Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 8 JuneMelon seedlings on 11 June, newly set with their root balls still standing proud and barely earthed in, the kidney-shaped leaves notched deep where each stalk joins and every stalk bristling white where the night flash catches it.Week of 29 JuneA vine on 29 June spread flat from one crown into some eighteen round scalloped leaves, two of its tendrils wound into tight spirals and a few yellow flowers half-open low down, every leaf throwing a long crisp shadow to the left.Week of 6 JulyA melon vine on 7 July with two fruit already down under one leaf, both oval and pale and bristling all over with fine hair, nothing on them yet to show a rind pattern, and half a dozen yellow flowers open low in the foliage.Week of 27 JulyA Minnesota Mini cantaloupe on 28 July, still dark green under a fine paler speckling and furred all over with soft white hair, two chalky splash-marks dried on top of it and the spent flower still clinging alongside, in flat shaded light.Week of 27 JulyFour young melons bunched on one runner on 31 July, mottled dark over pale and still furred with fine white hair that stands off the rind, the smallest of them yet holding its shriveled flower, and two fingers reaching in to hold the leaves back.
