Persistence

2011 has been a truly dismal year for our garden.  Most of the veggies drowned and the rest are stunted and late.  The flowers did better but still not great.  Strangely, one thing that has survived are the watermelons. 

Watermelons do not naturally grow this far north.  I bought the seeds on a whim with vague plans of creating a makeshift greenhouse for them.  It didn't happen so I just popped the seeds in a sunny spot against the house and let them be.  Somehow, these tender vines managed to survive the late frost, wind storms, torrential downpours, hail, aphids and hungry deer that have tortured the rest of the garden. 

When summer finally arrived ...about mid-august, the vines grew like crazy and set fruit.  Now it's Sept-15th and I have about 6 melons.  I picked one last night to check if it's close to maturity.  I figure it would take at least another 2 weeks of +20 weather for them to ripen.  This is a pipe dream.  I live in Edmonton and it's late September.  Yet every day I water them and each night we carefully cover the vines with a sheet to protect against frost (we've already 3 nights below freezing)  



My test fruit - it LOOKS like a watermelon.



But not ripe yet!

If I were a better writer, this is the point in my blog where I would draw some profound parallel about how this persistent plant relates to some aspect of my life.

But I got nothing.  I just think it would be really cool if I could grow watermelons.