I Planted a Punkin' Patch - UPDATE

[OldGuy43]

A friend who, IMHO goes way overboard decorating for Halloween gave us a couple of pumpkins after taking down his display. After breaking them up for our cluckers I decided that I'd try planting some. Some of you are familiar with my theory about growing pumpkins (If ya tend 'em they die!) and how it came about. Anyway, using that theory I grabbed a handful of seeds and my garden fork, picked a spot just outside of the cluckers run (that's the fence in the picture), turned up the ground about 6" deep, threw the seeds in and kinda covered them up. I picked a spot that I can't easily get to with the lawnmower and either they'll come up or not. If they don't I've only lost about 5 minutes of my life.

Neither OldGal or I like pumpkin very much, but our hens do. Cheap feed. Of course if the pumpkins do great and my real garden does like it did last year I'm not going to be very pleased, but that's the chance you take.

 

[StupidBird]

This is a wonderful experiment. Will be following your progress.

 

[digitS']

OG, in my opinon, you shouldn't really think of these things as losing minutes . . . it was "purpose driven" so there's a chance that it will fail but the effort can still be worthwhile.

My suspicion is that you will be successful as you were in the past. Many people like to say that we learn from our mistakes. Well, we learn from our successes too. That's a lot more fun and probably gives us better motivation.

The chickens really like pumpkins. I've got some in my freezer from cut-up Jack o'Lanterns.

Here's a couple of ideas - grow winter squash for you and pumpkins for Halloween & the birds. You can save seed from both. If you want to grow summer squash, don't save seed from either the zucchini or the pumpkins. They readily cross. If your friend got that pumpkin from a farm field, it is probable that the parent plant did not cross with a zucchini, however.

Oh, and I've never grown pie pumpkins so I don't know how they compare to winter squash. I suspect that you could carve them for the holiday, enjoy them in a pie, and treat the birds, too. I make pies out of my winter squash for both T and X days! They are good out of the oven with just butter & brown sugar on them, too! I think . . .

One other thing, the vines are perfectly edible -- for both you and the chickens. Free-ranging hens will take those plants out in a blink of an eye so you might want to cage the plants if you allow your chickens out in the backyard.

Steve

 

[OldGuy43]

Here's a couple of ideas - grow winter squash for you and pumpkins for Halloween & the birds. You can save seed from both.Steve

Is squash another one of those "If ya tend 'em they die" plants?

 

[digitS']

I can see the direction of your thinking, OG !

Here's an idea for you. I'd bet it works better for you there in Austin than it does for me here. I had to drive poles into the ground for the beans because it seemed to me that my only choice for a corn variety was a short one. At least, it turned out that way this time.

How about a Sisters Garden?

Not only were there pumpkins but also winter squash. The pole beans brought a few of the corn stalks right down to the ground but the wooden poles I put in really helped. Weeds were at an absolute minimum - almost no light penetrated to the soil level.

The pumpkins and squash were for fall harvest, of course. But, so were the beans & corn. I did have 1 pot of snap beans but was waiting for the seed to fully mature for chili. The corn was a flour corn. I had enuf to make cornbread and could probably do that again along with the chili. However, this garden was a tiny area of only a couple hundred square feet.

Steve

dinner from my Sisters Garden

i should photoshop this picture in so that the whipped cream would provide a little more temptation

 

[OldGuy43]

Well, my theory works, at least for pumpkins - I hope.

That is a punkin' flower and vine, isn't it? :tools

 

[the1honeycomb]

I planted my pumpkins right next to my Zucchini!!!!! I was hoping to get some pumpkins is there still a chance??? I don't tend hardly anything so I am not too worried but my Strawberries are being over run with crab grass! Thanks for sharing

 

[lesa]

Old guy, there is one problem with the volunteer pumpkins...you never know what you are going to get. My plant looks great, but the pumpkins are half green and half yellow. They look to have crossed with the gourds last year! I don't mind devoting a portion of my garden to mother natures experiment... Now I am wondering if I will have gourds that are the size of pumpkins!

 

[OldGuy43]

Old guy, there is one problem with the volunteer pumpkins...you never know what you are going to get. My plant looks great, but the pumpkins are half green and half yellow. They look to have crossed with the gourds last year! I don't mind devoting a portion of my garden to mother natures experiment... Now I am wondering if I will have gourds that are the size of pumpkins!

I didn't devote any of my garden to this experiment (see first post) so nothing lost. The only thing growing near them except weeds are a few tomato plants. Maybe I'll get a tomato the size of a pumpkin? Than again it might be a Cocklebur. We'll just wait and see.

 

[lesa]

I saw that you had yours growing in the "wild". I had high hopes for mine- so it is in the regular garden...