I’ve mentioned it before, but most things in the garden feel like an experiment. The only thing this season that felt like a sure thing was the watermelons. I’ve had a couple of years of experience with this particular melon and I feel like I have a handle on it. All of the melons that I grew this year came from the seed I had saved previously, so they didn’t actually cost anything to get them. That’s my favorite thing to grow – something that doesn’t cost me anything. 🙂
Considering I ripped out the vines over the weekend, I can safely say the watermelons are done. Here is the rundown on the Desert Kings this year.
Biggest melon was a beauty at 13.5 lbs.
We harvested 24 melons all together (average 2 per vine, although they could have all come off of the same vine and I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference from the giant mass of green).
Weight total was 236.25 lbs. 😀
Will I grow them again next year? OF COURSE!!!
The Jones Garden Blog 
I think it was a watermelon post that got me following your blog. They were just so lovely.
Thanks! I’m kind of partial to them myself. 🙂
Keith, you eat all 236 pounds of water melons? That’s allot of watermelon. Our watermelons here in Nebraska were a bust this year. I think it might have been where we planted them. I’m still in the process of improving the tilth of my garden soil. The soil itself is deep rich river bottom soil but there’s not much for fluff in the soil. I’ll be confiscating the neighborhood yard waste again this year to cover the soil and sheet compost. In a few years I’ll have the best of everything.
Have a great Arizona fall day.
Hahaha… well not all by myself (but I probably could have). They were eaten by our clan (there are six of us), given away to some family members, and taken to parties and family get togethers, that kind of thing. I wish we had the falling leaf thing here in AZ. There are very few mature trees that actually lose there leaves here. My trees do, and I’ll be using those, but not many others. I might go scrounge through the common areas of nearby neighborhoods before the landscape maintenance crews get a hold of them all. Gotta love good mulch!