Are they easy to grow? I was thinking of planting them in a garden behind the garage. It is shaded, is that a problem? I feel like planting fruit, it is fun to eat things that you grow.

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I think that Watermelon is a cinch to grow, but I'm in a climate where we can harvest, most years, into late October before it gets too cool to sustain plants such as Peppers, Tomatoes & Melons. I'm not sure that the Minneapoils/St Paul area is far enough south to give you a good enough advantage to take them all the way to harvest, but I know people who have done it with success in your zone.

You'll need to begin with an established plant that has been started indoors & taken all the way past the maturity of true leaves, & plant when the ground is already warm, to get a jump-start on the time they'll need. (Go with a variety that takes under 75 days to harvest.)

Melons DON'T like a lot of water, which is something that surprised me when I first got started raising them! Because their fruits have such a high water content, I thought they needed all the water they could get! WRONG! (Their root structure is very shallow, so heavy watering only drowns them.) I treat them as I do Tomatoes, & keep them damp but not soaked down. (Tomatoes, you know, split open when the plant has too much water... melons just stop growing & go bad on the vine.)

Melons require LOTS of direct sun, so I'm not sure that less than 1/2 day sun will give you the end result that you want. The only time I put up something to shade my melons is when one of the fruits has grown in a position where a leaf isn't protecting it from the direct sun. (I made the mistake once, of trimming back a bunch of the leaves so I could see the melons... & they sunburned & rotted! I realized later that that's what those huge leaves were there for!!)

I wish that I had a happier answer for you, but I encourage you to give it a try, but DO try them in a sunny spot, with rich, well-drained soil. (Planting in small raised beds, or at least in a little "hill" makes all the difference in the world.)

Cantaloupe & Honeydew melons seem to be easier to bring to maturity than watermelons have been, for me, but I'm trying a different type of watermelon this year in hopes that I'll have better results. Yes, it's an absolute joy, to eat "fun things" that have come from yor own garden! I almost hate to pick them, cuz they're so picture-pretty!

Best of luck, & happy 2006 gardening!!

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