Warm soil definitely good, soggy feet bad, definitely. Much research ha shown the benefits of early fruiting when growing watermelon on black plastic mulch commercially. I qualified that statement with "commercially" because certain practices are used to make the beds and lay the plastic tight to the beds. The plastic/soil contact is critical to heating the soil no matter how far north or south you garden. In Florida, melon crops grown on what amounts to 4-6" raised beds that are planted in cold conditions for melon growth. The soil warms faster and more because of the raised aspect and of course the mulch. Personally, I live in north-central KS and have adapted the Florida methods with very little change, mostly I use flat beds because it is way too much work to make raised beds without the machinery. In my location overly wet soil is not usually a problem, rather high temperatures. By the time it is hot, the vines should easily cover the mulch (3+'wide). Some people like to use heavy organic mulches over some parts or even all of their gardens. I've never cared to over the entire garden because of the excess water problem mentioned above. Usually it is placed heavy under the crop rows about 2-3 ft wide (drip irrigating w/o plastic). On melon crops i put down a layer of wheat straw for the vines to grow out in several sucessions as the vines grow outward to keep the fruit off bare soil. My point about not jumping into drip irrigated plasticulture was for gardening newcomers. Don't over complicate your gardening. I would not recommend to anyone trying to grow any warm season crop including melons to heavily mulch their rows right up to the new plants as that would (obviously) cool the soil early in the season. I you want the earliest melons use: black plastic mulch tightly fitted to the bed about 5' (exposed) wide, drip irrigation if needed, floating rowcovers and plant transplants. These methods are adaptable to many growing conditions and should be altered to your circumstances. Good luck and happy hoeing!

You can continue to guess and guess, but if you haven't determined the quality of your soil, there is one way to know for sure. Get your soil tested by a lab. It's always the first place to start with a garden. You save a lot of time and money in the long run. Check with your state's Extension Service. Each county should have it's own Cooperative Extension Office which provides free publications and information for the asking. They can provide you with soil testing information. Mine was only $9.00, less than the cost of some strictly pH tests, and far more thorough. No guessing at what might need to be added, no money wasted. I also wonder about your soil tilth and friability. It doesn't look like you planted your melons by hilling or mounding. Melons don't like 'wet feet', they prefer plenty of drainage. Here is a link that might be useful: Everything you Need to Know About Growing Melons

Here's the thing. our civilization produces an awful lot of crap that has to be disposed of. When it is concentrated in landfills, normal biological processes cannot break down harmful chemicals for a variety of reasons, inadequate heat and oxygen leading the list. Very often chemicals cannot break down when brought into the home as well, such as organiphosphates which are processed pretty well in low concentrations outside. (I realize some of you will debate this but I'm not interested in that tired contraversy right now.) Using a little carpet as mulch seems to be an ideal way of dealing with one form of waste. Everything leaches chemicals but I think it is counterproductive to be excessively conservative. The concern about produce near a highway doesn't have anything to do with ground pollution but with direct contact of chemicals in the air attaching to leaves and fruit. Plants do not pull everthing in the ground into their systems and if carpet does not create a huge health risk in someones home where they are breathing in its fibers and absorbing its chemicals through their skin how could it pose a significant risk as a mulch? It is possible I suppose but not likely enough to advise against it in my opinion. Someone can google the issue of whether plants selectively absorb lead through their roots if they like, but it's something I haven't heard about. The danger of industrial pollution is not how it kills us one at a time- individuals are living longer than they ever have. The danger of industrial pollution is that it is altering the entire planet in ways that threaten the existence of our entire species. This is a fact that the organic agriculture movement seems to overlook. When the oceans themselves are dying, mostly from chemicals unrelated to agriculture, eating organic brocolli doesn't do a whole lot of good.

On your mulch crops, I have read that part of planting the squash as a border around and through the other crops was that raccoons don't like the prickly stems and are deterred from getting into the planted area. Well, I've never had raccoons eat my winter squash, anyway. I've had whole plantings of sweet corn stripped, but you aren't planting those, anyway. Anyway, you have a lot of melons mentioned as mulch crops. Two words: Raccoon Bait! Raccoons can smell ripening cantaloupe miles away, and they don't mind eating it the day before you would have considered it perfectly ripe! Probably the same for watermelon, but I lived near Rocky Ford, Colorado, known far and wide for cantaloupe. ;-) When I was a kid farmers used to hire us to walk around their fields at night near harvest, throwing firecrackers around the edges of the fields (not AT the raccoons or into the fields, so as not to damage any fruit). Firecrackers were illegal in Colorado except for this one purpose, and we could get them from the Extension Office if we were growing melons. All of which is to say, grow squash around the edges of your garden, letting them vine together as much as possible. Keep the melons in the center, where they might not attract as much mapache (raccoon) attention as they would on the edges. And you might plan to camp out in your garden near harvest. Catherine