It’s been two months since my watermelon seedlings moved out of the house and into the tiny garden patch in my front yard (I don’t trust my dog enough to put them in the back yard), and I’m happy to report that they’re doing just fine.
There’s not much to report since my last update, except that the plants have grown considerably. In fact, about six days ago I noticed the very first tiny watermelons beginning to emerge on the vines! That’s a picture above of the very first one.
Not only are watermelons beginning to emerge, they’re growing incredibly fast. Just four days after the photo above was taken, I took another photo of the same watermelon and it had already more than doubled in size. In FOUR DAYS! (See photo below)
The progress is encouraging, but my main concern right now is keeping the rabbits away. Our neighborhood is overrun with them, and I caught one digging at the base of one of my seedlings last month. After scaring it off with a few choice words, I installed a fence around the garden. So far, the fence seems to be doing a good job of repelling the bunnies, which appears to be a common problem.
The fence, of course, does nothing to deter birds from using my garden as a feeding ground. I’ve seen a few of them in there pecking away at various things, but they don’t seem to be doing harm to my precious produce … at least not yet.