Pumpkins on the Seashore
Why I’m not too concerned if my pumpkins don’t grow as well as they should.
As you can see from this picture, my pumpkin vine is doing well:
However, looks are deceiving. By late August I expected them to be bigger. Also, I expected the actual pumpkins to be bigger as well. I only have two of them growing and the biggest is only about the size of a softball. As you can see, they are shy, hiding among the vines.
I suppose I can blame the weather on the slow growth. Unlike most of the world, we have had an excess of rain and cold this spring. While I’m not complaining, it did delay much of my vegetable garden. Some seeds I had to plant a second time because the first ones didn’t germinate. Others were just really slow, so the extra seeds just make the plants too crowded and had to be thinned out as the roots were competing for water and nutrients.
Anyway, back to the pumpkins. This is my first year growing them. The variety I planted was supposed to produce giant, competition-winning pumpkins. It's not looking like that will happen for this year’s Fall Fair, which is usually held in late August. However, not to worry, the fair is cancelled this year due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
I just noticed yesterday that some local varmint decided to nibble on the largest (well, on the least small) of the pumpkins. Judging by the marks on it, it looks like a deer put a hoof on it and tried to see if it was worth eating. Supposedly deer don’t eat pumpkins. Apparently, the local deer didn’t get the message. Actually, they haven’t eaten the vines, but that didn’t stop them from trying the pumpkin itself. They’re probably waiting for me to turn it into a pumpkin pie for them. Picky deer!
Because my online sources said that deer “generally” don’t eat pumpkins or potatoes, I planted both of them outside of my fenced garden area. There’s not enough room to grow everything I wanted to grow so I figured these would be safe. Well, not so much. Not only did they nibble on the pumpkin, but they also had a good munch on my potato plants. Fortunately, the potatoes were in grow bags and pots so I was able to move them into a corner that had freed up in the fenced garden. They seem to be growing back so may I will have potatoes this year after all.
Here’s the main fenced garden, so you can see the limited space:
The empty spots are where I’ve already harvest things like peas and radishes or where I planted seeds, twice, and they still didn’t grow well.
Here’s the extension I put in this year:
The kale, lettuce, and tomatoes are doing well. The bare patch was for beets that did not germinate. To the right is my first shot at a Hugelkultur mound which seemed to work well.
Anyway, back to the pumpkins. As I said, this is my first year growing them and so far the success has been limited. The vine is doing well, so that is a success. The actual pumpkin, not so much. However, I’m not concerned. As you can tell from the photos, my garden is about 20 meters from the ocean. Every day I spend in the garden is, literally, a day at the beach.
Whenever I get frustrated with something in the garden, I simply have to look up and my frustration disappears. Here are a couple of photos of what I have to put up with:
And this:
So, no matter what happens with the garden, even if the deer get inside and eat everything, my oceanside garden is too peaceful to be too concerned.
I hope you have a similarly special place that brings you peace in this hectic, chaotic world that the media would have us believe is the only thing that matters at this time in history.
Here are a couple of articles by writers who inspired me to write this piece. If you enjoyed my article, perhaps you will also enjoy theirs.
William Spirdione’s article about the bunnies in his garden has to make you smile:
Sahil Patel has a wonderful piece about finding perfection in nature:
If you enjoyed their words, please remember to let them know. We who sit alone and write can always use encouragement.
Thank you for sharing your time with me.
I wish you well!
