A few weeks ago, this plant started growing in my garden. I didn’t know what it was. I figured maybe there were seeds left in the ground from the previous owners. We moved to this house just two months ago.
I looked at this beautiful plant with its broad leaves and yellow flowers and thought, maybe it’s a cantaloupe. I’ve never grown cantaloupe before, so I wasn’t really sure what it looked like. My sister is growing cantaloupe in her garden (this is her first year gardening) so I sent her a picture and asked her if it looked like her cantaloupe. She said, yes, it looked like what she had in her garden.
So, I got my trellis out of the garage and put it in the ground and strung it up. I guided the plant through the strings. And then I waited a few days.
Then I noticed two more cantaloupe plants growing right near my trellis. Perfect! I thought, I am so lucky the previous owners grew cantaloupe. I love those old house owners.
Then a week went by and I noticed the cantaloupe was still growing straight up. Don’t cantaloupe vines grow along the ground and you have to guide them up a trellis?
The cantaloupe kept growing. I waited another week and continued to water them regularly.
My sister came over and I said, come out and look at my cantaloupe. I’m not sure if it’s cantaloupe. Aren’t they supposed to grow like a vine?
She took one look at it and said, “No, that’s not cantaloupe. I don’t know what that is, some sort of weed. That doesn’t look anything like a cantaloupe plant.”
So, for the past three weeks, I, the gardening blogger, have been accidentally on purpose training weeds to grow up a trellis. Thank goodness this is a humor blog!
I searched on the internet to find out what in the heck I’ve been growing. It turns out to be a common wildflower in Illinois, called Velvetleaf. It’s often found in vacant lots, construction sites and waste areas – like my garden. One of the more interesting things the IllinoisWildflowers.com shared about this plant was that, “Velvetleaf is a rather tall and lanky plant with large leaves that is easy to identify in the field because there is really nothing else that resembles it.”
No, I’m sorry, IT LOOKS LIKE CANTALOUPE! Broad leaves? Yellow flowers? Cantaloupe!
OMG, this looks NOTHING like cantaloupe.
Here’s what a cantaloupe plant really looks like (from my sister’s garden)…
I can’t believe I’ve spent the last three weeks growing weeds up a trellis.
Have you ever done something embarrassing in your garden like this? (Please say, yes.)
I Try to Grow Stuff... 
Do NOT let it go to seed. They are a farmers curse. They are pretty, though.
Thank goodness you said that because I’m growing one right now. I was just gonna let it be but now I’ll cut it down
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Yes I’ve done something similar in my yard lol. I think I’m the world’s worst gardener but happy to see that you did this. I take care of what I think are flowers (about to bloom any day) only to find out that they’re really weeds.
Aaaaaand…this is why gardening can be frustrating. I have some plants shooting up in my new beds, and I’m sort of waiting to see if they’re actual plants, or just weeds. I’m giving them a few weeks to become recognizable before pulling the plug.
Yeah, you don’t want to pull up and trash actual flowers, right? Wait and see and trellis in the meantime is my motto.
Cool, are they edible weeds by any chance? One year I grew both cantaloupe and zucchini beside each other, that was a mistake. I ended up with some sort of cantazucchini thing that was very pretty but inedible. You can grow a cantaloupe up a trellis, just as long as it is strong enough to support the plant.
I didn’t see anything about them being edible. I was hoping. And that’s really interesting about the cantaloupe-zucchini. That’s really weird. Like a side show in a 4-H circus.
I’m not a gardener at all. I kill every house plant! I would really like to learn though since we just moved to a new place with a yard. I can totally see myself doing something like this. At least I know now that even really great gardeners can confuse weeds for actual plants you want to grow.
Haha! I don’t know if I’d call myself a great gardner, but I do take classes and watch videos from really great gardeners. I learned a lot from my local nursery.
No, I’ve never managed anything quite that brilliant! Congratulations hun x