Gardening

[Andybev01]

That's because they have never tasted my garlic chicken recipe...

[Andybev01]

I transplanted my pumpkin from the little 'starter' pot to the ground yesterday.

It felt like sending a child off to it's first day of school!

It's inside the front garden enclosed by a wire fence so at least the deer don't have a chance. We'll see if the bunnies have a taste for pumpkin...

The tag states that it's a 'Howden' variety; 20lbs, strong handles and deep orange.

I can't wait!!

[DemonSlayerMau]

Aww, that's a cute plant you got there.
My corn and lettuce plants have sprouted up, and so have some of my sunflowers and cucumbers. My tomatoes and peppers are looking good as well.
I can't tell if my pumpkins have sprouted yet, or of those are just weeds I am seeing. Xx
What are the sprouts supposed to look like?

[Andybev01]

Like weeds...

Seriously; just don't weed until you start to see the flat, broad leaves start to form, that way you'll know what is a weed and what is a pumpkin.

[DemonSlayerMau]

Well, the irony is everything seems to be doing good except for the pumpkins.
Well, my dad wanted to experiment with hanging tomato plants and some of the ones that havn't been transplanted yet were starting to die off.
I've got a couple pumpkin sprouts, but everything else looks like a dry rocky desert.
But the other vegetables are doing great, the corn's coming up, my leaf lettuce and spinnach are up, my tomatoe plants that were transplated are thriving, my onion plants are a nice green color on the leaves, and my peppers are doing well. I got some cucumbers coming up as well.
*sigh* if just ONE pumpkin plant makes it I'll be happy. But at least we'll have some home grown vegetables to eat.
If worse comes to worse, maybe I'll carve a green pepper.

[Pumpkin_Man]

This year I planted my pumpkins in the kitchein in flower pots. They sprouted, and then imeediately died after words.

Mike

[Andybev01]

Sorry to hear about your pumpkins, Mike.

I have decided that I'm not going to pamper anything that I have planted this year. They get water, a little fertilizer and, in the case of pumpkins, pinched back to let the larger ones prosper.

I leave the outcome to mother nature this time.

[DemonSlayerMau]

I think we've been getting a pretty good balance of rain and sunshine, but I am worried about the pumpkins because we planted them in kind of a shaded area where they may only get a few hours of direct sunlight.
But I see some sprouts so that's good news.

[Andybev01]

The garlic that I potted is really taking off! The leaves are almost 10" tall.

I was just outside (the sun decided to make an appearance today) in the garden and was delighted to find 9 flowers on the pumpkin plant!!

[DemonSlayerMau]

Well we ended up re-planting some of our pumpkins, and they seem to be coming up quite nicely. We also planted some more squash and zuccini.
The two plants that were already up seem to be coming up better, after me and my dad cleared some branches from trees and bushes, they are getting more sunlight.
Definately no shortage of rain though that's for sure!
Our vegetable garden had some pretty nasty weeds, it took us a while to pluck them all out. They were almost a foot tall! I couldn't believe it, and they were drowning out our pepper plants and some of our other plants.
Our tomato plants are growing huge! We've already got some little green ones growing, I can't wait until they ripen! There's nothing like a fresh garden tomato!

[DemonSlayerMau]

I hope no one minds me double posting, but since this topic hasn't been touched in a while I thought I'd polish it off and post a garden update.
Unfortunately what was once our beautiful garden has been plagued with too much rain. Our tomatoes are growing but they're partially ripening and rotting. We had a couple good ones though. The peppers are growing nicely though, and we thought we had some promise for the zuccini, but unfortunately that seems to be flopping.
Our cucumbers aren't amounting to anything.
Our corn's starting to get ears, and the stalks are nice and tall, but what worries my dad is that it's yellow on the bottom and we may not be getting very healthy ears this year with all the rain. The rain will make them more susceptable to mold and other blights. Too much rain is a problem, if it were too dry, at least we could water them.
The good news is the pumpkins and squash in my pumpkin patch are starting to vine out. I think I have even seen some buds on the plants, so let's hope for the best for pumpkins this year. It sure does take a while to grow a garden, it's been quite an experiance.
Unfortunately I've been too danged tired from work to be pulling the weeds that I should.
Hopefully the peppers will turn out. They usually do. I hope my dad will let me do something with the corn stalks for a nice fall display outside with some pumpkins. I've seen people tye up the dried corn stalks outside with a scare crow and pumpkins.

[DemonSlayerMau]

Another garden update, this one's a bit exciting.
We're finally getting some baby pumpkins! My dad pointed out a tiny little green on that's growing, along with a few buds. I know they are getting flowers on them too.
Our tomatoes for the most part rotted sadly, and our corn was dwarfed. We just got too much rain. But hopefully those pumpkins will make it. I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed.
Our butternut squash is turning out beautifully though!

[Andybev01]

It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I report that my pumpkin plant bit the dust.
Our weather has been so weird this year that I don't think that they got enough sun and too much water.
I've never been good at timing the irrigation system for anything other than 'soak'.

[shanda]

I am so sorry. I feel your grief. My pumpkin made it to about 12'' diameter. Then it rained for a week!! It rotted in the heavily watersoaked ground. The plant just ROTTED! I was so sad. It felt like I had lost a pet.

[Andybev01]

Yes, a pet.

A pet that you were going to cut off it's top and scoop out the innards but yes, a pet