Tag: Growing pumpkins

Garden Catch-Up

Dear Liza,

Our trip to Los Angeles was sad, wonderful, and busy. It also kept me away from my veggie garden for a whole week! Auntie Bridgett did a wonderful job keeping everything watered through some of our hottest weather, and boy, did the plants appreciate it!

Here was my pumpkin growing ladder set up just before I left. Healthy, right?

And here it is now, as tall as the ladder I have for it to climb on, and using its little tendrils out to anything available for support, including the nearby tomato plants. You can see the tiny yellow tomato blossoms trapped by the pumpkin tendrils. These plants mean business.

The zucchinis are growing too, and the cucumber even has a blossom on it. Since cucumbers aren’t squash, their blossoms are very different from zukes and pumpkins.

The tomatoes are now officially taller than me and ripening up nicely. We had a half dozen on our salad last night. Fresh veg!! Hooray!!

Going to be eating well this summer!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Pumpkin Progress

Dear Liza,

Growing fruits and vegetables is like growing anything else. Kittens, children, flowers, and veggies all have things they need to do well. The trick to having a successful garden is to find out what those things are, and provide them.

But veggies don’t explain things well! Sometimes the seeds just never pop up out of the ground. Did you keep them too wet? Too dry? Were there weird little slugs that feed on seedlings? Were things just really interesting down there in the dirt?

“That’s MS Pumpkin to you, sir…”

And once the seeds do come up, you need to help them grow. They need enough room to spread out, support to keep them out of the mud, and plenty of water and sunshine.

And if you have done everything right, and you have a few female flowers, you will get some actual pumpkins. So far I just have one, but I am happy with the progress! I am even a little worried that it is getting too big for its britches….

And now, there is this little late bloomer to help along. I will call her Leo.

Love,

Grandma Judy