Pumpkin update

Turns out they make those garden tags for a reason.

Yes, those are apparently heirloom jack-o-latern pumpkins, and should be getting much bigger. I have my doubts but they're already sugar pumpkin size and should not be that shade of green if they are, so we'll see.

It's fun seeing them get bigger though! Now they just need to get some sun and turn orange. Based on how quickly this summer went it'll be October before we know it so hopefully we have some home grown pumpkins to carve after all our other fall stuff.

Garden progress

One thing I meant to keep track of was how the garden turned out once things were planted in our planter box. But summer got away from me, and here it is September. Just about time to pick some apples. But before we do, no time like the present to go over our growths this summer.

We had some moderate success with our garden. We planted carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and pumpkins in the big planter, along with trying to keep active care of the apple tree. Plus we had basil and mint in small planters on the deck.

On the ground vs up the vine trellis.

Carrot starting to show

Best way possible to spend 4 months and save $2.

The mint and basil did fine, and recovered nicely after fading early in the summer. But far and away the big winner were our cucumbers. I'm not a fan, personally, but the kids dig them and we got some really fresh tasting ones out of the garden this year. Just the smell of freshly chopped cucumbers in the kitchen made the experience worthwhile.

The biggest bummer so far has been the pumpkins: I know they take longer but I think we should have at least seen one gourd starting if we were going to have a real pumpkin by October. I thought we had enough bees flying around that we wouldn't have to pollinate by hand. I guess I was wrong. We could have over-watered too, based on the vines struggling. So disappointed.

Eh, pumpkin vines not lookin' so hot.

Anyway, this was surprisingly fun. I hated gardening as a kid b/c it just felt like fancy yardwork, and we didn't do too great at our city plot back in the day, but I think we're going to extend the boxes to grow more next year. I'm still optimistic about getting a better batch of apples this year too, although I'd feel better about it if I could identify what kind of apples they are and when they should technically get picked. We'll still go apple picking of course, but with these on-hand not using them just feels like such a waste. More pies for me!