Wordless Wednesday - Picked a Pumpkin!

More submissions at www.wordlesswednesday.com.

Two Things We Grew This Year

From October 2007

And both weigh about 15 pounds this year!

Yes, the pumpkins that I thought I killed over the summer produced two big ones after all. This is one of the two, the other is on the porch. I can't bring myself to carve them.....

Abby will Trick-Or-Treat at a couple of houses tonight, but I am reserving the right to sample the candy on her behalf.

Published? No, but Acknowledged!

http://www.parenthacks.com/2007/10/halloween-hack-.html

We submitted our Pumpkin Carving Secret to ParentHacks and she used it today!

ParentHacks is a website that solicits and posts ideas that are non-traditional but work briliantly in solving common parenting issues. Check them out!

Also, feel free to comment on their post about how briliant my idea is so that I feel better about myself. Your call, just an idea....

Pumpkin Update!

I gave up on the pumpkins on day this summer when the AC was out. I needed to vent on something, and the vines were growing up the outside fan unit. I folded back half of the vines onto itself, and assumed that would be the end of my fun, no maintenance project.

We planted the seeds in late May/Early June, and proceeded to ignore them completely after Abby was born. Priorities, you know. I based my decision to kill the project based on the drought we had been having.

I went out to take care of trashing the vines, and found a pumpkin bud. (no picture, sorry.) I began to water with our harvested rain water every other day or so, but didn't do anything else. This past weekend I went out to snap a photo of our one pumpkin:


(the dark green croc is mine, a size 12-13!)

And discovered a second one:



We're going to pick the one orange one this week to be sure it does not go bad, and hopefully to get the other one ripe because the nutrients will all go to one instead of two. We'll get some good autumn photos of Abby this year!

Pumpkin Update

I have kept up at weeding and watering about every other day. No fertilizers yet. Definitely no pesticides.

No flowers just yet, but hopefully those will be coming soon. Here's a picture from June 20th:

From 2007 Pumpkins

For perspective I have put one of my shoes in the background. They are size 13's! That's a great start this early in the yar.

We still have not seen bees, but I think I am going to buy a hummingbird feeder today to get the scent out.

My OTHER Summer Project

I've been writing so much about Anny and Abby that I've neglected to post pictures of my other summer project: competition sized pumpkins! Last year we stole some straight-from-the-carving-table pumpkin seeds and I planted them in the spring. This year I've decided to use the more traditional from-the-pack seeds.

I have planted in three places, but only two are doing much of anything.

Bed 1 - Actually started out as a plant bed anyway. I added some compost-ish leaves and hay and such from last fall over top of the dried dirt. I planted four seeds directly into proper planting soil. One plant has sprung forth quickly, and one has grown some but has been lagging.

Bed 2 - Really just a place that we didn't have anything else to plant, and I don't want grass there if I can get a good pumpkin or two out of it! Planted four or five seeds on this one, and two have sprouted already.

From 2007 Pumpkins

I've been watering every other day or so, and we had some good, soaking rain over the weekend. We have begun to harvest rain water to use around the yard, so I use that water as often as possible.

Last year we only got one small pumpkin. Bigger than a softball, but smaller than a bowling ball. I found out afterwards that bees are needed to pollinate between the flowers that become the pumpkins, and we didn't have any bees until September. WAY too late to be fruitful!

So, this is the first in (hopefully) a series about my great pumpkin adventures. Wish me bees!