Pumpkin Farming

Near the end of the school year, Liam came home one day with a pumpkin plant that he had started from a seed in his classroom. It came home in a plastic cup with some dirt and had two vines each with a single leaf on it.  He wanted to try and grow pumpkins.

This is not an easy proposition around here.  We don't have much full sun and the wildlife like to eat anything and everything they can get their greedy little hooves/paws on.  But, since he wanted to try we decided to give it a whirl.

We have a spot at the end of the sidewalk up to the porch that is about as full sun as it gets around our house.  It usually stands empty all summer or spends a good deal of time collecting weeds.  Once or twice we've had flowers but it's clear that I'm not the world's best gardner so it gets ignored a lot.  Why not grow a pumpkin plant?

So that's what we did.  I planted his little two vine plant with some miracle grow and lots of water.  We watched it sprout more leaves and then more vines, then the vines got longer and the leaves got bigger. Finally, it started producing flower buds.  All the time this was happening I was peppering the plant every time I thought of it and especially after a good rain. It kept the deer and rabbits off.

For almost 2 weeks all we had were big male flowers on the plant - gorgeous and bright orange.  I started to think it was never going to produce female flowers (and thus fruit).  But, it didn't disappoint me and I started to see signs of budding fruit and flowers.

This week, the first female flower bloomed and we got lucky that a male flower bloomed the same day.  I hope the bees did their job, too!

Our first pumpkin after the flower bloomed.

But wait! There's more coming!

Tiny one a-growin'!

You'll have to forgive the weeds in this next picture. I figure the animals might munch on THOSE instead of my pumpkin so I left them alone.  When I get a chance I've got to go in there and try to weed it out a bit.

It's gotten a lot bigger since we started!

With fruit beginning to develop I've been worried that peppering the plant just won't cut it because it'll be too irresistible to hungry deer.  In order to prevent that (we hope!), Liam and I went out this week and got some posts and some fencing to try and keep those greedy guts out.  I really hope it works!

Our attempt at deer deterrent.

When Liam came home with the plant I was less than enthusiastic but now I'm pretty excited about this.  If we can keep up the momentum and keep out the animals, we might just be able to say we grew our own jack o'lanterns this Halloween!

Digging In The Dirt

So, I've made some progress on the CRAZY amounts of yard work around this place and I wanted to show it off.  This is but a tiny corner of what I have to take care of and it's going to take me years to tame it all, but it's a beginning.

This is the retaining wall at the bottom of our driveway by our garages. (This picture is from two years ago right after the wall was finished)

Normally it is completely over run with weeds and looks horrendous.  This year I'm trying to tame it.  I've gotten the major section of it to the left of the stairs completed (now I just need to work on the long part of the 'L'.)  I weeded out all the crap that was in there. I have three small evergreen bushes planted in a triangle and between them are two day lily plants.  Up at the top, I have my black-eyed susans in front of the 4x4s and my gladiolas behind.  Up in the woods on our back hill we have vinca (aslo called myrtle by a lot of people) growing in carpets.  So, I went up there, dug up a bunch, and transplanted it down to fill in as ground cover.  The big hosta in the planter by the stairs is one that was there before the wall was rebuilt.  I pulled it out before demolition and then split it so that I have half in each planter on the sides of the stairs.

Finished product

bushes, day lilies, clumps of vinca

I made this one big so you could read it.

My next step is to weed out the long, narrow portion perpendicular to this and maybe transplant some vinca in there, too.  I'm not sure what I plan to do about that.

One day, many years from now, I hope to have this place look like someone who gives a damn lives here. It's very slow going but I'm trying.

Blooms

My garden is an embarrassment.  The weeds have completely taken over.  I haven't mulched in two years.  There is lawn where there isn't supposed to be lawn.  And the lawn?  It could really stand to be mowed.

But, despite the chaos, I have flowers blooming.

Looky!  Black Eyed Susans!

This is a miracle.  I've been trying to get these to bloom since I planted them when we first moved in back in 2007.  Usually the resident deer population eats them to nubbins before they even manage to bud.  This year, for reasons unknown, they've decided that my garden does not resemble the buffet at the Grand Concourse and they've left my poor plants alone.  Also, I've remembered to pepper regularly (although I've done that in years past, too).  Maybe there are too many other tasty weeds to choose from so they're not interested in the stuff I would actually like to see survive.

And looky again!  Look at all those buds!

Also, my gladiolas have begun to burst forth.

My hostas are blooming as well.  This is another small miracle because hostas are apparently heroin if you're a deer.  My hostas have regularly been the victims of the eaten-to-nubbins phenomenon.

One day, years from now, when the children are capable to not killing themselves if I'm not watching them with eagle eyes (Jamie, I'm looking at you), I will be able to show you my gardens and be proud.  For now, this will have to do.