Prolific little pumpkins

I'm not a big fan of fall.  It's always a little depressing to see it get cool and dark earlier each evening. But there are some things I like about fall, and pumpkins are one of them (and pumpkin pie, pumpkin bars, pumpkin bread, etc.).  The mini pumpkins I talked about yesterday were harvested today - 87 from four plants.  One plant, the white Gooligans, produced 41 pumpkins!  Of course, my favorite variety of the three I planted, the orange and white striped Hooligans, produced only six pumpkins. The other two plants were the orange ones, 20 pumpkins per plant.

I'll be planting these again next year for sure, but NOT in the fenced-in vegetable bed. (See yesterday's warning about sprawling garden bullies.) I have a big, sturdy trellis where a clematis died last winter.  I'll try mini pumpkins on it next year.

If you like decorating with gourds and pumpkins, I highly recommend growing them instead of buying.  They require no care beyond planting a seed and watering daily until it sprouts.  For the price of a pack of seeds, you'll have all the gourds or pumpkins you could possibly use and plenty to share with your neighbors.

One last harvest

There isn't much left to harvest from the vegetable garden.  The tomatoes, peppers, and beans are about done.  Carrots and kohlrabis are still going.  But there is one thing I've been waiting for and I think I'll harvest them this week - mini pumpkins!

These are actually edible pumpkins, not the gourds that look like mini pumpkins.  They're about 3"x 2".  

All three of these varieties came in one package called Harvest Blend.  The varieties are Bumpkin (orange), Gooligan (white), and Hooligan (orange & white mottled).  I just got the seed package out and read the back again.  I hadn't read it carefully when I planted, so I missed the line that says that these can sprawl just as far as larger varieties.  Oops!  That explains why they went over the fence, across the path, and into the lawn.  That will teach me to read seed packages more carefully.  I will definitely plant these again next year, but not in the vegetable garden.  They sprawled over the carrots and basil, blocking out the sun.  They were garden bullies and will not be allowed back into the playground next year. They probably don't need to be in the fenced-in area.  The back of the flower garden is a good spot for them.  They can have all the room they want.  I don't think deer or rabbits would be interested in them.  I saw a front yard garden yesterday that included full-sized pumpkins growing among the flowers.  What a great idea!  It was really eye-catching.  In a cottage-style garden they could wander wherever they want to.  I'll be trying that next year.  

It's raining today, so I'll have to wait to harvest them.  When I do, I'll report back on how many pumpkins I got from my four plants. 

Reseeders

Even though I am a perennial gardener, I am very happy to have annuals in my garden too.  They provide weeks or months of color with zero effort on my part.  I don't even have to plant them!  I'm not talking about flats of impatiens or petunias.  I mean the plants that seed themselves.  Here is one of my favorites, moss roses.

                               

I didn't plant any of these.  They just reseed year after year from a flat of moss roses I bought over ten years ago.  They grow in the lime sand between the patio stones.

Here's another reseeder I really like.  I got some of this from my mom years ago, and it just keeps moving around my yard, wherever the wind blows the seeds.

Verbena bonariensis

Nothing comes in as many different colors as snapdragons do.  That's what I love about them - you never know what color each plant will turn out to be when they bloom. And you never know where they are going to show up.  I even have a snapdragon blooming up in my window box this year! This is another annual that I brought home in a flat many years ago and now have forever.

snapdragons

 Sea holly is an unusual plant.  The stems are the same blue-purple as the flowers.  People who see it in my garden often ask what it is.  

sea holly

This patch of calendula is pretty much done blooming now, but it was a sea of yellow and gold flowers all summer.  My parents gave me a few plants years ago and it reseeds itself.

calendula

There are many other plants that reseed:blanket flower, rose campion, gaura, and poppies.   I even have blue fescue and Autumn Joy sedum in the crevices of the rocks in our terraces. This look isn't for everyone.  It's definitely cottage garden style.  If you put down a thick layer of mulch, you won't get as much reseeding.  And if you like your landscape neat and tidy with each plant staying put, reseeders will drive you crazy.  But if you like a loose, natural effect, with plants moving around and lots of colorful flowers with no planting try adding some of these.