THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 5, 1996 TAG: 9608310168
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 36 lines
They had a seed-spittin', juice-drippin' good time at the Redman home in Inglenook on Monday for Labor Day.
Andrew ``Doug'' Redman sharpened his machete and sliced into the 69-pound watermelon he grew this summer. He went to the machete because there was no knife in the house long enough to take on this big green torpedo.
Redman expected the oblong whopper to feed all 40 friends and family members who were to picnic at his place.
``I just plant 'em, nurture 'em along, and they just grow,'' said Redman, a longshoreman who likes nothing better than to dig in his garden each night after work. ``About the last of July, I noticed it was kind of outgrowing everything else.''
Redman planted and nurtured his melon in a 100- by 135-foot garden he grows yearly behind the Jerusalem United Holy Church of America.
The watermelon dwarfed any ordinary melon. Andrew's wife, Barbara, said it wouldn't fit into a 44-quart cooler and made ``an ordinary one look like a cantaloupe.''
The ``Gigantics'' watermelon seeds he planted sure did live up to their name, Redman said.
The secret just might be in the fertilizer, he speculated.
Redman fed his watermelon seeds and seedlings with horse manure from the Pungo section of Virginia Beach. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by L. TODD SPENCER
Andrew ``Doug'' Redman, an Inglenook resident, grew his 69-pound
watermelon from ``Gigantics'' watermelon seeds he planted earlier
this summer. He fertilized his garden plot with horse manure from
the Pungo section of Virginia Beach. by CNB