Planting Melons

This week we will talk about planting melons including cantaloupes, watermelons, and the rest of the melon world. At David's Garden Seeds®, we sell a lot of melons seeds and they are some of my favorite things to plant each spring!

A nice harvest after planting melons in 2020 from our first spring garden on the farm. Who doesn't love juicy, sweet melons?

Planting Melons 4/11-4/17/2022

Monday, April 11, 2022 - Planting Melons

How old were you when you learned your address? I was 4. I have since moved 13 times. I never had a problem learning my new address, always found out the street, number, town, and zip code.

How Do You Not Know Your Address?

Today was a very busy day. We had way more orders than we are used to having after the weekend but we got out all of Friday's, Saturday's, and Sunday's orders. Four of us worked on the website orders all day long, right on up until closing time and we got them all out, only to receive an email from a customer saying she put her physical address on the order instead of her PO Box.

She also said the USPS will not deliver to her physical address. How on earth can a grown adult not know the address that they use to have things shipped? Why would you put an address that you know they won't ship to if you are ordering something that will come in the mail? I just don't understand but it happens every single day. Each day, we get at least one (sometimes three or four) returned package from the mailman. So now, once again, we are wasting around $4 for postage and the package will come back only to have to be sent out again at our cost because we offer free shipping.

When I was four years old, before I started kindergarten, my mother told me I could not go to school unless I knew my address and my phone number. I memorized them pretty quickly so I could go to school a year early. Why can't adults know their addresses? I believe our education department needs to be revamped so students can learn simple things like their own address. Teachers need to teach real life things, not teach a silly standardized test every year.

Planting Melons And Such

Planting melons is a favorite spring garden chore of mine!

We had just a few customers today which was good because we had time to fill and mail all of the orders.

Today was payday and we handed out some well deserved bonuses to five of our people who went above and beyond. We like to reward our team when they've earned it.

This evening, Matt stayed and grilled steaks. I made baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and roasted asparagus and mushrooms with ranch seasoning on them. It was a delicious meal and we watched Mission: Impossible from the 1967 TV show. It was Matt's first time to see it.

After we were through eating and watching, Matthew asked for some seeds. He said he is planting melons so he got some watermelon and honeydew melon seeds. He started planting melons and other things in his yard a few weeks ago and has some plants coming up already. He has been planting melons here on the farm for me over the past few weeks.

On Friday evening, I planted Crazy For Daisies mix seeds in the large pot on my front porch. This afternoon, I noticed a bunch of them coming up. Yay! My favorites. The roses are blooming like crazy in my rose bed.

Daisy Crazy daisies are coming up on my front porch. I should have been planting melons.

Tuesday, April 12, 2022 - Planting Melons

Good morning! David left the house at 7am today to have breakfast with a friend in Devine. Matthew has been here for a while and has fed all of the outdoor animals. I fed the dogs and cat and found a lovely pile of poo in the laundry room from one of the puppies. Now I need to empty the dryer and put the towels in from the washer.

At least the orders are not too bad today. I need to plant some more seeds. I also need to be planting melons with some Tommy Apple seeds from Baker Creek which look exactly like the melon seeds we have called Sapomiel. The Sapomiel is a hybrid but they say the Tommy Apple Melon, which I grew in 2020, looks exactly the same and is supposed to be an heirloom.

Tommy melons that I grew last year before they got dark on the vine.

Sapomiel hybrid melon that we sell.

I finally got to planting melons, at least six of the Tommy Apple seeds that I saved from my melons that I grew in 2020. I transplanted three of the big potted plants that we bought a few weeks ago. Matt planted the two Crown of Thorns plants that are filled with sharp thorns, one of which I got in a finger last week just moving the pot. Then I planted Cosmos seeds in a large pot out by the Farm Store sign in the parking lot.

Good news! My daisy seeds that I planted last Friday afternoon are popping up on my front porch. Daisies are my favorite flower. I carried daisies on my wedding day. Next Monday, April 18, is our 35th wedding anniversary. It is so hard to believe.

Us on our wedding day 35 years ago.

Okay. It is now 2:25pm and we have had four sets of customers so far. No one bought eggs, one bought nothing because she wanted tomato plants and those were gone last week. The woman asked when we would be getting more.

LOL! We don't get them in, we grow them from our seeds and we may grow some more for fall planting but it is now too late in Texas to start tomatoes from seed. We are close to it being too hot for them to grow now. It is currently 93° with no rain in sight. Last night it got down to 71° and soon it won't cool down below 90° at night. That is when everything but okra stops growing here. You can't kill okra with heat. Okra thrives on the heat. So do zinnias. Zinnias are coming up nicely in the two flowerbeds out in front of our farm store.

Wednesday, April 13, 2022 - Planting Melons

Here is the dead frog on the bottom of the covered part of the pond. Gross. Our pond is a huge frog hangout.

Good Wednesday morning. It is 7am and 75° outside which is insane. All of the dogs and Kitty have been fed and I just made two plates of waffles with bananas for David and me.

It is now 12:30pm. We have not had any customers today. It is hot and humid and overcast but no chance of rain. It is already 87°. I have been tending to plants and the pond as well as adding product to the store and doing social media posts.

I found a sprawled out frog in the covered part of the pond lying on the bottom. Yeah, he was dead. Matthew pulled him out for me.

Bunny Rabbits For Sale

This silly bunny was playing in her drinking water.

The bunnies are adorable and will make a great family pet, just in time for Easter.

This is Easter week. We are selling eight bunnies that range in age from six weeks to four months old. They are California Whites and are $50.00 a piece. First come, first served. Know that you are signing up for a pet that can live up to five years. They are soft and fliuffy, white with tinges of black and grey. Bring a small pet carrier to get your bunny home. You do not want him or her pooping all over your vehicle.

This is an In Store Purchase only. We do not ship rabbits.

Eggs For Sale, Already Colored

Our farm fresh eggs are ready for Easter. You don't have to color them. Come get some today!

Forget coloring Easter eggs this year. For just $3.55, you get one dozen colored, organic eggs fresh from our chickens. Right now, I have seven dozen in the Farm Store refrigerator. Come and get them!

Farm Store Hours This Week

We will be open today, tomorrow, Friday and Saturday at the normal hours. In past years, we have taken Good Friday and Saturday off but this year, there is too much work to be done and we are staying open for you. On Friday, we will be open from 9am to 5pm and on Saturday, we will be open from 10am to 4pm so come on down to the farm, get your garden seeds, our name brand pecan goodies and pecan coffee, bunnies, and colored Easter eggs! Our address is 5029 FM 2504 just outside of Poteet, Texas.

So this afternoon, I was checking a $450 order that was eight pages long. A couple came into the store wanting to browse. Then an Amazon driver came in wanting to use our phone. She decided to drive off the driveway and into the sand next door and got stuck. She said the neighbors were not home. I told her we don't have a landline. I told her she would need a tow. She hooked up to our WiFi and called Amazon. They said they could not help her. I told her I know and that she needs a tow.

Then Matt came into the store and said that Linda found a snake in the pond. Funny she did not tell me, just Matt. I went out there and yes, there was a big garter snake in there. Matt tried to get it but it kept going under and hiding. It would come out and then go back.

I could not do anything. I went back in to check on the customers. They wanted cantaloupe seeds so I helped them with that. Then the neighbor came home and the Amazon driver went over there. They called someone to pull her car out of the sand. The car finally came out. The snake still could not be extracted. Then the customers decided they were just leaving without buying anything. Just then, a tow truck for Matt's car showed up. Matt's timing chain is coming off so his car has been parked in our parking lot since last Thursday.

The front plants got watered while all of this was going on and some of our people were out back planting melons. The large order I had checked was packed up to be shipped. The Amazon driver finally brought our packages over after sitting outside on the road for about 30 minutes. The snake never got found. I went out at 8pm to check again and still could not find it. I hope it is gone.

The temperature got up to 97°. It cooled off beautifully once the sun started to go down. The breeze picked up and the air felt great.

Thursday, April 14, 2022 - Planting Melons

This morning, David and I have doctor appointments in San Antonio so we will be leaving the farm at 9am. Shay will be at the store today. Matt will be assisting her if she needs help but in the meantime, he is out back planting melons. I am assuming that we won't have much in the way of visitors today because it has been slow all week long due to the coming Easter holiday.

Oak is high today so I keep coughing and my nose is getting clogged a lot. Spring is a fun time in south central Texas.

Some of the guys will be planting melons today out in the back forty with Matt. They have already been planting melons in some of the hoop houses and in some of the raised beds around the property. We still have plenty of melon, cantaloupe, and watermelon seeds so you should come by the farm store today and get some so you can be planting melons on your three day weekend coming up. A lot of people have tomorrow off for Good Friday, a great day for planting melons in your garden.

David and I were gone most of the day. I ended up getting another steroid injection in my foot as the pain was beginning to come back in four weeks. After we were done there, we had a nice lunch in Hondo at Hermann Sons Steakhouse. They have revamped their menu. The food was okay.

Then we drove to Medina for some fertilizers. After that, we went across the street from Medina to the meat market there and picked up a few things including pickled asparagus to try. I have never had it before and David is fixing to make some today with the asparagus from our garden. They were flavored with jalapeno and garlic, a bit strong. I am hoping ours are a bit more mild. We won't be putting jalapeno in them and definitely not that much garlic.

We were told on the way into San Antonio that one of our newer team members resigned and then left just after 9am. She did a great job for us and we told her that a lot. We even gave her a raise effective two weeks ago that she got on Monday's paycheck. We were happy to pay her because she was awesome and never said she was unhappy here. She was here for just three months. We are sad to see her go.

Postage And Disgruntled Customers

Late last night, we received an email from a disgruntled customer who ordered $11 worth of seeds after getting our 10% off discount. Because the order is under $15, she had to pay shipping. So she said "It is crappy that it didn't say I have to pay shipping until the order was finished." She then wanted us to cancel the order.

First, our website, up in the left hand corner, has three message lines that continually change. There is a line that says free shipping when you spend $15 on seeds. There is also a shipping page entitled Shipping And Return Policy located at the bottom of the website explaining our shipping policy. No secrets here.

So David emailed her and told her this and then sent the email to me. I canceled the order and emailed her to let her know. If you don't take the time to read the website, how can you know? We don't need $11 bad enough to have to put up with disgruntled customers. I was happy to cancel it. Life is too short to put up with stuff like that.

Now let's talk about "Free Shipping". It is not free. Someone has to pay the USPS for shipping. If your order is over $15, right now, we have to pay shipping, usually somewhere between $3.60 to $12.00 or more depending on how heavy the package is, where it is going, and how much product is in the package. If you order $50 or more, we have to put signature tracking on the package to protect us. Too many customers have said they did not get their package and we have no way to prove they did get it unless we have their signature. Yes, we are getting a lot of orders of $100 and more. Just yesterday, we had a $450 seed order. It was eight pages long.

The bulk of our orders is one to four packs of seeds, but we do get some big orders. Most of our customers are very happy or so they say when they email us and when they meet us in person. That is what we want, happy customers, not disgruntled customers who think we should give close to half of their order in postage to the USPS. They raised their rates again this year and now it takes up to five business days to receive a light first class package. If your order is over 16 ounces, it takes ten business days to get it. That is not our fault. So we send every single package out with tracking which is not cheap.

Butter Pecan Coffee

We now have the most amazing Butter Pecan Coffee Beans for you to grind and make yourself the most exceptional cup of coffee, which you deserve. It comes in 16 ounce bags of whole bean coffee flavored with pecans. You will love it. Just $13.95 a bag.

Planting Melons Would Have Been Fun But Then There Is Real Life

I have one assistant on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays with two on Mondays through Wednesdays to get all of the orders pulled, filled, and the store restocked. Today, when I was gone, my assistant had to leave and take a family member to the hospital. She did not come back.

Anyway, Matt had to stop what he was doing and watch the store and take care of orders for several hours until we got back to the farm. So this week, I feel like we are really behind.

From now on, we will hire full time workers only who can work on Saturdays. No more I need three days off a week or I refuse to work on the weekend. David and I work six days a week out in the business and during most of the free time that we have in the house, we are working on the computer. Instead of cleaning or relaxing.

Okay. My rant is over. The good thing about today is our son stepped up and covered for us. Another good thing is no sign of snakes today. I think all of the fish are okay. We have two giant polywogs in the pond. I don't exactly know what they will be but there are constant frogs of all types in there. I am not a fan. They keep taking over. The fish are the stars but here come the algae, the frogs and the snakes. LOL! I have a snake grabber coming and some more snake repellent. I also need to add more algae remover in the morning.

This evening, I put my chickens away around 8pm. Then I watered all of the plants in my greenhouse. I noticed that my lights, hot tub, and pool pump were all off. I tried to fix them but the circuit breakers just kept popping. So they were off for the night.

Friday, April 15, 2022 - Planting Melons

Good Friday morning. Yes, it is Good Friday. We are open today and tomorrow so we will make the best of it. I honestly don't anticipate too many visitors today or tomorrow since this Sunday is Easter. I know there is still a lot of new clothes and candy shopping for many to do. But if you need seeds, plants, eggs, or bunnies, we've got them.

Some of our people will be outside again this morning, planting melons.

I need to put up my 42 weekly social media posts for next week. I have been helping with orders and checking every order that comes through unless I am not here (like yesterday) which means I have less time to do the chores that only I do.

Plus I need to get some filming done for our YouTube channels. It is hard to do with no help. At this point, one assistant is scheduled to come in today. She has the entire week off next week. My other assistant has not mentioned making up time from yesterday. This is her regular day off and she should be here tomorrow to help me. But I may have to call Matt again. He is working 50 to 60 hours a week, Monday through Friday with the possibility of Saturdays. I hate for him not to have any time off.

I am anticipating this day to be very busy for me with everything that has to get done. I just put Annabelle's new rabies tag on her collar. She got her rabies shot and yearly shots a week ago. So I am at least a week behind everything. What I need is a good housekeeper. One that shows up every week, cleans everything instead of leaving things dusty behind books and the TV. One who picks things up from the kitchen counter and wipes things down. One who vacuums the furniture because there are pet hairs. One who actually scrubs the tubs and showers in every spot. One who either shows up or actually calls me to say she cannot make it. I should not have to try and find out if you are coming or why you are two hours late. I still have not found that yet...

Linda brought me some beautiful flowers for our 35th wedding anniversary.

I arrived in the store to find my assistant, Linda, closing all of the leftover orders from yesterday. There is a vase of pretty flowers on the counter from her. She gave them to me for my 35th wedding anniversary which she will miss on Monday because she will be on vacation. How sweet!

I have done some order corrections and a check correction as well as some emails and now I am going to start checking today's orders. Matt and John are putting a drip system on our hanging flowers so I don't have to worry about watering them constantly. Aaron is out in the raised beds planting melons. The electricians are working out in the back forty today. I found out because one of them just came in to get some drinks and snacks. I hope they fix the problems with the circuits out by the back deck that I had problems with last night.

The day is overcast. The fish seem fine but I can only find seven instead of eight. I see frogs but no snakes in the water today. Matt sprinkled that snake repellent all over the place. I fixed some of the solar snake repellents as their heads had been knocked off. I have more coming in today as well as the snake grabber I mentioned earlier. I think it will be easier to extact a snake with it instead of a pool skimmer.

We have had quite a few customers this morning. It is still overcast at 1pm. I just finished eating lunch from about a mile down the street. I had puffy chicken tacos. Pretty tasty.

The breeze is beginning to pick up and it is feeling like rain so maybe we will finally get some rain. It has been a very long time. Our gardens need God's rain to make them grow. We regularly water but the garden really takes off when it rains.

Matt and I went out this afternoon to shoot video of the farm. We started at the front gate and got all the way to the beginning of the orchard until the batteries died. We will have to continue next Monday. Matt says he thinks it will be a six part farm tour. At 3:25pm, David sent a text saying to clean up and close down.

I turned our new solar snake repellent sticks on and they started beeping at me. Customers were in the store so I could not go put them out in the ground right away.

The snake grabber came today to make it easier to remove snakes from the pond.

My snake grabber and solar snake repellent sticks showed up in the mail. I got all of that set up and pulled out the old snake repellers. I don't think they are working anymore. Our staff is gone. I am almost ready to go home but it is after 4pm now. Yes, we will be open tomorrow when I really should be planting melons. We had a few more guests this afternoon but not like I thought. I really thought families would come out since school is closed but that did not happen.

Matthew had to help with some animal watering issues so he did not get out of here until after 6pm so I am determined not to have to call him in tomorrow. We did not have many customers today. I thought maybe we would get some families since school was out but we did not get one child, mostly retired people were here today.

We ordered some new goodies for the store, including different flavors of coffee that I know you will love.

Planting Melons

Planting melons results in the fresh taste of summer!

Planting melons includes planting watermelons. Who doesn't love a juicy, sweet watermelon in the summer, straight from the garden?

Planting melons also includes planting cantaloupes and honeydew melons as well as various other melons you can find on our website. I love all of them! Of course, I need more acreage first.

Saturday, April 16, 2022 - Planting Melons

So here we are on a Saturday morning again. I have fed all of the dogs and Kitty. David is asleep in the den and I am finally getting to eat a bit. I need to get dressed, unlock everything and feed the animals before 8am when Shay is supposed to arrive to work today.

I brewed up some of our heavenly butter pecan coffee this morning and it is so good. You should come in this morning and get a bag before they are all gone!

Shay started working at 8am. I had to feed all of the outdoor animals so I got over there at 9:45am. At 11am, our first customers showed up, a man who was here last Saturday with his wife. Only this time, he had his two elderly aunts with him. They loved the store and had lots of stories to share. At 12:30pm, I went to the house to get something to eat and someone came to see what we had but did not buy anything. He left and the mailman came and left. Then David said we were shutting down. David went out back, planting melons. Shay went home.

I went to the house and started vacuuming and dusting. The place really needs a lot of cleaning and I never have time for it. Around 2pm, David came to the house and said some neighbors had arrived on their Polaris. I went out and met a nice couple around our age who live just down the street. They bought three Wandering Jew plants and a bunch of seeds and then drove off.

An hour later, David was done working out in the heat and came in. He had been planting melons and asked me to get his computer from the office. I did and when I came out of the building, another vehicle came in asking if we were open. It was a state representative and his wife. I met them and he said he was surprised that we had opened at all. I offered to open the store for them and they said they would come back another time. I went in and finished cleaning.

Late this afternoon, Ethel was barking outside a lot. I went out and underneath our back deck was a grey and white mouse. Hopefully, she ate some of the poison because she did not run away like she should have. Ethel wanted to get her but the trellis prevented her from it. I brought Ethel inside. I hope the nasty mouse is gone one way or another. Those things are disgusting when they get in your house and leave poop everywhere.

I gave the puppies a bath in the guest bath tonight because they keep getting muddy. They step in the big water bowl outside and then run through the sand. They are so cute.

Matt came over for Svengoolie and grilled us some nice ribeyes. I made baked potatoes and roasted carrots, mushrooms, and lunchbox peppers. It was a good holiday meal.

Planting Melons

Planting melons is a good thing to do every spring. We have a lot of different seeds for planting melons so you should check out the website, make your selections, order your seeds, receive your seeds, and get to planting melons quickly!

If you start early enough, there is time for planting melons in your Texas fall garden as well. Probably in other southern areas around the USA as well...

Sunday, April 17, 2022 - We Should Have Been Home Planting Melons

Happy Easter! Death could not hold Jesus in the tomb. He is alive and one day He will come back as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Today is Resurrection Sunday. Jesus is alive today and sitting at the right hand of the Father!

Well, good morning! Our church did not have a sunrise service but there is church at 10am in the yard this morning. I hope it is not too hot by then. It will hit 95° today. I hear the house pets waking up. Time to feed and water them.

The animals are fed and so are we. Now it is time to get ready for church.

It has been overcast all day long. The sunrise above is not from today but I put it up because Easter is a time of hope and celebration. Well, there wasn't much celebration going on today.

When we left the house to go to church, drizzle had just started. It was dry until we were leaving. The church is renting a building because it is just a year old. The pastor said weeks ago he wanted to have the Easter service outside. A sunrise service outside is fine. Usually, anything later and it is too hot. So I was pleased it wasn't hot for the 10am service. As we got closer, the drizzle got heavier. My thoughts were that he would see it was inclement weather and have the service inside.

I wish we had gotten back in the car and left. However, we didn't. So for the next close to 90 minutes, I sat in a wet chair with the drizzle coming down on my glasses, hair, and clothes. I had to hold my big purse on my lap because the ground, including my shoes and everyone else's, was muddy with pieces of dead grass on the bottoms. My arthritic hands and feet were killing me and I had no pain reliever with me.

I was wearing white pants and a long white top with some light colors on it. Everyone was wet except for whoever was on stage. Cars went by, dogs barked, and the train went by twice. The sound of the air conditioner running could be heard. How anyone could concentrate on what was being said is beyond me. I am through. I refuse to do anymore holiday church services outside in the elements. What is next? Christmas Eve service during a blizzard? We have had a few in the past several years...

Anyway, when it was over, we left and drove to Hondo where David took some seeds to someone who is going to grow some vegetables for us. On the way, we got gas and some snacks since it was already lunchtime. Of course, there were no good places open to eat, nor did I expect there to be.

Return from Planting Melons to Business Growth

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