Yep, they’ve arrived…drats! I had to yank one of the pumpkins, but it hadn’t really produced anything so I wasn’t too heartbroken. Another vine has 2 little pumpkins that are ripening, then I’m pulling it. The other couple are okay for now. I have new seeds popping up and am planting radishes around these in hopes that it helps!

Oh how I despise the borers…

On a better note, my neighbor gave me 4×4 untreated scrap wood so I will be making my Mason Bee houses tonight. Yay!

Hope your world is bug free for today! Or at least bad bug free…let the beneficials fly!!

Peace!

I didn’t plan on planting pumpkins this year. Every year that I have, my harvest was less than successful. Either not enough water, too much water, bad soil, no pollination, powdery mildew, borers, you name it it’s happened. So this year I noticed in our lasagna bed we’d been working on through the winter, little squash plants popping up everywhere. I had thrown some “Munchkin” pumpkins in the compost after the holidays and apparently their seeds thrived. I pulled out a dozen or more plants, but decided to keep a few to see what would happen. A couple of the plants started to show fruiting, but the fruit looked more like round yellow squashes than actual pumpkins. Mystery squash maybe? As they have started to mature, they are looking more pumpkin-like however so I inclined to believe they are some Mystery Pumpkin rather than just a regular yellow squash. The other plants started bearing fruit as well and they are in fact the dear little “Munchkins” I’d suspected. I was shocked that they bore fruit, and even more shocked that they look like we’ll be more successful this year with these volunteers! I’m encouraged to plant some Jack-O-Lanterns as well, so will have to remember to get some seeds for those. Maybe my composted lasagna garden had just the right nutrients, attracted the right number of bees, fertilized just enough – I honestly don’t know except that I did sprinkle bone meal around the base of the plants as they were flowering, so maybe that’s what did it. I am not questioning it though because even if we get only a half dozen pumpkins out of the batch, that’s 6 more than we’ve gotten in the past!! And the girls love having their very own pumpkin patch in miniature.

Some facts about pumpkins that I found while researching growing and harvesting them.

* Pumpkins contain potassium and Vitamin A.

* Pumpkin flowers are edible.

* The largest pumpkin pie ever made was over five feet in diameter and weighed over 350 pounds. It used 80 pounds of cooked pumpkin, 36 pounds of sugar, 12 dozen eggs and took six hours to bake.

* In early colonial times, pumpkins were used as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling.

* Pumpkins were once recommended for removing freckles and curing snake bites.

* The largest pumpkin ever grown weighed 1,140 pounds.

* The Connecticut field variety is the traditional American pumpkin.

* Pumpkins are 90 percent water.

* Eighty percent of the pumpkin supply in the United States is available in October.

* Native Americans flattened strips of pumpkins, dried them and made mats.

* Native Americans called pumpkins “isqoutm squash.”

* Native Americans used pumpkin seeds for food and medicine.

Additionally, pumpkins seeds and related plant seeds have been found in Mexco and date all the way back to 7000 to 5500 B.C. As for their presence in Halloween traditions:

The origin of Halloween dates back at least 3,000 years to the Celtic celebration of Samhain (pronounced “sow-ain”). The festival was held starting at sundown on October 31st and lasted until sundown on November 1st. It was similar to the modern practice of the New Years celebration.

On this magical night, glowing jack-o-lanterns, carved from turnips or gourds, were set on porches and in windows to welcome deceased loved ones, but also to act as protection against malevolent spirits. Burning lumps of coal were used inside as a source of light, later to be replaced by candles.

Samhain was not the name of a “Lord of the Dead”, no historical evidence has ever been found to back this up, it was simply the name of the festival and meant “Summer’s End”. It was believed that the souls of the dead were closest to this world and was the best time to contact them to say good bye or ask for assistance. It was also a celebration of the harvest. It is still treated as such today by those who practice Wicca or other nature based religions. It has absolutely nothing to do with satan, who was a creation of the Christian church.

When European settlers, particularly the Irish, arrived in America they found the native pumpkin to be larger, easier to carve and seemed the perfect choice for jack-o-lanterns. Halloween didn’t really catch on big in this country until the late 1800’s and has been celebrated in many ways ever since!

http://www.pumpkin-patch.com/about.html

So this year, dare I get my hopes up and plant the beloved Jack-O-Lanterns in hope that the girls can carve pumpkins they actually grew? Maybe I’ll try some sugar pie pumpkins as well! I’m so encouraged by these volunteers, but don’t want my hopes dashed. Maybe these lovely plants are just telling me to go for it and not think about it too much. Whatever I decide, I am very grateful to these guys for allowing us to be graced with their presence and enjoy the fruit they seem to be bearing.

If anyone knows what variety my mystery pumpkin is I’d be quite grateful!

Namaste! Peace!

Mystery pumpkins:

Munchkins (Munchkin’ Mini pumpkin with bright orange flesh and pleated shape. The flesh is deep orange with a lovely chestnutty flavour and soft, waxy texture. Lovely tiny seeds, which can be eaten whole):

So as this gardening thing continues with me, I’m branching out of my comfort zones and actually am starting to feel like a real gardener. Not a master by any stretch of the word, but definitely more competent than a year ago. Two of my latest changes (and for all you true gardeners out there, please take pity on this newbie), liquid seaweed and organic bone meal. I’ve always used a higher nitrogen fertilizer (John’s Recipe to be exact), but didn’t really know enough or pay as close attention to the other aspects of fertilization. My father in-law has been extremely instrumental in all this new found knowledge with me however, and I have to say I’m learning alot from our conversations. He suggested with every transplant to put a handful of bone meal in the hole I’ve dug before putting the plant in, to help the roots grow strong and give the plant a good healthy dose of phosphate. Then after the planting, to water it all in with my regular fertilizer. I have to say, my veggies and ornamentals do look much healthier and stronger. Pumpkins, something I’ve never been successful with, are actually making pumpkins! I am very excited. My front yard is growing by leaps and bounds as well. And I’m starting to tuck in a tomato plant or two into some of the empty spaces. It is so nice to sit out there and watch the transformation we saw in our mind’s eye 2 years ago, start coming to fruition.

I am also just starting with liquid seaweed. I sprayed the first application yesterday morning and plan on doing it once a week for the first month, then once every couple weeks for another month, then once a month after that. My own experiment with this one, but everything I’ve read says this greatly benefits all plants. And my mentor, aka: father in law, agrees. Maybe it is my imagination, but my plants did look happier after that initial spray.

We’ve gotten a good, soaking rain today so that will be wonderful for the plants when the warm weather comes back next week. The other thing I’ve given up is my intense hold on every single planting. If something is obviously not working, I’m pulling it and trying again in a new spot. No more getting attached to the last 2 tomatoes on the plant that just won’t grow, but in my intense desire to get every last fruit, I stubbornly refuse to pull the plant. No sir, now that plant will be history and something new will be taking it’s place. No more push-over gardening for me!

I have been trying to spend at least 15 minutes, more if possible, in the gardens every morning and I think it’s showing. I also love how it affects the girls. They know so much more than I did at that age, and they love it. L is so proud that her one little Bluebonnet is actually blooming, and X is always ready with spade to help me plant. We hand water everything now too and I do believe that makes a huge difference. We don’t need to water nearly as often, and it’s quite meditative to walk through the gardens with a bucket of water in one hand and a 3 year old by my side helping give the flowers their drinks. So peaceful…

I hope you all are enjoying your springtime blooms. Peace!

It’s warming up here. We have had a very odd winter though, with some days in the 30’s and the next day close to 80. As much as I wish we had more winter, I have to start realizing that Spring is on her way. There are signs all over my garden, things budding, things growing, chickens laying and restless children. The animals are all well, and apparently so are most of my plants. I have onions and garlic popping up, a volunteer pumpkin or two are peaking out of the compost as well. Strawberries are in the ground, however I’m going to want more. I also got some parsley and sage in the ground. Next step is preparing and spreading topsoil for our back garden and then getting seeds in the ground and in starts. That will most likely happen tomorrow if we are lucky.

I want to thank Marina over at A Small Tribe for the sweet words and kind heart of her’s. She gave me another award and her words just fill me with happiness. Thank you my friend!

For now, here’s a short trip through the front garden. Peace!