Imperfect Pumpkins Sign

One thing I am positive about is that there is never a dull moment around here, and there is also never a shortage of things to do, work or otherwise.

Along with my new found love of growing dahlias, we have a couple of kids with green thumbs growing their own veggie gardens, and this year Daughter #2 is throwing her hat in the pumpkin growing field.

Last Fall  D#2 decided she wanted to have a pumpkin patch so she saved seeds to sow in spring from her unusually shaped pumpkins and gourds that were sitting on her porch.

We rent land out to a local farmer, so this year before he planted his beans we asked him not to plow and plant a specific corner spot so she could become a pumpkin farmer.

I stayed away from the patch knowing that if my green thumb had anything to do with it the whole works would wither and die.  I also didn't want to make the 1/4 mile trek through field, mud and mosquito's so I asked her to snap some pictures of the progress with her phone.

She put her husband and youngest brother to work every other weekend tending to the flowering vines.

This is the bottom of a pumpkin, not a stem that has shriveled.

Black poly was rolled out to keep the weeds at bay and mounds of soil was heaped and planted with white and orange pumpkin seeds, a variety of interesting shapes and colors of gourds and some sunflowers were thrown in on the deal.

The calico corn didn't make it, planted right before some torrential rains arrived.

She read everything she could about if and when to fertilize the soon to be rotund little spheres, and the more miss-shaped and interesting looking they would grow the better.

You can find round orange pumpkins anyplace this time of year, she wanted more of the unusual.

After planting, there was the wait to see if everything grew.

Not every seed or mound sprouted life, this was considered a learning year, but enough plants grew to give hope for a bountiful harvest.

As for me, I was rubbing my greedy little hands together thinking of all the pumpkins and gourds I wouldn't have to purchase for the porch.

I hope her harvest will be enough to satiate my desire for the Autumn beauties, we have a land-for-pumpkin agreement.

She plans to sell the excess, not to get rich, just to recoup a bit to cover the cost of the black poly, so it will fund her gardening addiction for next years bigger and better patch.

Forget about being paid for her time, she'd have to sell them as if they were gold plated and charge appropriately.

She babied the vines. Fortunately we had a wet summer so they were rarely thirsty, in fact some seeds maybe floated away in the rain. I should warn the neighbors to be on the lookout next year for random gourds growing in their yards.

But on dry weeks, they loaded up a water contraption on the four-wheeler and quenched the thirst of the vines.

The sunflowers on the other hand grew really well right from the get-go.  

She had high hopes of some photos of her and her husband among a field of sunflowers.  

Just not 10 feet high hopes.

If her name was Jack I'd make sure that she climbed it in case there was a wealthy giant at the other end of the stalk.  Beth and the beanstalk does have a nice ring to it.

The sunflowers are a variety of colors, and I'm anxious to get those cut and out of the field as well, and displayed in some vases.

The above sign was discarded on the side of the road in Northern Minnesota, so Papa if you're looking for a sign, here it is.......

It just won't look the same since it's been painted all pumpkin like.

Papas shoe repair has become two very large pumpkin signs, telling it like it is about her patch of imperfect and odd growing items.

If nothing more comes of her first attempt at pumpkin farming than a couple of porches full of Fall decorations, it won't bother me, probably because my time invested was non existent in tending to the patch and I get to share in the fruits of someone else's labor.

We will know in a few weeks if there will be some gourds to spare and a giant for sale sign to make use of, but the word on the street at the time of this writing is that everything is getting big.

So if you pass by a buggy with Autumns harvest, and a giant pumpkin sign, please don't drop off your shoes for repair.  

Pay the lock box and support the local pumpkin girl, while the eye in the sky makes sure you don't run off with anything.

Odd shaped gourds and pumpkins, maybe some sunflowers for your Fall arrangement, and when they're gone, they're gone.

And we don't need a scarecrow.

Should you decide to abscond with some of my daughters harvest.... we've got Walt.

Just try to run off with one of his pumpkins or gourds, because he's watching you from the field of beans.

The dog equivalent of children of the corn, Walt of the Beans.

Quick Links:

Growing Dahlias Myself

The Original Dahlia Farm