So watermelon is the only thing my garden has going for it right now. Too hot for too long and too much neglect, but this moon and stars watermelon from Seed Savers is NUTS.

I harvested my first melon a few days ago. There are a number of other smaller melons on the vine, and then last night I found

SURPRISE MELON! Hiding in my black-eyed susans, and just massive. I’m still giddy about this thing.

Meanwhile, sliced up the first melon, which now seems like a baby compared to surprise melon, and got two large bowls of fruit. Very tasty. Good texture. HUGE SEEDS!

Then I drank some watermelon juice.

Mm!

Good morning, melon! Sucker’s gotta weigh 20 pounds, sounds tasty when I knock on it. MMM!

My melon is coming along beautifully! Can’t wait to eat this sucker. Spotted two more itty bitty melons today too. 

My garden is a little pathetic right now. Between the heat and my distraction/travel/laziness in said heat this summer, neglect is showing. 

Some of my corn got wilty today, before a cool cloudburst came over around five. 

There’s a teeny bit of everything: a couple puny radishes, a weirdly stunty bush of lettuce, and I’ll get a few bags of soybeans. 

But the watermelon? She is the star of the garden party this year. 

She has spread tendrils ten different ways, and her leaves are perky, unblemished, and looks properly hydrated. 

So I’m looking forward to watching a few melons growing soon. 

They are a variety called moon and stars — purple melons with pale dots all over the fruit and foliage.

And that’s about it for the goods of my garden. I’m also realizing that the maple tree in the neighbor’s backyard will start blocking lots more sun in the coming years, so I should start planning something else to go where the garden is now — and move the garden to the northwest side of the house. 

I am thinking about what to do with this property in 15 years that is so weird.