Disaster in the Pumpkin Patch!
Remember the day I showed my beautiful pumpkin patch? All those gorgeous things? That was last Wednesday.
Well, ironically, I got up that morning, checked the thermometer in our kitchen and it said 3 C (0 C is freezing).
“Oh no”, I thought, “The garden probably got nipped.” The garden is on the other side of the road and is lower in elevation and has very little protecting it. When it is just above freezing where our house is, the other side gets a frost. Sad, but true.
Sure enough…I eyed the fence over there to see if those pumpkins climbing the fence were standing up tall and straight. Well, things didn’t look too great. I went over between 9 and 10 am and saw that yes, my pumpkins and zucchini had been zapped.
But not all. Time will tell if the plants that were under the big oak are dead or not. But some were obviously in bad shape.
For comparison purposes, I’m throwing in a photo from August 21 - with the healthy pumpkin plants.
August 21 - a drone shot
I had to go in the afternoon and get the pumpkins from the garden that were now fully exposed to the world. I didn’t want to just leave them lest our local thieves take them. I worked too hard all summer to just let that happen because of apathy on my part.
In the morning when I went to mourn the early frost and see how bad it was, I noticed the walking gate was open - unlike how I had left it the day before. Then I looked around again - and saw residue of some zucchini on the road. Looks like someone had been in the garden, stealing some zucchini. Now I’m not really irritated about the actual loss of zucchini - what I’m irritated about is that they stole them. I had plenty. All they’d have to do is ASK. On our deck by the door, I had about 40 just sitting there - but that was next to the house.
I ended up giving the 40 I had to the neighbor, Majka (pronounced like “Mike-a” (a lady) as she loves it. She wants to put it jars, pickle it, etc. The leaves on the zucchini looked frizzled, but the zucchini itself seemed ok so I picked what was left. Green ones are very hard to see even during the day - much less at night - so it was yellow that they stole.
Anyway, I picked pumpkins - a couple of wheelbarrow loads. I was able to cross the road right in front of our house because while they are working on the road, one side wasn’t much lower than the other.
After I brought over these two wheelbarrow loads, I decided I had too many to bring over by the wheelbarrow load. The option as to bring the truck over to the garden as I could see there were lots more to pick. I was thinking I didn’t want to leave them over there lest they attract those same thieves as took the zucchini.
At this point I still have the zucchini sitting on the deck. Later in the day I gave those zucchini away. I will keep the pumpkins for at least a month here on the deck.
So I did. About 3 pm I went back over and by now the leaves looked worse. Oh, also between 10 am and 3 pm the people who are working on the road had cleared out that second lane so it now looked like this. I couldn’t just take my wheelbarrow across the road easily. Good thing I decided to take the truck. There is a way across because they didn’t block road entrance.
In this photo - the garden is on the right and our house property is on the left of the road.
Here’s the drone shot of the triangular shaped garden patch - and the road in the middle. Our house is on the left - not pictured though you do see a tree that is on our property - or on the fenceline.
Running a wheelbarrow over this deep 16” drop with a wheelbarrow full of pumpkins is more than I could do.
These looked worse by the hour.
So I picked a lot of pumpkins and filled up the back end of the pickup with as many as I could. Normally Mike helps me with this but he is in a Central Asian country at the moment, teaching.
Some plants looked completely D.E.A.D. Others maybe not so much.
It wasn’t easy to get those pumpkins into the wheelbarrow. Once I had them in it, was a piece of cake to get them into the truck (not!). I haven’t weighed those two big orange ones yet. I’m not as strong as my counterparts in FL who have to throw around big bolts of fabric all day long!
I left probably 20-30 pumpkins in the garden plus an unknown number of little white ones as their plants seemed okay. The rest I brought over to the house - and put some on the deck area and some in the back of the house. They need to finish maturing. Maybe in a month or so I can try cutting one open - but for now, I don’t think most of them are actually ripe.
So, for now I have these spread out on the porch area and on the back patio. I will bring over some more and set up more pallets in the back so they don’t have to sit right on the brick. I read that is better for the pumpkins.
I may wander over there soon again and check it out. Since the initial frost, it has gotten a little warmer at night, so I don’t think they are being damaged by being out there.
This dead pumpkin plant was a Jack-Be-Little plant. I had high hopes for it in giving me some of these little cuties. However, I did get a late start so it was only hope. (I had planted them after my daughter, Lydia, brought me the seeds in the middle of June.) There’s nothing left of this plant.
It’s a little sad, but it’s how it works when you garden.
Have a great day wherever you are reading this! Thanks for coming along on my journey!
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