Hubby and I have a compost spot on the back side of the extra garage. Â The main thing we use it for is garden compost. Â Early this spring I noticed that there were lettuce plants growing there. Â I had a chuckle out of that and happily harvested several meals of fresh lettuce from the plants growing in the compost bin.
After the lettuce was petering out I saw other plants starting….Hmmm. Â Maybe zucchini I thought. Â I figured I was wrong once I saw the plant growing like CRAZY and extending out into the lawn. Â Hubby wanted to get rid of it but me, I wanted to keep it and this time, I won. Â We left the plant to grow.
Over the summer we would look and check and try to figure out what the plant might be. Â About a month ago we decided it had to be pumpkins.
The childcare kids have had lots of fun watching them grow. Â They know the exact spots where the pumpkins are and will move the leaves to get a peek at the hiding pumpkins. Â They’ve had the most fun watching them change colors. Â Right now we have several that part orange and part green.
Check out and see how far they have grown!!!
I keep hoping that the orange colors will get a little darker. Â Right now, none of the pumpkins are huge but that’s okay. Â If they at least turn orange, they will work perfectly for displaying on the front steps.
I vaguely remember throwing the pumpkins that were at the front of the house in the compost pile….I’m guessing that’s the seed that this pumpkin plant started from. Â The kids are having enough fun with it that I’m tempted to actually throw the pumpkins in pile again this fall with the hope that pumpkins will grow again! Â (Let’s not tell Hubby I said that.)
Ever couple days I go out and turn the vines a bit so they don’t extend out into the road. Â Who new my “zucchini” was actually a pumpkin plant.
It is in a perfect spot and look at your asparagus bed….mmmm good eating in there spring and fall!
One of my neighbors had pumpkins on her porch. They got soft on top and squirrels began eating them. She thought some kids had messed up her pumpkins. She pushed them off the edge of the porch into her front “flowerbeds” and the next year she had a nice crop of pumpkins with no work at all.
This is how we started growing our pumpkins! My gourds came out of the compost pile too! No more buying them :)
Home-gown pumpkins make the very best pumpkin pies too!! I always love those kinds of volunteers in the garden!
Maybe that’s where the Charley Brown title The Great Pumpkin came from. They seem indestructible.
pumpkins, zucchini , winter squashes, cucumbers, and all things of the melon family will cross pollinate easily. I have had all manner of mutant squashy things growing out of the compost. all yummy.
One year I’d put some compost next to the house before doing some planting. Soon there was a pumpkin vine that extended several feet from that compost! I never expected to grow my own Halloween pumpkin, but I did. Another year, from the bottom of the compost bin another vine grew. It was yellow squash! I harvested a dozen from that vine!