Cantaloupe patch

The rain that flooded the melon patch in June...

has produced a bumper crop in August.

Every other day I find melons out there that I didn't know were growing. And the thing is that this is my unplanned crop.

See all those garbage bins in the flood picture above? They've been re-purposed and are now compost bins. Apparently, though, some of the seeds from the remains of a store-bought cantaloupe deposited in the bins last fall, never actually finished composting and ended up in the mixture that I spread under the citrus in the spring.

It has actually helped the young and still vulnerable citrus in this area because the melon vines absorb some of the radiant heat and also they raise the humidity level. That is, they create a micro-climate around the trees that works well for everything over there. I wish I could take credit for planning it.