Wednesday, June 10, 2009

It's the Not-So-Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

I think I've pulled the last of the survivors out of the garden and the rest will be compost-bound as soon as splodging around in 90+ degree heat and humidity sounds appealing to me. The icing on the flooding cake is the vile-looking wormy mosquito larvae that are wriggling around in every puddle of standing water in the yard. I love the risk of encephalitis and West Nile Virus in the morning. Mmmmm....good.

I have a few corn plants that are clinging to life and might produce corn the perfect size for some oompa-loopmas to eat. When I look at our growing cobs of corn I think about that scene in "Big," where Tom Hanks' character so delicately ate the baby corn and realize that's as good as it'll get for our corn. And I have one tiny okra plant that dared to flower - at only 18 inches tall, but the rest is history. Such is life.

One of the vegetables my boys were the most excited to grow in the garden was the pumpkin. They both like Halloween better than Christmas for some odd reason, and think all things Halloween-related are the coolest things ever. My oldest son has fantasies of growing an entire pumpkin patch and then maybe the Great Pumpkin will visit our garden and all will be well in his world.

So when the floods came and our once-vibrant pumpkin plants were reduced to leafless yellow goopy vines, the boys were noticeably disappointed. The good news is that sitting on the barren rain-soaked soil like little orange traffic beacons were the pumpkins that we had been diligently growing and fertilizing all those weeks before.

Aidan was excited to bring them inside and be photographed with them.


He asked if we could cut one open and carve it and put a candle in it and put it out front to scare the neighbors. I thought it was an interesting idea, but I'm just not that skilled with the x-acto knife.


Because the pumpkins were really, really tiny. Only a very poorly-executed Photoshop moment made them as big as Aidan was hoping for…


In fact, they've sat in the sun now for a week and have shrunk considerably more than when these photos were taken. Because, honestly, what do you do with a handful of plum-sized pumpkins in June?

8 comments:

Jeff Vandiver said...

Bummer.....they are cute little things, though. Raised beds would change your gardening experience, I guarantee it.

Kelly said...

Can you plant a second round of pumpkin seeds for fall? My winter squash are just going in now here in zone 6. I agree with EG again, you desperatly need some rasied beds or lots of huge containers. Your heroic efforts must be rewarded! (BTW- my garden carnage has officially begun, sigh.)

Annie*s Granny said...

That gave me quite a chuckle! I looked at the first photo and thought, "Hmmm...there's something wrong there, the pumpkin looks like it was photoshopped into the boy's hands". Then I compared it with the photo below, only having his head visible on my screen and thought "Hmmm...there's something wrong here, that's exactly the same head as in the other photo". Then I scrolled down and got the rest of the story! How funny, but on the other hand, what a disappointment.

Alyssa said...

I feel so bad for your flood! Though I can't imagine pumpkins in June - we're way to far north for that. I also have to say that I love your Etsy stuff. I too am an Etsy seller (& buyer) - I am going to have to find a badge for my Etsy site for my blog.

Dani said...

He is just the cutest thing holding his little pumpkins!

Erin said...

That was cute! And I needed a smile today, as I am unwillingly trodding around my garden midday in the heat & humidity and was in a foul and sweaty mood!! Your muck and skeeters made me realize someone else is always worse off....hope things get better down there soon!!!

Cheryl said...

Your son looks so happy with his harvest. Maybe you can dry them and save them as momentos.

Sue said...

Oh, too bad about the pumpkins. But, they are cute!

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