I've given up on watermelons. For this year anyway. My southside garden receives too much sun for the poor things. That, and the rainspells caused them all to split on the vine. Same reason tomatoes split - too much heat followed by a deep watering causes the fruit to expand suddenly and split. Thing is, green tomatoes are edible, unripe watermelon is not. I couldn't leave them on the vines to putrefy, so I fed them to the birds. This happened one too many times and I pulled up the darn thing instead of wasting more water on it. Shame really. My vines were really healthy and were loaded with young watermelons.
There's a lesson here though. A north or east location would be more ideal for next year's vine. I'll let you know how that goes.
In other news, rabbits roam my garden at night, devoring sweet potato vines and bell pepper bushes. AND they've even eaten all the leaves off a potted croton plant in front. How dare they!?! At least they're also fertilizing my garden while they're at it. How's that for a mutually symbiotic relationship?
