Pumpkin Patch - July 24, 2021
I think it was in October of 1989 but I’m not sure. You think my memory is bad now? Ha! Back then, we had four kids ranging in age from 10 years to 10 months. Plus I was going to school part-time – trying to get my degree in Social Work – and I was volunteering at our church.
Somehow we managed to accidentally plant a pumpkin seed beside our house. I think what happened is that we had a wee composter and hubs had dug some of the earth into the garden space – which I never got around to gardening, for reasons which I’m sure you understand.
And up popped a solitary pumpkin. I remember telling a friend from church – Mary – that I had no clue what to do with this thing. In those days our suppers consisted of frozen casseroles and frozen veggies from the YIG (grocery store.) The salad was bagged – prewashed and chopped. And dessert was Chapman’s Ice Cream.
Yes, it was Halloween time, but this little critter would not have made for a good Jack O’Lantern. My hubs and kids had certain standards about that. Mary said she would take it, if I liked. And I DID like that – even then I could not stand the idea of throwing out food or potential food.
Two days later it came back in a loaf of pumpkin bread. I was very deeply touched by this. I don’t actually remember eating it – though I know I had some. I just remember looking at this baked creation like you would a baby and thinking “You are adorable…”
*****
You would think after an experience like that I’d be really into Halloween. Nah! Sure I loved Halloween as a child – who wouldn’t? Certainly our kids loved Halloween – and they still do. Me, as a parent, I detested it. Having all this junk food in the house was bad enough. But the gripes over who got what and what was fair and so on… It was enough to make me want to sign our family up to a strict Halloween-forbidding cult – just for October 31st.
The years went by, and now decades have gone by. And I’ve warmed up to Halloween just a little. I love squash and even have the energy to cook them. I enjoy seeing pics of the grands dressed up as this and that.
And this year, I planted a pumpkin patch. A sort of unintentional one. Tom and Julie had an empty garden bed and I thought it would be a fun experiment to plant a variety of seeds and see what might come up. I didn’t expect great return. The soil is pretty spent and the patch gets very little sun.
I waited… And waited… I watered them with “blue juice” (Miracle Gro) and I rewatered them with “blue juice” … And POP! Up came FOUR pumpkin plants. And now these pumpkin plants are running wild - taking over the walkway. Julie wisely thought that perhaps they don’t need any more “blue juice.” Laurence staked them in an effort to contain them – but it’s like trying to contain Audrey Two (huge man-eating plant) from Little Shop of Horrors!
And instead of just putting out one pumpkin, it looks like this pumpkin collective is getting ready to feed a family of four for a year. I hope the plants survive the summer and the fall and put out dozens of “babies.” In spite of their hearty appearance, these squashes are a challenge to grow. They need lots of sun. The right amount of watering. There are a variety of bugs that love to eat them. And lots of animals love to eat pumpkins – squirrels, skunks, rodents, bunnies, and birds. The list of things that can go wrong is endless.
But I hope this will be a yearly adventure. That when – one day – Jasper moves away from home (sob!) and he meets a new circle of friends, he’ll come home saying, “Mom and Dad, I thought everyone had a pumpkin patch!”
Somehow we managed to accidentally plant a pumpkin seed beside our house. I think what happened is that we had a wee composter and hubs had dug some of the earth into the garden space – which I never got around to gardening, for reasons which I’m sure you understand.
And up popped a solitary pumpkin. I remember telling a friend from church – Mary – that I had no clue what to do with this thing. In those days our suppers consisted of frozen casseroles and frozen veggies from the YIG (grocery store.) The salad was bagged – prewashed and chopped. And dessert was Chapman’s Ice Cream.
Yes, it was Halloween time, but this little critter would not have made for a good Jack O’Lantern. My hubs and kids had certain standards about that. Mary said she would take it, if I liked. And I DID like that – even then I could not stand the idea of throwing out food or potential food.
Two days later it came back in a loaf of pumpkin bread. I was very deeply touched by this. I don’t actually remember eating it – though I know I had some. I just remember looking at this baked creation like you would a baby and thinking “You are adorable…”
*****
You would think after an experience like that I’d be really into Halloween. Nah! Sure I loved Halloween as a child – who wouldn’t? Certainly our kids loved Halloween – and they still do. Me, as a parent, I detested it. Having all this junk food in the house was bad enough. But the gripes over who got what and what was fair and so on… It was enough to make me want to sign our family up to a strict Halloween-forbidding cult – just for October 31st.
The years went by, and now decades have gone by. And I’ve warmed up to Halloween just a little. I love squash and even have the energy to cook them. I enjoy seeing pics of the grands dressed up as this and that.
And this year, I planted a pumpkin patch. A sort of unintentional one. Tom and Julie had an empty garden bed and I thought it would be a fun experiment to plant a variety of seeds and see what might come up. I didn’t expect great return. The soil is pretty spent and the patch gets very little sun.
I waited… And waited… I watered them with “blue juice” (Miracle Gro) and I rewatered them with “blue juice” … And POP! Up came FOUR pumpkin plants. And now these pumpkin plants are running wild - taking over the walkway. Julie wisely thought that perhaps they don’t need any more “blue juice.” Laurence staked them in an effort to contain them – but it’s like trying to contain Audrey Two (huge man-eating plant) from Little Shop of Horrors!
And instead of just putting out one pumpkin, it looks like this pumpkin collective is getting ready to feed a family of four for a year. I hope the plants survive the summer and the fall and put out dozens of “babies.” In spite of their hearty appearance, these squashes are a challenge to grow. They need lots of sun. The right amount of watering. There are a variety of bugs that love to eat them. And lots of animals love to eat pumpkins – squirrels, skunks, rodents, bunnies, and birds. The list of things that can go wrong is endless.
But I hope this will be a yearly adventure. That when – one day – Jasper moves away from home (sob!) and he meets a new circle of friends, he’ll come home saying, “Mom and Dad, I thought everyone had a pumpkin patch!”