Growing Watermelon In My Organic Garden

Yes, it’s still hot here. But that can be a good thing when you’re organic gardening. Some things need quite a few months of steady heat to mature. Watermelons are one of those fruits that needs a long growing season.

You want to get your seeds in the ground in mid spring (after all frosts and once the ground has warmed). They need to grow steadily for about four months before you’ll see the fruit starting to swell.

Then before you know it, they’re soon ready to harvest. You can tell when they’re ripe by looking at the side that’s sitting on the ground. It should be ready when there’s a yellow patch where it’s lying on the ground. You can also hold it off the ground and tap it. If it sounds hollow, it should be ready.

Just by the way, the fruit in the bottom right hand corner of the photo is a rockmelon (canteloupe). No…. not growing on the same vine – I’m not that clever yet! So you can’t save the seed from either of these fruits and expect it to grow true to type. There’s a good possibility that they have cross pollinated.

In fact, mine may have cross pollinated with zucchini (courgette), cucumber or even pumpkins as I have them all growing too close to be sure that they haven’t.

I have details of seed saving and a chart with distances to be sure of no cross pollination available as a bonus when you purchase my e-book, Organic Food Gardening Beginner’s Manual.

Seed saving is a great hobby and it can save you quite a lot of money if you usually purchase seedlings. Worth a try at least.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…