Where does our love for pumpkins come from?
- Is it from that little white seed that you saved from last year’s pumpkins that you plant in the ground and watch it grow?
- Is it from the idea of what you do with that pumpkin once it has grown? Like carving them into masterpieces!
- Is it your love for pumpkin pie? (get the Cool Whip ready!)
- Is it your love for drying the seeds & eating them?
- Is it from your love for the Fall Season?
No matter what your own love affair is with pumpkins, it is all valid. We try to grow a crop of pumpkins every year with high hopes that we can produce at least two pumpkins that we can carve for Halloween. At least that is our goal every year.
Last year we failed tremendously with our pumpkin crop. We failed only because we dumped too much coffee grounds around our pumpkins and they died off. Bummer. We won’t be making that same mistake this year, as we learn from all of our gardening experiences.
We are about six weeks into growing our pumpkins in our fenced in garden area, and every day we head out back to see how they are doing. We are shocked every day. I told you that pumpkins do a lot of their growing at night, so finding lots of new growth in the morning is not a shock at all.
The bees are buzzing around the pumpkin flowers, doing their job pollinating them perfectly, and when they are slacking in their job, I personally pollinate the pumpkins myself with a Q-Tip.
Which brings up a thought. Do you know the difference between a female and a male pumpkin flower? If you don’t know, I’ll tell you…just ask me!
I put together a few photographs of our pumpkins progress, so you can see how well they are growing. We are so pleased!
We added more soil to this bed this year, and lots of Miracle Gro Soil.
I started 18 pumpkins indoors when I had the grow lights still out.
The pumpkins checking out their new home.
In this photo, I used Fiji water bottles to cover up newly planted cantaloupes, and the water bottles behind the row of pumpkins… are MORE pumpkins.
When the pumpkin plant started to grow under the water bottles and got big enough, I removed the bottle. The lids are off all the bottles so the plants got air.
Pumpkins are establishing nicely here.
Then all of a sudden…BOOM! It’s a pumpkin explosion!
I take it that the pumpkins like this spot this year!
Every day we see more new growth!
I think we need more space.
The pumpkin vines are extending everywhere and even up the back of the fence too!
And, last but not least, we have today’s view of our pumpkin patch. We have one nice sized pumpkin growing up the back fence, so at least we know we have one keeper. The pumpkin vines are creeping out of the bed to the left and to the right, so finding the pumpkins to pollinate will be easier. Pretty soon, we will be tip-toeing through pumpkin vines while trying to pick tomatoes in our garden! (I can so see that happening!)
If you need some pumpkin inspiration, check out my Pinterest Halloween Pumpkins Board!
So what do you think of our awesome pumpkin patch? Do you know the difference between a female and a male pumpkin flower?
Nikitaland 