The point I was making is I think most people go by the adage that 10% compost is plenty for tomatoes, and that may be right. But for watermelons, they like a LOT of compost. And very loose sandy soil (think desert). All the points have been made in this thread.
Now that the neighbor has cut down her tree I am going to give watermelons another shot next spring. I'll be building a rain barrier. I wonder if I should try to buy some sand or just buy bags of the crappy topsoil at Wal-Mart which is mostly sand anyway.
