The Pumpkins are Growing Charlie Brown !!!

[Dexter Morgan]

This is an update..... I now have pumpkins the size of a soft ball. I'm so excited I could pee my pants.      If all goes well it should be a bumper crop. The vines are jutting out in all directions, and I think they're headed for the road. The Indian corn is not doing too hot. Something tore through it and knocked 4 stalks down. Probably my raccoon friends, I'm sure. Darn critters anyway. It doesn't have any ears on it at all. It may be done for. The green peppers are doing pretty good. The tomatoes are piss poor at best. Really disappointed about them. The sunflowers are about 3 feet tall. They don't have heads on them yet, so I don't know about them. 

[me]

Yeah Dexter...Hope your 'maters at least do good enough to have some this summer.  Ours are doing a little better this year than last but don't thing I'm gonna have enough to freeze for winter.  I always but them in the blender and then put them in freezer bags with cut up bell pepper for chili and spaghetti sauce. 

[Dexter Morgan]

Yeah Dexter...Hope your 'maters at least do good enough to have some this summer.  Ours are doing a little better this year than last but don't thing I'm gonna have enough to freeze for winter.  I always but them in the blender and then put them in freezer bags with cut up bell pepper for chili and spaghetti sauce. 

That sounds tasty. I think we've had maybe 5 so far. They're rotting before they ripen. We've never had problems with them before. I just hope the crop dusting they did recently, doesn't have anything to do with it.  Out of everything we have planted the pumpkins are doing the best.  Last year I found a tomato worm, that was 6 inches long, and the width was about the size of a dime.  I put it in a jar on the deck with no lid on, I came in for a cold drink, and when I went back out it was gone.  I came to the decision that the cats ate it, horn and all.    How crazy is that??? lol!!!! 

[me]

I started planting sweet basil between every other tomato plant and haven't had tomato worm since.  I guess there is something about the sweet basil they don't like. They sure are ugly little critters.

[Dexter Morgan]

I started planting sweet basil between every other tomato plant and haven't had tomato worm since.  I guess there is something about the sweet basil they don't like. They sure are ugly little critters.

Wow!!! I'll have to write the Sweet Basil thing down for next year. I would've never thought of that. I think Tomatoe Worms look evil,  because of the red horn on their tail end.   

[me]

Nice thing is you can dry the sweet basil and us it for cooking.

[Dexter Morgan]

Nice thing is you can dry the sweet basil and us it for cooking.

So, it's good for dual uses.    I just noticed, I've got 100 or more pumpkins on the vines.   

[me]

Yea!!!!!!!  Just think when you serve pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread this winter you can say the pumpkin came from your garden.....  

[Dexter Morgan]

Yea!!!!!!!  Just think when you serve pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread this winter you can say the pumpkin came from your garden.....  

As long as we don't have a super wet Fall, they should turn out good. My big thing is decorating with them. This is the 2nd time I've ever planted them. I'll probably give alot of them away. My Mom used to make pies and pumpkin bread. I bet if I gave her some she'd make some for me. It's crazy, but I'm tickled pink that they made it this far LOL!!!! 

[Dexter Morgan]

I now have 10 pumpkins that are a little bigger than a softball. I have bunches of babys, that are just coming out of the blossom. I've been turning them gently every night. One of the smallest is starting to ripen, and I don't know why. Hopefully we'll have some sunshine now. 

[Dexter Morgan]

Sadly, one of my smallest pumpkins, has gone to that big punkin' patch in the sky. It was the one, that had started to ripen prematurely.  I went out last night to turn them and when I picked it up it disintegrated in my hand. YUCK!!!! I gave it a toss over the fence into the corn field. Some of the biggest ones are starting to ripen too. We're going to put some foam sheeting underneath them so hopefully some of them will make it.  It may be touch and go for a while.

[Sunny]

Looks like we'll be having a pumpkin carving contest at Dexter's this year!

[Dexter Morgan]

Looks like we'll be having a pumpkin carving contest at Dexter's this year!

I sure hope so.  A lot is going to depend on how wet it is, in the next month or so. If we get a lot of rain they may rot. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.   

[Dexter Morgan]

I've given away 9 pumpkins so far. My yard is decorated with a bunch of them. I've still got some on the vines,and I'm waiting for them to ripen. By the time it's all said and done, if these last ones ripen, my total count for this season will be 45. That isn't too bad for a first year. I want to do a bigger patch next year, because I've had soo much fun doing it. 

[tallulahdahling]

WOW!  You've done very well, Dex--maybe next year you can open up your pumpkin patch for kids to come play in--make a little money too!