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----- Original Message -----
From: Young, Carol K E <cyoung1@iupui.edu>
To: <veggie-list@eskimo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 1999 10:12 PM
Subject: 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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>
>
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