Melonpalooza

Summer in Arizona is a lot like winter in other parts of the country. We stay inside a lot because of the extreme weather. We get cabin fever. We desperately wait for it to be over. But one thing that's different for us gardeners is that we can still garden, even when the weather is awful. In fact, if we pick the right plants, they'll go absolutely nuts, even though the weather seems like it shouldn't support any life at all.

Like melons. Oh my. They'll go crazy in the summer. I've got two melon plants growing right now, and they're threatening to take over the entire neighborhood. And I'm not doing a whole lot to help them along either. I put the soaker hoses in a while back and put the hoses on a timer. Days go by where I don't even go outside. I haven't fertilized them in weeks. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure if I've ever fertilized them. But the crazy little buggers are going absolutely crazy.

This is one honeydew plant. One. It reaches from one end of the six foot bed, well past the other end and is starting to grow over the lawn. It's climbing up the concrete fence on the left side of the picture. And the craziest part? I didn't even plant it. I think it sprouted up from a seed in my compost left over from last year.

Here's one of the melons growing right now. I'm not exactly sure how many I have right now. I counted about five the other day, but they're hard to spot under all those leaves.

Here's a watermelon plant I planted from seed a couple of months ago. Now I'm afraid I'll have to pay rent to the neighbors because it's getting so big. Again, we're talking one plant here. Again, it is spreading well past the six foot raised bed in multiple directions.

This poor young bougainvillea clearly needs to fear for its precious young life. The watermelon plant will show no mercy.

Here's one of the melons from the plant. I'm not sure how many others there are. I haven't had the courage to pick through the jungle of vines to find the rest.

So if you want to feel like a super awesome rock star gardener in the summer without having to, you know, work or go outside or anything, I definitely recommend melons. They are a great way to boost your gardener self esteem!