handsful

Go back with me to last October.  We did the usual, took the kids to a local pumpkin patch and we chose a few pumpkins.  Also as usual, we displayed them on the front porch.  Well, as time goes on, pumpkins lose their attractiveness and start to get icky.  One by one, they all started getting bad spots and were tossed out. 

I recall one night, when we were rushing out the door (not that THAT happens much around here…), and that last pumpkin was still sitting there, begging me to pitch it.  Having no time to find the outdoor trashcan, I stashed it behind the left brick wall that lines the walk up to our front door. 

I’m sure you can guess where this is going.  It sat and sat and sat, and slowly rotted – WAY past the point of me picking the thing up and actually throwing it away.  I assumed it would rot away totally, end of story. 

A few weeks ago, I was back there pulling weeds and there it was…I knew it wasn’t a weed, but it took me a second to put two and two together (math isn’t my thing).  My word, we have a pumpkin plant growing!  Not having the heart to yank it out – I mean, here it was, life out of a dead icky thing!  I had to give it a chance!  As you can see from the above picture, it’s doing rather well. 

Here is a shot from the other side…we started seeing blooms this week!  So, we’re letting the little guy grow and we’ll see what happens.  I know it’s going to get huge, and frankly a big honkin’ pumpkin plant at my front door isn’t my idea of Southern Living beauty.  But, it could get interesting. 

Anyone else ever grow pumpkins?  I wonder if we need to fertilize?  Spray it for buggies?  Hmmm…I’ll post updates on it’s progress, cause I know you’re all excited about this, too.  Right?  Maybe not.