The year of gardening dangerously

Now that I have learned from my potato results...

Fallen over but not looking all that rough yet and  not going anywhere. I also asked about the "days" issue I was having and it might mean "days after sprouting" instead of "days after putting it in the ground". In that case, the first date I have them with sprout-age was April 12! That's a game changer.

 I am moving on to my other experiments: the watermelons and the pumpkins. First things first. I need to know what to do now, now that they are in the ground and as far as I know,  about mid-way through the growth process. I needed to do some research. Oddly, the Internet is not the information wonderland that I may have thought. It may also help to be more specific than ""How to grow watermelon" or "How to grow pumpkins" or because I am getting a little curious, "Are my pole beans intellectually challenged?

The watermelons are chortling along, trying to eat everything in their midst. I think this is probably healthy and age appropriate. I'm a little worried that I might not have the acreage  for these plants to really do their thing. I'm also worried that when the fence goes in ( Please Jesus!) that the workers may injure the vines that by that time will be all along the fence line.

All three plants. Note that the largest plant has all ready escaped from the bed and is making inroads into the yard. Lord have mercy on its soul.

On the run. On the other side the smaller plant is trying to molest the tomatoes.

 The two larger plants are spreading out and doing well enough to make flowers, this makes me feel good about their general health.

Detail of a representative flower. The two larger plants have these all over, the smaller plant isn't there yet but you can tell that its going to catch up. The very smallest plant isn't even thinking about flowering yet. It is still alive and seems to have aged out of its damage and transplant shock  stage and for that the two of us are thankful.

The pumpkin plants are doing their thing. They are absolutely going to grow into the yard, which is fine because I don't love mowing, on the down side, I can't protect them once they clear the protection of the shrubs and the house. Pumpkins like sunshine but they also like shade and there isn't shade on that side of the yard. I read somewhere that I could put up little shade structures for them. I'm not sure how practical that will be once they are in the middle of the yard.

And now we move to my pole beans. I think I'm going to get them little helmets because these things are not hitting the bench marks. They are physically growing wildly but they aren't being at all productive and haven't even made any flowers yet. The peas have flowered and seem to be doing their thing.

I understand hat pole beans mature later and produce for longer than their bush brothers, I am getting a little antsy about them. I've read that the peas don't love the heat but that the beans don't have such problems with the weather. Good, because it isn't going to get cooler.