This year, rather than do my normal backyard vegetable garden, I decided to plant only pumpkins. I’ve been wanting to have a little pumpkin patch for years, but when spring came along, I always ended up going the same old tomato, eggplant, peppers, route. But not this year.
On the 15th I planted the seeds, and they’ve grown to strong little sprouts. I have one hill of “Hercules Pumpkins” to use for Jack O’ Lanterns, and a second hill of “Sugar Pumpkins,” which are smaller and used for pies.
I’ll have to pluck out a few of these little guys though. As small as they are now, only two or three vines will easily take up all the available space. Room for only the strongest of the bunch.
The pumpkins (and the novel I’m reading, and the new story I’m writing, among other things) are proving to be adequate distractions from life, of which I can use a long, long vacation.
Sorry the pictures are low quality, but I used my cell phone.
Nice! In Bengal, we eat/cook all parts of the pumpkin plant–the greens, the flowers (fried into fritters) and, of course, the pumpkin itself. Do post pics of the patch as it grows.
Will-do. Cooking the flowers makes sense to me–I imagine it's something like how we batter and fry zucchini flowers–but the greens? I've never grown pumpkins before, but aren't the vines and leaves sort of prickly?
I'll have to look up some recipes, see if I can find something about that.
Most years I'll buy a few sugar pumpkins and roast them, then scoop out the pulp, puree it, and freeze it for later use in pies, soups, etc.
How exciting!! I can't grow anything to save my life, BUT I have finally managed to keep two plants alive for seven months, once I hit a year I'm going to move up a notch and try my hand a the garden (we have one, but my husband has to plant them because seriously, if I touch a seed/baby/sprout whatever you want to call it, the damn thing dies. Shrivels up in my fingers on the spot)
Good luck with your pumpkins and I think the photo quality is fine 😀
Nice to see you blogging more!
I can't wait to see what they look like when they're all orangey. Roll on Halloween.
K., yeah, I really enjoy growing veggies. I didn't start until a few years ago. I have limited space (and knowledge) but every year seems to go okay.
Cate, Halloween can't come soon enough. I do hope the pumpkins grow okay.
I grew pumpkins a couple of years back…I felt quite pleased with myself when we could use MY pumpkins for Halloween. I love the vines, they're like something out of a fairy tale. Good luck with yours. 🙂
I love to grow pumpkins- ia let them grow wild in my front yard so by halloween its looking pretty awesome out there!
Akasha, I love the vines too, and that sense of accomplishment when you can use something you grew.
Anita, you have to take a picture of that! 😀 I bet it looks amazing.
I want to plant a pumpkin patch this year as well, along with an eery scarecrow to look over it!