Maybe I should let the squirrels plant my garden. They seem to do a better job. Every spring, stuff pops up in our yard and garden beds that we didn’t plant. We find dozens of baby sunflower plants and if I didn’t mow my grass, my backyard would be a cornfield. If I toss out a hundred corn kernels for the squirrels, they will eat 10 and bury 90. One year we had a mysterious plant in one of Nancy’s garden beds and couldn’t figure out what it was. I finally pulled it up and it was a peanut vine. They had buried one of the whole peanuts I occasionally toss out.
But this year they outdid themselves. Down beside the road, we now have a beautiful plant shimmying up our mailbox with two unknown vegetables clinging to the vines. I think they are honeydew melons, but I’m not sure. The squirrels would know, but they’re not saying.
I make it a habit when I have seeds from cantaloupes, watermelons, or any squash with seeds, to toss them in the backyard for the squirrels and chipmunks. Obviously, they buried one of those seeds as we now await the results.
I only hope that we get to eat the ripe vegetable when it’s time and the squirrels (and deer) leave it alone.