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| Flowers on our front garden pumpkins. |
Man oh man are the
pumpkin seeds taking off! We chose to plant them in the front of the house in anticipation that they would not only make great decorations come Halloween time but would also utilize an otherwise UNDERutilized garden area. Sure, we could have planted flowers. That's what we usually do. But since one of our
new family goals is to become
more self sufficient in supplying our own food, we opted OUT on the pretty flowers and IN with the edibles.
This is our first season growing pumpkins. We're trying to grow only things that we will eat. Now, I've eaten plenty of pumpkin pie (especially with whipped cream on top) but I can't say it is something I think about if I go grocery shopping. Our hope is that we'll be able to use the pumpkins for Halloween jack-o-lanterns, pies, bread and gift giving (another goal this year is to give handmade gifts only.)
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| One lonely bush surrounded by pumpkins. |
The plants are flowering up something beautiful. The large yellow flowers are a lovely addition to our front yard. I can't wait until there are sugar pumpkins bulging out everywhere. The vines sure can "run." They're spreading out all over the garden. When it comes to harvest time, I'll leave the pumpkin cooking up to Wifey and The Girls. I'll pitch in on the gutting, carving, and eating!
This is an exerpt from the
SeedForSecurity website: "Our Sugar pumpkin was chosen because it is sweet and small enough size to cook and serve for one meal. Field pumpkins are mostly for decoration, and take up a lot of garden space. Summer squash is nice, but Winter squash and Pumpkins keep for months."
Another site tells this interesting tale: "Ten weeks after planting, the first flowers suddenly appear between leaves and tendrils.
Each flower blooms for only one day. They start to unfurl just before dawn, and during a four hour period, they open into luxurious velvet bowls. By mid-day, they are on a slow course of folding in on themselves; and by dusk, they are sealed forever." Wow! Talk about the importance of stopping to smell the roses...er... pumpkin blooms.
More information regarding MY specific pumpkins (and squash) are on
THIS page. I can't wait to get home and see my "luxurious velvet bowls!" Gardening has certainly opened my eyes to the landscape around me. Used to be that the only time I really paid attention to something in my landscape was when I was setting the automatic water timer. Now Wifey and I routinely walk around outside together, looking at our garden, and pointing and smiling. Who knew gardening toward better self sufficiency could be so much fun? Not me.
