Why Didn’t My Melon Survive?

Gardening experts May Nguyen and Jay Rosenberg and Host Lisa Rothman laugh about the pseudoscientific names audience members came up with for the gourd in the foreground. (Photos by Maya de Paula Hanika)

Lisa Rothman is the host and producer of the new radio show and podcast, Chew On This. She takes a challenge people face in their daily lives and asks down-to-earth experts (in a San Francisco food-truck park, no less—hence the “chew on this”) how to handle it. Today, Lisa shares a helpful tip from her Gardening In A Small Space episode.  

My father loves to garden. My children love to garden. Unfortunately, the gardening gene skipped a generation because I’ve never been able to keep so much as a houseplant alive. What a privilege it was to have the opportunity to ask gardening experts May Nguyen with Planting Justice and Jay Rosenberg with 49 Farms what went awry when my family planted a melon. I thought the problem was the size of the planter box. As usual, my gardening instincts were totally wrong.

Listen to find out what the problem really was and how you can ensure that your own produce thrives, whether it’s in a confined space or not.

Audience members at San Francisco’s SOMA StrEAT Food Park plant “magic beans”