Talking about the birds and the bees
A bad melon is a bummer for
us humans, but a big bonus for our birds and bees.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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When I see my man admiring a strawberry from the patch I have to ask him: "Is that a chicken-strawberry or a human-strawberry?" We try to grow enough for everyone: bees, birds, AND humans.
This is our first big melon year, and we are so clueless about WHEN to harvest them. That's why so many of them wind up going to the girls. I'm hoping for more human-melons next year.
Thanks for all the cool info. on pasture rotation!
Watermelons are one of the toughest crops to harvest at the right time. (Good thing they make up for that in ease of cultivation otherwise.) We still struggle with picking them at just the right age, although we're getting better. It helps to grow a variety like Sugar Baby that has multiple smaller melons on one vine so that you don't lose your whole crop if you cut into a melon at the wrong time.
I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the pasture series.