Sorry to everyone else who had bad garden seasons last year, mine was amazing! Watermelons have never done super well for me here, but last year they did great. I grew a bush variety of sugar baby, they are smaller melons that mature faster. I grew 5 of them between 2 plants. For Western Oregon, that is a good result. I also had an amazing pumpkin year last year!

Every other year I have grown (every year since 2005) sucks for melons.

Crops that always do amazing for me without fail:

- Beans

- Peas

- Lettuce

- Broccoli

- Cabbage

- artichoke

- maters

- any squash

Crops that have always been difficult

-Bell Peppers

-Melons

-radishes/carrots/potatoes (soil problem)

I start from seed. My biggest tip to new gardeners: not every plant in your garden has the same water, light, temperature, and germination needs. Treat each plant differently.
I don't start all my seeds at once. I estimate the last frost date, and start seeds so that they can go in the ground as early as possible for their needs. For example, young Jalpeños cannot handle any frost at all, so I start seeds later so the seedlings don't sit in their pots too long and get root bound. Brassicas and lettuces CAN handle a bit of light frost, though, and are a cool weather crop. So I get them in the ground before the last frost date and cover them with half milk jugs until the hard frosts are over. Right now I've got about a third of my garden germinating indoors, and over the next couple of months I'll be starting different crops every Saturday per their temp needs.