Desert King
Watermelon in the UK

Right, so watermelons, they're not for the faint-hearted, you know. We're talking April or May for sowing, indoors mind, 'cause they need a proper warm start. Pop a couple of seeds about 2cm deep in a small pot of good compost. Keep 'em somewhere warm, like on a heated propagator or a sunny windowsill, around 20-25°C if you can manage it. Once they've germinated, thin 'em to the strongest seedling. No point faffing about with direct sowing here in the North East, it's just too cold for them early on, and you won't find plug plants for these either.

Once your seedlings are big enough to handle, pot 'em on into slightly larger pots. Give 'em a bit of space on the windowsill or in the greenhouse. Hardening off isn't really needed if they're going straight into a warm greenhouse or polytunnel, which, to be honest, is where they really want to be. Plant 'em out after all danger of frost has passed – usually mid to late May for us up here. Give each plant about a metre square, they spread out a fair bit, these ground fruits.