We have Pumpkins!

From Kim Lowther, Gounds and Natural Connections Chair

Hi Garden Buddies!

The pumpkin patch is growing like crazy! I went by and did some grass cutting around the beds so the pumpkins have a place to spread out without getting weed wacked or cut by any of the maintenance staff. So far, so good! I did count about 10, or more, little pumpkins already growing and also many new tiny ones starting to grow at the end of the vines. I also discovered that the pumpkin plant I planted by the stairs is growing gourds! I can’t wait to see how many pumpkins and gourds we get by next fall—maybe we can have a PTA raffle for the Kindergartners that helped plant them last year—I’m sure we can come up with some creative way to give them out!

Thank you everyone for all your hard work. The garden is doing great. I did put another fertilizer treatment on the plants that will absorb slowly when it rains so I hope this helps with continued health and growth over the next few months as the pumpkins develop. It was organic. I also saw a few weeds beginning to pop up at the edges of the beds so keep your eyes open for any new tiny plants poking their way through the soil (they had extraordinarily long tap roots, so they must of grown from the grass that we rototilled before we planted the beds).

We also have lots of cherry tomatoes starting to grow so help yourselves as they get ripe. I think the tomato plant that is growing large tomatoes is diseased. The stem is not looking healthy and it is just now starting to grow flowers—which is very late. So I have removed some of the branches that look particularly bad and left the ones that had flowers—we’ll have to see if these grow any tomatoes.

Lastly, I want to ask everyone’s opinion on eradicating some of the wild milkweed that we have. It’s taking over everywhere there is space. At first I was thinking we could confine it to just the corner where it is most prevalent, but now I’m thinking maybe we should try to remove it all together so we don’t keep having the issue of it spreading out so much. If you are not sure which plant I mean, it has a red stem and slender green leaves and grows seed pods that are long and slender and hang down from the branches—we did have one I left where I planted the gourd plant but I pulled it for fear that it would take over where the gourd plant should grow. Anyway, if you have an opinion, I would love to hear it.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!!