I got kind of a late start (not a big deal here in GA because we can grow well into the fall) but I've still been feeling kind of frustrated that I have about 100 miles of vines taking over my yard and only one little cantaloupe and one baby pumpkin. I see lots of female flowers on my cukes and pumpkins but only males on my cantaloupes and watermelons. So last night I did some reading about hand-pollinating and looked at all the pictures I could find online to make sure I'd recognize a female flower. I went out this morning to really search for any shy girl flowers that were hiding and much to my surprise, I found one...covered in ants so I didn't really want to mess with her. But look...what's that over there? A watermelon the size of a golf ball? And HOLY COW! Good thing it wasn't a snake because it would have bitten me before I saw it!

{{gwi:41967}}

Both of my boys have July birthdays and the birthday watermelon is a bigger deal at our house than the cake. I'm so stoked that they might get to serve a watermelon we grew ourselves at this year's party! I hope it's ok...the vines had it pretty well pinned to the ground so it's a little deformed. About the size of a skinny football (I think this one is Jubilee but I could be wrong). The top looks beautiful and the bottom is kind of white/yellow. Should I roll it over? I did break it out of its little cage so it can continue to grow. I guess we'll see. But apparently Mother Nature has things under control!