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Gardener's Notebook - Fascinating tale of watermelon

It isn’t watermelon weather, but make a cup of tea and sit down with me for a few minutes.

It isn’t watermelon weather, but make a cup of tea and sit down with me for a few minutes. I’d like to tell you about a fascinating watermelon story that I read in that fantabulous seed catalogue we received from some very dear friends, the Whole Seed Catalogue from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

The story in the seed catalogue is a lengthy one, but I’ll condense it a bit as I tell you about it. Once upon a time, not all that long ago, there was a plant breeder named Art Combe from Ogden, Utah. who was intrigued by the mystery of plants after he read about the work done by Luther Burbank. In the 1920’s, Art was doing what was probably his favorite thing: teaching about plants. His students were Navajo Indians, and one momentous day when they were all out exploring in the desert, they found a cave. And in the cave was a sealed woven basket. And in the basket were what looked like watermelon seeds.

Art planted the seeds in his garden and, amazingly, some of them germinated. Imagine how exciting it would be to be wondering what these mystery seeds would produce! The days went on and as the watermelons appeared, they did not look like the watermelons we know. These watermelons narrowed at one end and had a “handle”! It is speculated that these seeds were thousands of years old.

While the crookneck trait of these watermelons has now mostly been bred out, we can actually get seeds for this juicy, red-fleshed and sweet watermelon. It is called “Art Combe’s Ancient Watermelon” and it is very heat- and drought-resistant. Imagine how delighted that long-ago gardener would be to know that after carefully creating a tiny basket to hold his or her precious watermelon seeds, they were found by just the man who would care enough to try and grow them.

It’s quite a story! Think of all the history in each of those wonderful watermelons! To me, that is truly one of the most interesting things about using heirloom seeds. I remember Mom and my aunties exchanging seeds, usually tomatoes. These seeds often had no name, and did not come from a seed catalogue. They were just passed on and exchanged between gardeners who stored them in old envelopes and labelled them with magical descriptions like “very tasty tomato, large” or “has leaves like a potato but very early tomatoes”. I can still picture Sweet Pea planting these precious seeds, labelling them carefully, and checking them daily to see if they came up. When they did, what excitement! That excitement built up all summer until the day when we could pick the first tomato from that plant! Of course, some tomatoes were always set aside to keep the seed supply strong. And then they’d get passed on again and the gardening circle continued.

You might have a chance to obtain some heirloom seeds at this year’s Seedy Saturday on Saturday, February 24 in Yorkton. Circle that date on your calendar, and when I find out more about the event I’ll let you know!

The Yorkton and District Horticultural Society will be having their first 2018 meeting in February. New members are always welcome: we’ll have a great list of speakers and events for the coming year. Visit us at www.yorktonhort.ca and see what’s new!
Can you see a difference in the length of the days? Hurrah! Have a great week!