Gardening is a fun and soothing activity, but it's not without its challenges: Sometimes inexplicable things happen, like watermelons splitting into large pieces.
One stumped gardener took to the r/gardening subreddit to get advice from knowledgeable members of the community, where they posted: “My watermelon just cracked. Can anyone with experience tell me what I did wrong?”
Photo credit: Reddit
The photo in the post shows a watermelon that has nearly split in half while still on the vine.
“This is almost certainly related to watering habits,” one user commented.
Many people put a lot of time and effort into their plants and flowers. Gardening is great exercise, helping to strengthen muscles and increase agility, and it has many mental health benefits too. Gardening can reduce stress, improve mood and ease anxiety.
Growing your own food also saves you time and money. You don't have to go to the store to buy produce if you grow it in your backyard.
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Gardeners can also save time and money by planting a lawn of native plants: native plants require less water, fertilizer and overall maintenance.
Rewilding your garden or growing a native lawn also offers great environmental benefits. These options conserve water, don't require chemical treatment, and are great for pollinators like bees. Providing a healthy ecosystem for pollinators is smart because it protects our food supply.
Low-maintenance grass alternative options include xeriscape, clover, buffalo grass, etc. Even just partially replacing a lawn with one of these options can provide great benefits to homeowners, saving them money and time while helping the environment.
Trying any of these options may present some challenges, but it's good to know that you have a community of like-minded people to help you.
Members of the r/gardening subreddit were able to offer some great advice to the original poster, with another user admitting, “I've seen this happen from overwatering.”
Another Reddit user wrote: “Remember that watermelons are actually desert plants, so water them less frequently than other melons or plants, but still regularly.”
Other users felt the watermelon reminded them of a fictional carnivorous plant, with one user commenting: “Feed me Seymour.”
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