RE: Pumpkin strip.

I did not recognize the From: line, but something about the prose identified
this as our friend Stan! Maybe it was twenty packages for a dollar or
gathering money from the mall pond...
	Anyway, here's my 2 cents (which I know will grab your attention,
Stan) on pumpkins: I have NEVER planted pumpkin seeds in my lengthy
gardening history, and yet for the last three years, I have had a nice
little crop of miniature pumpkins, you know...the size of baseballs. Here's
how that happened: 
	I have a small garden (mixed perennials and annuals...whatever it
takes to keep the color going) at the front of our property. The color theme
was to be  blue, white and orange. Blue and white are not too difficult, but
keeping the orange going was a challenge in the heat, unrelenting sun, and
hard Indiana clay of that site. I wanted orange, or the paler shades of that
color, but not gold, and no hint of red is allowed. Seed people lie in both
words and image, calling tithonia not only orange, but show-stopping (it WAS
tall!). And you take the color orange on faith when you buy canna or dahlia
roots. The fall mums at the nursery were too gold, so after a summer of
disappointing near-orange, I bought a half-dozen true-orange miniature
Halloween pumpkins and piled them between clumps of perovskia (pale blue
Russian sage), still-blooming navy veronica, and mounds of tiny white
zinnias. The combination was beautiful!
	Before long, the frost was on the pumpkins; then a November snow
covered everything. Beneath the snow, mice feasted on pumpkin seeds, and,
doing so, distributed them among the other plants.
	In the spring, dozens of sturdy seedlings popped out of the ground,
many of them far from the original pile of pumpkins. The pumpkins were back,
and so they have been every spring since...I saw two just last weekend when
I was planting deep blue pansies among the white anemone blanda and some
lovely orange tulips.
	So Stan, I advise planting some miniature pumpkins along with the
bigger varieties, unless you're saving seed for next year's giant pumpkin
contest. 	The miniatures fit you...three years of pumpkins for the
price of the original 1/2 dozen, and absolutely no effort, except to pull
out the excess. 	
		Good luck with your pumpkins!

Carol 
Indianapolis

	
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	pattie@juno.com [SMTP:pattie@juno.com]
> Sent:	Tuesday, April 27, 1999 3:22 PM
> To:	veggie-list@eskimo.com
> Subject:	Pumpkin strip.
> 
> 
> 
> Well, Robbie the rototiller just woke up from his hibernation and is
> already
> hassling me to start doing something.  He says he wants to 
> till that 80ft strip along the property edge but doesn't want to do
> it alone.  Robbie is not much of a self-starter.  He can't seem to
> do a darned thing by himself.  He is always complaining, clean me,
> check my oil, gimme some gas, pull on this,etc.  Oh well, I guess he's
> worth it.  
>      Some of you may remember last year when we tilled this spot and
> put down the "twenty packages for a dollar"  flower seeds, and not
> a single seed sprouted.  (I still think Robbie was wrong about the money
> we used to buy the seeds with was "tainted" just because I "gathered"
> it from the mall pond)
>      Well, this year I am thinking of growing my "Duncan type" pumpkins
> in the strip and sending the runners off into the weeds.  The deer will
> eat the yellow flowers, but I since I will only keep only one or two
> fruits on
> each vine anyway, maybe this will work to my advantage.  When I see
> a flower start to form, I can put a wire cage over it so the deer won't
> be able to eat it, but any other flowers down the line will be eaten and
> therefore
> all the energy will be directed to the protected pumpkin.
>      There will be an 80ft soaker hose running down the center of the
> strip.
>      What do you think?  Any suggestions?  ( I mean suggestions about
> the pumpkin ideas, not personal suggestions).  
>      What other veggies could I grow in this strip that wouldn't
> interfere with 
> the pumpkins and not be eaten by the deer?  No root crops because
> this is not the nicest soil for root crops.
> 
> Thank you for your help.    
> Stan                   the cheap and lazy gardener
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