I was not going to do any plants in the squash family. However the pumpkins I gave to the chicken started sprouting. I figured if they want to grow that bad I’m not going to stop them. Besides I can get some good seeds out of the ones who make it. So got the other box done today. But holy hell it got me good today for some reason. Took me almost 5 hours to do this. I’m hurting, dirty, and look like I crawled out of a pit, but I got it done!
Now to see if any of the bastards actually stick around…and survive the deer. I’ve lost some good veggies to deer. 
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Mummmmm… Pumpkin-Aid, so thick and refreshing 😉
Looks good!
I notice a bunch of grass poking through at the edge of your bed. For future beds, it can help to lay cardboard on top of the grass to suppress and kill it off while your crops establish and prevent having to so regularly weed. It will eventually rot down but the grass should be dead by then. Just make sure there’s no plastic stickers or sellotape before laying.
Good luck with your harvest!
An alternative to cardboard is a few layers of brown paper from a paint supply store. They come in large rolls for pretty cheap and then you don’t have to worry about any tape/stickers/printing sticking around. Staples meant for landscape fabric are pretty handy to hold it in place until you can get it weighted down with mulch/soil.
That is a good point. Thank you. I’ll do that in the future.
You can build a small scale electric fence to keep the deer away. They’re solar powered and self contained these days. Electric fences actually keep the deer away without any lasting impact on them
This is true. When\if I get the ability too I really need to look into investing in some.
My dad grew a lot of pumpkins and he would roast the seeds with salt. They have a lot of protein and quality polyunsaturated fat so they’re good for you. Then we would make pumpkin bread and pie for the holidays with the pulp. If you do it right you can get the seeds and pulp out and still have the shells to carve for halloween.
Good luck! I started pumpkins last year but lost them in a day or two to some beetles 😭
Oof my condolences. Beatles were why I wasn’t doing it this year. Last year had me in the garden with the house vaccum cleaner trying to get the little fucks.
and survive the deer. I’ve lost some good veggies to deer.
Me and moose every year
Oh god. You win. I can scare a deer.
Pumpkins have been my fun front yard crop of choice the past few years. From June to October they’ll vine all over the yard, which makes for a festive fall holiday. I only planted mega big pumpkin seeds this year, which all got liberated by squirrels. BUT I did compost/rot in place several pumpkins last year and have about a half dozen very robust volunteers growing and fruiting now. Here’s one (pic); it’s about the size of a grapefruit. Good luck with your harvest!
That is cool some of them came out of the compost! I wish you luck!
it was actually really fun to watch over the course of a year. The pumpkin gets planted in June, grows and grows, bigger and bigger, until harvest in October. It sits on the porch until December, then goes in the compost. It keeps it’s pumpkiny appearance through January and fully decomposes by around March or April, and then in May, I’ve got a bunch of pumpkin sprouts and in June, naturally recurring pumpkins. The circle of liiife
That’s really cool you got them to do that and got to watch it. I set some pumpkins aside to do this once and they just decided to return to the life stream I guess.
