You don’t know this about me yet, but I love pumpkins. I just love them. I love their colors and shapes, and I love that I don’t even know if they’re actually gourds. They are mysterious and wonderful fruits. I really can’t imagine someone being like, “Yeah, pumpkins are just the worst and I hate all of them.” If you are that person, let me know so I can call the authorities on you.
I have been fortunate to have great success growing pumpkins. The first year we moved into the house we are currently in, we grew nothing but pumpkins. This was before we built our enclosed garden and trellises—the yard was just trees and grass when we moved in.
I had this grand vision of myself being completely overloaded with pumpkins. I imagined myself as the town’s designated “Pumpkin Lady,” riding around in my vintage convertible (that I don’t have) with a million pumpkins stacked in the passenger and back seats. I would pop open the trunk and, to everyone’s delight, there would be even more pumpkins of all kinds: jack-o’-lanterns, jack-be-littles, warty pumpkins, Jarrahdales, Cinderellas, even some rare black pumpkins. I would sell pumpkins to all the people in town, everyone would cheer, and… okay, you get the idea. Pretty silly, but it’s the truth (aside from the cheering).
With this vision in mind, Patrick and I proceeded to plant over 90 pumpkin plants, which is way too many pumpkin plants. If you are familiar with growing pumpkins, you know they take over everything. They climb and spread at an alarming rate. We planted them directly in the grass (huge mistake—impossible to tame, since the grass grows and then you can’t mow it without chopping up your pumpkins), and then planted more in any pot I could find. Most were in the backyard, but we had ten in the front yard in pots, just growing wildly. It was chaos, and it was amazing.
That being said, here’s a lesson I learned about pumpkins: less is more. If you grow nearly a hundred pumpkin plants in close proximity, they will choke one another out and compete for sunlight and nutrients. I did end up with hundreds of pumpkins, but I likely would have ended up with just as many if I had planted a fraction of that amount.
My Pumpkin Lady vision didn’t quite come to fruition, but I still had more pumpkins than I knew what to do with. Everyone I knew still benefited from my pumpkin frenzy. I gave them out at work, to friends, to family, and to the squirrels (involuntarily). When people stopped by, I’d invite them out to the patch (aka my entire yard) and let them pick one. I had so many pumpkins that I even decided to throw “Pumpkin Fest,” a pumpkin-themed party. We incorporated pumpkin into every food item we made: pumpkin rolls, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, stuffed pumpkins, pumpkin rice, pumpkin drinks, pumpkin pizza. At the end of the party, everyone went home with a pumpkin.
That first year of pumpkin madness was magical. Since then, we’ve built an enclosed garden and added small trellises to help manage the pumpkins’ expansion. We’ve decreased the number of pumpkin seeds we plant to make room for other varieties of food (including tons of peppers, because spice is the spice of life, ya know). The garden still produces plenty of pumpkin magic, and they continue to bring me—and the squirrels—a lot of joy. I hope you feel inspired to plant your own patch and experience the pumpkiny wonder.
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