Thursday, May 20, 2010

Pumpkins in May!

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Last Fall I pulled out some landscaping shrubs that were not doing very well.  This spring I was purchasing new plants to fill in the holes and the kids remembered the pumpkin seeds I had purchased.  They really wanted to try to grow our own pumpkins so I figured we would grow them close to the garden at some point.   I didn’t want them in our garden because their vines get so long and they’d overtake everything else.  Through some prodding from the kids, I allowed them to plant one pumpkin seed in one empty hole.    This was a test to see if the pumpkin seed would sprout and grow.

Well, look at it now.  It’s not even in the right “garden'” soil and it’s on a dripper that only waters every three or four days.  Maybe that Miracle Grow soil works after all! 

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Not only do we have a long pumpkin vine (that I keep twisting back around so it looks more like a shrub), there really are pumpkins growing.  Lots of them.  They look like pumpkin shaped watermelons.

My master gardener expert brother-in-law says I need to shade the plant through the hot summer and we’ll see if they make it into the Fall.   I don’t know?  He’s never grown pumpkins either. 

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I’m so glad I let the kids experiment with one pumpkin seed.  It’s been fun for all of us.  The kids and I have a good time watching for new pumpkins and checking for those awful SQUASH BUGS that killed my squash plants last year.   

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The newest addition to the pumpkin family. 

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