You probably think that I love pumpkins…

You probably think that I love pumpkins…

And you would be right!

But…this year’s pumpkin patch turned out to be more of an adventure than I expected. For years, that little corner of the garden was home to wildflowers, and they were not ready to give up their space. Every day, new sprouts popped up, and I spent hours pulling them to give my pumpkins room to grow. On top of that, powdery mildew settled in on several vines, and some sneaky squirrels (or other mystery rodents) started snacking on the pumpkins. We ended up covering each pumpkin with mesh netting, trimming leaves, and spraying vines constantly just to keep them going. Gardening turned into a full-time job!

Still, it was such a rewarding learning experience. Did you know pumpkin flowers are either male or female? I didn’t until this summer! Because the female blooms only last for about a day, I even learned to hand-pollinate a few of them when I wasn’t sure the bees (who seemed perfectly happy to hang out in my lavender patch) were doing their job. Watching the whole process unfold gave me such a new appreciation for every pumpkin I see.

So yes—you probably think I love pumpkins… and I do! But for the foreseeable future, I think I’ll let the wildflowers take back their garden, and I’ll happily support my local pumpkin patch. Either way, my love for pumpkins isn’t going anywhere. And while my garden might be wildflowers again, my imagination (and my book!) will always be full of pumpkins!

Warmly,

~Wendy