There’s a few things we’d still like to plant in this year’s garden. The main thing is a few watermelons. We’re about to wait too late if we don’t get on the ball.
Watermelon is one of my favorite things to eat and every summer I dream about growing them, but my dreams rarely come true.
There’s a been a couple of years we grew a few small ones that were tasty. And one year Katie grew a pretty good sized watermelon. But most years they don’t get no bigger than a softball and rarely ripen.
A lot of folks have suggested we mix sand with our soil to help them grow better.
We are aiming to plant more okra down at the big garden and a few winter squash up here closer to the house. We’re running out of time on the winter squash though.
Corie has tiny tomatoes on her plants and we’re anxious for ours to catch up with hers. I’m also looking forward to the first mess of squash and eating a cucumber straight off the vine while it’s still warm from the sunshine. And Matt can’t wait for the first tomato sandwich of the summer.
Most of this week is supposed to be sunny and warmer. I know that will really bring the garden on after all the rain we’ve had.
Here’s the best planting signs for June 2025.
Taurus: good for all root crops and above ground crops 20, 21
Cancer: best for planting above ground and root crops 24, 25, 26
Scorpio: best for flowers and above ground crops 6, 7, 8
Pisces: good for planting and transplanting above ground crops, trees and shrubbery 16, 17
Tipper
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So enjoying watching your garden grow. I’ve heard you mention Cories’ garden being further along than yours. Any ideas why? Did she start earlier or is her garden in a sunnier, warmer location?
M’liss, so glad you enjoy what we do! Thank you! Corie’s garden gets more direct sun so I’m sure that’s it 🙂
Enjoy ! I hope you get your watermelons! 🙂
I’ve still got to plant some okry and some more beans, then I’ll be out of garden space in my little plot. I hope to can some tomatoes, corn and okry as a base for this winters soup.
My soil is still wet and they’re predicting more rain for Thursday so I might just plant tomorrow, if it has dried up enough, as opposed to the signs this time.
I don’t have much luck with watermelons either.
I did pick my first squash yesterday
Good morning everyone. Tipper, I’m sure someone has already mentioned this. You can buy rolls of copper wire mesh or copper tape on rolls to keep mice , snails and slugs away. You unroll the rolls and surround your plant or area with it. The wire hurts slug and snails when they slither across it. The copper wire reacts to their slime and causes a slight electrical charge. It worked for us. No, this wasn’t my idea. My son found out about it. I buy it on Amazon. Hope this helps. Anna from Arkansas.
Anna, thank you 🙂
Tipper, Daddy grew big watermelons down in NE MS, red meat and yellow meated. One year here in SC PA, we spread black plastic down and planted some. Can’t remember the name but I was shocked at how many produced. I think it was from the heat on the black plastic. Mike might be right about your greenhouse as they like heat; or just experiment in a tiny place down in the sunny big garden with a black garbage bag on the ground and cut X in the center & put your seed in. It just might work.
All my vegetables are planted and looking so good as are my flowers. Our youngest son brought me two more hanging ever-bearing strawberry plants. They look so healthy and produce all summer.
I plan to replant okra. Original planting only produced 2 plants and I don’t have much hopes of them. They have had too many cold nights and cool days. Okra takes a “cold set” and though it lives never does anything. I think you and Matt could write a book about backyard gardening. You all have dealt with so many issues there would be something for everybody. Have you all ever considered a leaf mulcher? I could have really built the soil here if I had been mulching the leaves for 30 years. Now I’m hesitant to use them because of my powdery mildew troubles. I think the spores live in the soil/leaves over the winterand spread in the spring. It does get on the purple dead nettle which is the first blooming weed in my garden.
Ron, a leaf mulcher would be nice 🙂
Planting by the signs, twice this year, didn’t help when it flooded and stormed after each planting. I’m thankful to have good melon ground. Honeydews are my favorite, and the dirt is all it takes to grow them without any fertilizer. Orange watermelons and banana muskmelons love to grow in my dirt, too. The seeds were all washed away the day after derby, when we had the start of a week of rain. I guess I’ll buy my melons this summer.
With the warm weather, my little garden of tomatoes, cukes, peppers and squash is flourishing. That makes me happy! For the sweet baby watermelons, I’ll let my local produce fellow grow those for me!
Everyone get out and enjoy this beautiful weather!
My daddy raised huge gardens every year and his watermelons and mushmelons were large and tasty. He never planted by signs, only when the weather was good enough to plant. Living in northeastern Ohio you had a short growing season, and you better get your seeds/plants in the ground, or you lost out. He always said you had to have a lot of sun and moisture and to be sure and fertilize the melon plants. His garden was usually in two spots, open with no trees or bushes to block out the sun. Tipper, your garden looks lush and healthy. I hope you and Matt have a bountiful harvest this year.
Hi Tipper!
So glad gardening season is here & what a blessing for ya’ll to have the big garden in front of Corie’s house! We have a big garden called the “Gunne Family Garden” on Walter’s farm 5 miles as the crows fly from the farm we live on. We allow my sister & brother in law, one nephew & his wife & their grown son (with a new baby boy) to garden with us! It’s like a family reunion ever weekend at the farm. We all trade out & help one another. Last Summer I brought a shaker of salt & a big ole knife, cutting board, utensils & plates. I chose a watermelon & took a video of my nephew Jason carrying it on his shoulder to the tailgate of the Old Red, our farm truck! All 7 of us ate that watermelon clear up & it was still warm from the sun. Then we all went to the creek to wash the sticky off. The cows loved the rinds!
Blessings, Allison Gunne
Allison, that is so wonderful 🙂
I heard as a boy that you needed to grow watermelon on new ground
Farmers around here love to plant watermelons in a field grown up in broom straw that has not been planted with anything else for several years.
Hoping and praying you get the right mix of sunshine and rain to help your garden thrive and produce a bountiful harvest.
We just had a couple cold nights and our tomatoes look like they suffered a little. Hopefully, the warm days ahead will bring them out of it and green everything back up. I watched the video where you showed Corie’s little tomatoes. I believe she has your green thumb. Your gardens look wonderful. I hope you get your watermelons this year.
Good Morning Tipper. I typed this out but I don’t think it sent. so sorry if it’s doubled. My son for years tried growing watermelons. we live in the northwest Ohio so it’s hit or miss up here. last summer a neighbor told him how to grow watermelons. said to make a slight mound in the garden. he did it along the edge of his garden. cover it with landscape fabric and then cut a hole in the middle of it and planted his watermelons. he had plants already started so he went ahead and planted them like you. normally would. didn’t put anything over the landscape fabric. just let the vines run over it. he had so many melons last year they gave away melons. he ate melons and chicken a feast. had so many melons I squeezed the juice out of one and made watermelon jelly that they all enjoyed. hope this helps!
Charlotte, I mentioned my wife’s granddaddy in my first comment, this goes back to when a lot of farming was still being done by mules. Both of her granddaddys and some others would plow a deep row with a two horse middle buster/ tater plow and then put either horse or cow manure in the row, after doing doing this they use a turnplow to fill the row up and cover the manure with dirt making a mound on top of the row. They could grow watermelons in the 50-100 lb range as long as they could get rain the growing season, if it was dry in the early stages of growing the plants would die/ burn up as I heard it called because of large amount of manure
I have recently read two books named Branch Water Tales and More Branch Water Tales. In one story the main character was telling about his mother and daddy arguing about planting by the signs and his daddy saying he planted when he had the time and the soil temperature and moisture was right. He would say there are no gardens on the moon. It reminded me of my own mother and daddy and how my daddy would say something similar. My granddaddy only grew Charleston Gray watermelons and some would get up in the 20-25 pound range. My wife’s granddaddy grew a variety that would get over 50 pounds. He would save the seed from year to year. I never knew the name of the seed. My sweet potato friend grew some watermelons a few years ago called “Truck Buster,” some of them were in the range of 100 pounds. Reckon Tipper could eat one of them? A question for Tipper, what variety of watermelon do you grow and how do you fertilize them? That may have something to do with the size of them.
Randy, we’ve tried big ones and little ones and all sorts of fertilizer. I think it’s lack of sun 🙂
Tipper, that might be the problem, the ones around here plant their watermelons in open fields where the only shade would come from a buzzard flying over the field. I think my farmer friend uses 5-10-10 fertilizer on his watermelons.
Watermelons need a lot of direct sunlight and lot of room to sprawl out. Things you don’t have there where you live. People don’t seem to understand that mountains block sunshine in at least two directions, some times three or four.
There are many advantages to living in the mountains but growing watermelons ain’t one of them!
Whatcha gonna do with a watermelon that’s bigger than your refrigerator?
Invite your neighbors and have a watermelon eating contest! Just don’t plant any that will grow that big on a hillside beside of a creek, if they pull loose from the vine and roll into the creek and bust open they will cause the creek to flood.
We tried growing watermelons last year and got 1 small one that tasted pretty good. This year we gave the watermelon space to tromboncino squash and they’re looking good so far. Yesterday we pulled our first cucumber- a Sweet Slicer, and dreaded the bitterness that so many of our cucumbers had last year. But it lived up to its name- sweet, crisp and refreshing. We also picked one yellow squash but haven’t eaten it yet. Lettuce and radishes are done for this year but our kales (3 or 4 varieties) are going strong.
Good Morning Tipper! don’t give up on your watermelons. being in N.west Ohio it’s hit or miss. our son had been trying to grow the small sized ones. but they just didn’t do any good. last year a neighbor told him how to get them to produce & get ripe. told him to make a slight mound then cover with black landscape material. then cut a hole and plant your melon. Said. keep it watered good. said melons need a lot of heat. ( he didn’t put anything on the landscape fabric just let vines go out over it) he had so many of those little melons last year. he eat & gave away so many melons, chickens also had a feast .he had so many I made watermelon jelly last year by mashing and straining out the juice. hope this helps!
I don’t have a place to plant a garden, but I do have bush cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, Cherokee Purple Tomatoes, grape tomatoes, & Marconi Sweet Peppers growing in large pots. I have blooms on my bush cucumbers & lemon cucumbers & one pepper on the Marconi plant. Didn’t have any luck with my bush cucumbers last year due to powdery mildew. Hope that won’t happen this year. My Cosmos, Zinnias & Mammoth Sunflowers are growing nicely so far.
Hope y’all’s gardens grow a bounty of food for you.
Good morning Tipper yes we planted buy the sign s water melons don’t grow good up this high in va mabe you should try in in your greenhouse and hand water it often since it’s mainly water anyway.
I hope your garden produces a bountiful harvest this year. Like Matt, I’m anxiously awaiting those first Cherokee Purple tomatoes to make sandwiches.