Watermelons Short Story

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n a hot summer’s day, a chilled slice of watermelon is right up there with an ice-cold glass of lemonade. Oh-so refreshing! Watermelons are mostly water, so munching your way through a few slices is a pleasant way to hydrate, but did you know that this sweet, succulent fruit is also soaked with nutrients, antioxidants and amino acids? You can crunch on it, eat it by the spoonful as sorbet, slurp it in an ice-cold cocktail or even serve it up in a savoury salad or appetiser. In the garden, watermelon is a bit of a space hog, with sprawling vines that need room, but there are more compactgrowing varieties you can grow, like ‘Sugar Baby’. It’s an heirloom favourite that’s been around since the 1950s. The small, round watermelons have darkgreen…show more content…
1 4 3 1 The taste of summer 2 Make sorbet with it 3 ‘Mountain Sweet Yellow’ 4 Drink it Bigstock, Shutterstock 26 | Good Organic Gardening FAMILY HEIRLOOMS | WATERMELON GROWING Watermelons need a long growing season and warm soil for the seeds to grow in, so planting is best done during spring (after the risk of frost has passed) and summer in most areas. Watermelon seeds can be sown directly, so choose a warm, sunny spot and prepare the area fi rst with plenty of compost and organic matter to nourish the soil and improve drainage. The vines need plenty of room to grow, so plant seeds on raised mounds 1–2m apart. When vines begin to ramble, I like to pinch out the growing tip to encourage side branching and more compact growth. Keep vines well watered and fed throughout the growing season, but ease off on the water as the melons start to mature to intensify the sweetness of the fruit. Most watermelons are ready to pick and eat when the stem of the fruit is dry and brown and the underside of the melon has changed colour. When you are munching through the fruit, just be sure to put a few seeds aside from ripe heirloom varieties to plant again next
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