Well yesterdays blizzard is over and this AM the sun is shining and the birds are singing and lining up at the feeders. We had about a half hour of rain during yesterdays snow so all the trees in the creek bottoms are all iced up as well as the tall grass in the prairie. With the brightness of the new snow and the sun glinting off the trees it's really pretty. School is two hours late this morning so we will have extra time to do some reading and math homework before school.This is the best part of this job, that I work from the home office and can be home for all these little family things that happen.It will be a while before we are in the garden now. This year I'm thinking of trying some of those fancy melons we always see in the catalogs. I love melons. Does anyone have experiance growing some of the fancy melons you see in the catalogs, especially where there is a short growing season, we have a frost free average season of about 115 days maybe a few more. Sorry about the fake e-mail. I've got to get a yahoo or hotmail account soon.John in Mn.

-- John in Mn. (nospam@mywork.com), March 15, 2002

Answers

Hey, John, yes, I grow melons-I love them too! One of the best one is one called Minnesota midget. The smaller ones grow better in a short season. I have a cat that goes nuts for cantalope and will eat them off the vine! The deer love them too. My problem is not the length of the growing season-Its keeping the critters away!

Start them inside, and let them get a good size before transplanting out, and you should be able to fit them in your season-you can cut off a good 6 weeks off the outside growing time but starting them inside.

-- Kelly (homearts2002@yahoo.com), March 15, 2002.

We grow heirloom moon & stars watermelon. We start them inside, and they really don't grown too large, but the flavor is terrific. I think we bought seeds from Shumways.

-- chickadee (charney@rochester.rr.com), March 15, 2002.