Watermelon woes

with Terry Moore

According to children’s science website (www.sciencebug.org) it takes 379 litres of water to grow a watermelon, and I can well believe it. I have been trying to grow the delicious-sounding ‘Sugar Baby’ watermelon – a small, sweet variety – for several seasons to no avail and in the past have blamed lack of watering for my failure. No such claim can be made this summer, as nature has provided all the water my vegie bed could possibly need and I’ve topped it up as needed with fertiliser and yet more water.

My dream of actually picking a watermelon from my own garden began around three years ago, when I tried growing ‘Sugar Baby’ from seed. I probably left it too late in the season, and by the time the seedlings got going it was almost the end of summer. They weren’t even mature enough to flower before they were consigned to the compost heap. Last year I bought a little seedling from Kings Plant Barn as I’d forgotten to sow seeds. Summer was dry that year, and I was away a lot and as a result the seedling struggled and eventually turned up its toes and died.

This spring I bought a much larger ‘Sugar Baby’ seedling from Kings, which gave me high hopes of success. Several flowers appeared – a promising sign – and there have been bees taking an active interest. However since then no telltale bulges of forming fruit have appeared.

Watermelons are believed to originate from southern Africa and do best in countries with long, hot summers. They have a very long growing period, and can take around 85 days to mature. ‘Sugar Baby’ is touted as an “early producing” variety but, in my plot anyway, the words ‘yeah, right’ apply to this claim. It looks likely summer will end before I get any watermelons. What makes this more frustrating is that everything else in my vegie bed has been wonderfully productive, with beans, peas, tomatoes and strawberries in fine form. Gardeners are eternal optimists though, so maybe next summer....

Coffee for compost
Did you know that BP petrol stations, including the ones in Silverdale and Dairy Flat, give away used coffee grounds for people with gardens to compost? Apparently if you call before midday there will be a better chance of getting a bag of the grounds. It’s worth approaching your local café also as many are grateful to have the grounds collected, and if you leave them a container they may fill it for you. Doing this not only enriches your compost (worms like them in worm farms also) but saves a nutrient resource from going to waste in landfill.

Published 15 February 2012