Happy Halloween!

I thought it would be fun to grow a pumpkin this year. I planted some seeds in the spring, they sprouted, then Shane mowed over them on accident. :(

A friend mentioned that she thought you plant pumpkins in July for an October harvest. So after the 4th I planted some more seeds.

They did well. I fiercely guarded those little seedlings from the mower! I fertilized and watered and watered and watered. This thing grew into a huge 25 foot monster. (It's the vine sprawling on the lawn.)

I read that pumpkin plants have male and female flowers and you could help them along by pollinating them with a paint brush. So I was out there every day that I saw blooms.

One day, I was happy to see fruit!

There are two pumpkins in the above picture. The little one on the left did not survive. It was rotten. Because we received a lot of rain this fall and I watered it so much before that, it developed some pesky mildew. But the pumpkin on the right kept growing and growing and seemed healthy.

We waited and waited for it to turn orange. Then I looked at the calendar and realized, based on the date I planted, it wouldn't be ready until November 4th. That is a fine date, we haven't had a frost yet (some have had a tiny frost) here, but we wanted this pumpkin ready for Halloween. So we finally just picked it and decided to carve it green a week and a half ago.

Well, lo and behold, it was bright orange on the bottom!

And it was the perfect shape and size to carve. We weighed it and it was 36 pounds!

Pretty cool!