I love growing pumpkins. They're great fun and the results are incredible, although they're not the prettiest plants.
I've just bought a new compost bin. This is all the more exciting because next year I'll use it to grow pumpkins. I plan to raise the bin on bricks and plant pumpkin plants in the exposed compost. The well-rotted matter will provide the plants with all the nutrients they need, and as the waste breaks down they'll get a fair amount of water too (saving me a job).
My garden is far too small to grow pumpkins really, but I won't let that deter me. I'll drape the long, winding stems up and over the compost bin as they grow. I'm quite sure this will work.
I love growing pumpkins. They're great fun and the results are incredible, although they're not the prettiest plants. They also require a lot of food, take up a lot of space and are in the ground for ages. I remember being a very confused three-year-old when, in April, my dad started digging a huge hole in the garden "for Halloween", which seemed an awfully long way off. It transpired that the holes would be filled with well-rotted compost, over which he would plant two pumpkin plants. My sister and I eventually got pumpkins in time for Halloween, though mine was oblong (I didn't think he'd done such a good job).
Twenty years later, I grew my first pumpkins on my allotment. I chose the F1 variety, 'Becky', as it promised to yield large, orange fruits with a good flavour. It did. I let my partner get on with carving them for Halloween, while I set to making pumpkin curry, pumpkin soup, and roast pumpkin risotto. I do love a pumpkin curry.
I've already bought my pumpkin seeds for my compost-growing experiment next year. I chose a pack of mixed varieties, which includes 'Jack O' Lantern', 'Baby Bear', 'Small Sugar' and one called 'Ghost Rider'. So all I've got to do now is make sure there's enough compost in the bin to feed all the hungry plants. And wait for that horrible business of 'winter' to be over with.
PS
To grow pumpkins you need a sheltered, sunny position and rich, moisture-retentive soil. Sow two seeds 2.5cm deep in a 5cm pot in late-May or early June and keep on a window sill, in a cold frame or cover with a cloche. Germination should take place within a few days. Keep the compost moist and remove the weaker seedling after two weeks.
If growing in the ground, dig a hole 30cm² and 20cm deep and fill with a mixture of home-grown compost and well-rotted manure. Cover with soil so the mound is slightly above the surface of the soil, leaving a dip in the top. Leave to settle for one week while you harden off your pumpkin plants, and then plant one in the top of each mound.
Keep the plants well watered, then feed every two weeks with a high potash fertiliser, such as tomato fertiliser or comfrey solution once the fruits have started to swell. Pinch out the tips of the main shoots of trailing varieties when they are 60cm long. Eventually the pumpkins will need supporting. I hope to be able to balance mine on top of the compost bin. I'll harvest them when fully mature, when the stems connecting them to the plant start to wither, making sure I get them before the first frosts do.
See more comments...
