Haha! I bet you thought the Pumpkin Chronicles were over! Well, actually I did too but I decided to go ahead and do one more for old times’ sake. Yep, we still have a few pumpkins sitting around decorating our home. We had originally intended to make pumpkin pies and jack-o-lanterns and all that stuff but we kind of grew attached to the little fellas and decided to just keep them.
These have been sitting around the house since we brought them in last fall. Last summer I had read that if you keep the pumpkins cool and dry they would keep until the following spring. It hasn’t exactly been cool and dry in our house this winter but these have kept just fine. A few of the small ones we had did eventually grow soft and had to be thrown out but these are still in good shape.
These two look like they’re all soft and mushy but that’s just the way they were shaped, they’re still nice and firm. We sure had a lot of fun with the pumpkins last summer: finding the sprouts, spreading them out in the garden, watering them, watching them flower and spread their vines through the garden. And almost ten months later we are still enjoying them. What an amazing gift from God these were!Deuteronomy 7:13 He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. ESV
Well here we are on Day 151 of our Pumpkin Chronicles. Throughout much of July and August I was a little disappointed that the pumpkin patches weren’t producing more pumpkins and also at the small size of the pumpkins. In September, however, we’ve had much better luck. I guess pumpkins truly are cool weather plants. Here’s a picture of our front steps with all of the pumpkins we’ve produced so far, minus two or three that rotted already. The small ones came out in August, and the larger ones came out more recently after the weather cooled down dramatically.
And the two patches are still producing! We have three or four pumpkins coming along nicely in Pumpkin Patch Central, and two more in Pumpkin Patch East including this big guy! This pumpkin is already larger than anything that’s grown so far and it’s still nice and green, which tells me it’s not done yet. I can’t wait to see how big this one gets!
And yes, I finally picked that lone watermelon. We actually grew two watermelons this year; a bit disappointing since we had about ten little ones starting out at one time. I don’t know how to tell when they are ripe so I was reluctant to pick them, fearing that they wouldn’t be done yet. I finally picked the smaller of the two a couple of weeks ago, and as I feared it was not ripe yet. So I let this one go a bit longer but finally got impatient and brought it in yesterday. As you can see, it’s beautiful and ripe! It’s also very juicy and delicious! This is pretty good sized and will probably be more than we can eat, but I wish there had been more so we could have shared with our friends and neighbors.
Well our friend from church reminded me yesterday that I haven’t updated my Pumpkin Chronicles for a while. This friend shall remain nameless, but her initials are Miss Carol! Actually she was right, this update is long overdue so here it is.
But wait a minute, look at this! This is by far the largest pumpkin we have so far. I put my hand in the pic to show how large the pumpkin is but it still doesn’t really do it justice. This pumpkin is about the size of a bowling ball or volleyball now. I’m not sure if it’s still growing or not, it is showing some signs of ripening. In addition to this one, we have at least five more pumpkins growing that we know of. Apparently pumpkins do not like very hot weather. During July when our temps were at or near 100 degrees almost every day the pumpkins were, as I said, very few and very small. In August our weather has been much cooler and now we have more pumpkins growing and they’re getting bigger. Honestly, I’m learning more about pumpkins this year than I ever wanted to know. J
Hey, this isn’t a pumpkin! We planted some watermelons in the garden up by the house, just to the east of the pumpkins and this is what we’ve got so far. This one doesn’t seem to be growing much anymore so I’m thinking it’s almost time to pick it and eat it. Unfortunately, this is about all we have to show so far. There is one other watermelon that might be edible but that’s it. At one time we counted 9 or 10 little watermelons starting out, but they all shriveled up and died when they were only pickle sized. That’s disappointing but if we get to eat this one then it will have been worth it.
And finally, the tomatoes! The largest of these tomatoes are about golf-ball size now and will probably be ready to pick before long. These are plum tomatoes that I planted from the seeds of a tomato we bought at Walmart and I really didn’t expect them to do anything, but boy was I wrong. In all there are about 10 nice looking tomatoes on what is actually two separate plants growing side by side. I should have taken a pic of the whole plant because they are about 5 feet tall. In addition to the 10 or so tomatoes growing right now, there are several clusters of flowers getting ready to blossom into new tomatoes. I can’t wait to try some of these!
Surprise! Don’t ask me how I missed this one because I don’t know. I found this pumpkin today in Pumpkin Patch East and, as you can see, it’s quite a bit bigger than the one I found in Pumpkin Patch Central a few days ago. It’s growing off of a vine right on the outer edge of the patch. The vine had grown out into the weeds outside the patch and that’s where this pumpkin was so I guess that’s why I didn’t see it before. Before I took this pic I cleared away the weeds so I could get a good shot of it. This brings our grand total of pumpkins up to 2! And who knows, maybe there are still more in there that I haven’t discovered yet.
SUCCESS!! It is day 80 in our Pumpkin Chronicles and, as you can see, we have a pumpkin! Today I was wading through pumpkin patch central and thinning out some of the vines that had not yet produced any blossoms. I should have done this weeks ago as the vines are growing all over each other and some of the ones on the bottom are dying. Anyway, as I was doing that, I finally discovered our first pumpkin. I felt a little like a gold miner, sifting through pan after pan of river silt and finally finding that first bit of color. It was a pretty exciting moment. This little guy is about the size of a racquetball right now, or a bit smaller than a tennis ball if you prefer. The surface is very green, smooth, and shiny. I was beginning to worry because we’ve been getting blossoms for a few weeks now but I haven’t really been finding many female flowers, if any at all.
And speaking of female flowers, here’s a good example of one. Once I really got to looking, I found this one in pumpkin patch east, and later found a couple more over in pumpkin patch central. As you can see, the female flower forms right on top of a big bulb on the vine. That’s kind of like a little pumpkin egg just waiting to be fertilized. This flower hasn’t opened yet but it should open tomorrow or next day. Then, as long as a bee brings in some male pollen, this little guy will soon begin to grow into a pumpkin. I’ll be keeping an eye on this one over the next several days. Isn’t this fun!?
Here’s Joni enjoying a walk through Pumpkin Patch Central on Day 74! It also happens to be Independence Day so happy birthday America! It’s almost mind-boggling how big and full and thick this patch has become! The plants are standing between 2 and 3 feet high I would guess and some of the leaves are bigger than dinner plates. This was taken at about 1 in the afternoon and the flowers have all closed up already. It seems that the hotter it is the sooner the flowers close up. On a cool cloudy day, of which we have had very few lately, the flowers might stay open until 5 or 6 o’clock. Joni and I have both seen bees on the flowers although you have to get out there kind of early in the morning to catch them at work. I haven’t found any pumpkins growing yet although I haven’t really made a thorough inspection. The vines are very prickly so it’s hard to dig around in there and get a good look.
And here’s Pumpkin Patch East out by the country fence. You can hardly even see the fence now! No walking barefoot in this patch, there are stickers around! These fellas have been looking a little droopy the last couple of days even though I’ve been giving them plenty of water. This patch is in full sun from early morning until late in the evening and it’s been very hot lately so I guess that’s why they look a little tired. Shoot, I look a little droopy after only a couple of hours in the sun, forget about all day! Oh, and check out those sunflowers growing along the fence! The tallest ones are about 6 feet high now and seem to be visibly taller every day. I hope they grow some flowers pretty soon!
It’s day 56 of our Pumpkin Chronicles and just look at all those big beautiful blossoms! Since that first blossom showed up we’ve been getting several of them each day, maybe half a dozen at a time or so. But as you can see, we had even more than that today! The blossoms have been opening up early each morning but by noon they are already beginning to wilt, and by about 2 o’clock or so they are usually closed up. After that the blossoms will wither away and die only to be replaced by a new batch the next day. The pumpkin plants are doing their job; I sure hope the bees are!
And here’s Pumpkin Patch East, flourishing as well. We had some nice gentle rain showers the last two nights and the pumpkins, along with everything else, are responding with a renewed energy. There are fewer plants here and, therefore, fewer blossoms. There were a couple out here today but they were kind of hiding underneath the foliage. If the blossoms are being pollinated then we should have lots of pumpkins this fall.
It’s day 46 in our Pumpkin Chronicles! This is pumpkin patch central and, as you can see, the pumpkin plants are really flourishing. Yesterday I dug up five of the smaller plants and moved them to other areas to give them a little more room. I put three of them further back in the garden here at pumpkin patch central and the other two I put over in pumpkin patch east, which I extended by a couple of feet. If you look closely at the center of the picture, you’ll probably notice a bright orange blossom!
And here’s a close-up of the blossom. Isn’t it beautiful! This marks a very exciting time in the life of our pumpkin patch! We noticed just a couple of days ago that most of the pumpkin plants were developing buds. Then yesterday I found a blossom although that one was already done and wilted up by the time I found it. You can see it just below the blossom in this picture. Pumpkin blossoms typically open just before dawn and only last one day, then they are gone forever. Joni found this one early this morning and got a couple of pics of it. I took this picture around noon and it was fully opened as you can see. I got the pic just in time though because about an hour later it had already begun to wilt, and by two o’clock it was closed up again.
It’s day 40 already and the pumpkin plants are still growing and spreading out! This last week had me worried because we had some pretty intense storms: furious winds, driving rain, pounding hail. The pumpkins got a little beat up but they are already bouncing back and looking healthier than ever. I’m still not sure about the vines though. I’m beginning to think that the stems or stalks that are already here will eventually lay down on the ground and become the vines upon which the pumpkins will grow. This is my first time with pumpkins so I’ll have to wait and see.
Over here at Pumpkin Patch East it is even more apparent how the plants are responding to the rain. During the first 5 weeks after I planted these here we had almost no rain at all. The plants were growing but slowly. During the last week we’ve had lots and lots of rain and even though we also had a lot of wind and hail, these guys have perked right up. Grow little pumpkins, grow!
So here we are at day 28! Can you believe it’s been four weeks already? These are the pumpkins in Pumpkin Patch Central, in the garden near the house. As you can see, the pumpkin plants are growing at what is almost an alarming rate. I’ve been keeping an eye out for some vines to start, but none so far. From what I’ve read, it sounds like the vines could start just about any time now. Then there should be some blossoms sometime around week 10. A lot of grass and weedy stuff was beginning grow in here but I went in the other day and dug it all up with the little 3-pronged hand rake thingy. I know the weeds will be back, but for now the patch looks pretty clean.
And here’s Pumpkin Patch East, across the driveway. These look reasonably healthy but I’m a little worried about them. The soil here is much more dry than in the garden, and seems to be sandier and even gravelly. I took these pics yesterday, on day 28, but didn’t get them up until today due to some internet difficulties we were having. Even though the pumpkins looked okay yesterday, today they look kind of limp even though we got a little rain yesterday. Also, it’s hard to tell from these pics, but we lost a few plants recently. We had some pretty high winds for about 3 days and I think the poor things just got whipped to death. Not surprising I suppose since the leaves are getting pretty big and the plants are generally kind of top-heavy. Not to worry though, there are still plenty of healthy plants left!
So here we are at Day 18 and, as you can see, the pumpkins are growing like weeds! This is Pumpkin Patch Central, in the garden on the south side of the house. I have four rows of pumpkins planted and all seem to be doing well, with the possible exception of the last row at the far right of the picture. Those were the most recent and they haven’t quite decided if they’re going to live or not. I have them planted way too close together but we’re bound to get something out of all these!
And here’s Pumpkin Patch East. These guys are doing pretty well too it looks like. The soil here turned out to be very gravelly. I didn’t notice before, but with the daily watering the dirt is washing off the top and I can see a lot of gravel now. I don’t know if that will present any special challenges in the growing of the pumpkins, but so far they’re coming along well. No signs of any vines yet but I’m keeping my eye out. From what I read, they typically put out two main vines, usually growing in opposite directions. From the main vines, smaller ones can shoot off and may need to be pruned. But so far, there’s not much to do but keep them watered.