Watermelon

Watermelon is direct sown in spring in Northwest Florida and harvested through the summer. UF/IFAS gives North Florida a second planting in July and August, and gives Central and South Florida no late-summer planting at all — their windows close in March. So the second sowing here is the guide's own, not a date borrowed from further south. It is still a long-season crop going in late, so check your variety's days to harvest against your own first-frost date before committing ground to it. Needs room, and needs bees.

From the guide: UF/IFAS gives the North Florida planting dates for this crop as late March to April, and again July to August. It gives 80–100 days from seed to harvest, or 60–90 from transplants, 24–48 inches apart in rows 60 inches apart, sown 1½–2 in. deep. On the crop itself it says: Vines require lots of space. Plant disease resistant varieties. Bees required for pollination. "Seedless" types must be interplanted with regular types to dependably bear fruit. Harvest when the melon underside begins to turn yellow or when the fruit tendril shrivels. The days-to-maturity figure on this entry is the one measured from seeding, because that is what its planting window marks.

Where these dates come from: the North Florida column of the UF/IFAS Extension Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide (SP 103/VH021), which defines North Florida as everything above State Road 40. Walton County is well inside it, and the Central and South Florida columns of the same table give different months. The guide is written for home and market gardens, so its spacing and days-to-harvest figures are a starting point for a field planting rather than a commercial schedule, and days to harvest varies by variety.