We’ve got one lovely pumpkin currently fattening up in the veggie patch.
My son planted a few seeds at the end of May in a crack in the soil right next to the compost bin. I never thought they would amount to much, but now, we’ve got the biggest pumpkin we’ve ever grown!
It hasn’t started to color up yet, but I swear if you stand there long enough you can actually watch it grow. I have no idea what variety the seeds are as they were purchased out of a ‘cheap seed’ bin at our local Agway store. Sometimes it’s the unplanned stuff that turns out the best.
There is a smaller pumpkin now growing further up the vine and I suspect that it may not fully mature in time for Halloween, but that’s OK, it’s still pretty cool.
The zucchini continue to pump out plenty of fruits, much to the chagrin of all my friends who have received more free zucchini than you can shake a stick at.
I think one of the smartest things I did this spring was hang up 5 wren houses here and there around the garden.
For the first time ever, I have no squash bugs or cabbage worms in the garden. I watch the little wrens hopping on the zuch leaves and broccoli heads plucking off the pests.
I have had a concrete bird bath in the center of the garden for the past few years now and I think that’s a good draw too. I also watched a paper wasp munching on a cabbage worm a few weeks ago. I knew paper wasps are ‘meat eaters’ but I had no idea they were so beneficial to the garden.
I certainly don’t want a big old wasp nest in the garden, but apparently, having one in the surrounding woods is not a bad idea. I guess the garden is proof that there’s good in everyone.
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