started looking at the honeydew plant, I spotted the watermelon. We exchanged a look and he said "NO WAY!" I just smiled and picked up a plant and said, "You grow your puny little honeydew and I'll grow a single watermelon plant and see who has the best luck." I'm going to have to keep an eye on him. I came home yesterday evening and found him watering BOTH plants. I accused him of trying to sabotage Walter by over watering. But he assured me both plants were doused the same. We will see. I may need to sneak some Miracle Grow into Walter's soil.
This should be an interesting summer. Stay tuned for the progress reports on Walter and Hank.
