How to grow giant, juicy watermelons

There’s nothing screams summer louder than an enormous watermelon. Here’s my prize effort this year. Look at the pride on my face. Tragic, isn’t it.

 My secret?

 Add six small mounds of compost to a 3m x 2m raised bed.

• Sow two or three seeds (this is an ‘Allsweet’) per mound.
• Sprinkle some goodies (pelletised chook manure, sulphate of potash, rock phospate, mineral dust).  
• When seedlings emerge, thin them so there is one plant per mound.
• Go on holiday for a month.
• Return, harvest enormous, sweet and juicy watermelons, and claim credit among friends and neighbours for being an expert gardener.

I can’t tell you how much it weighs because I haven’t got scales large enough. I’d guess more than 20kg. A long way to go before I challenge world record holder Chris Kent, from Tennessee, who grew a 350.5lb (159kg) watermelon. But I’ll bet mine tasted nicer.